I'll put it this way - I was very enthusiastic when Keita first joined, given Gerrard's shirt and all, but with time I find myself on the proverbial fence... And I can't get off from there. Just when I lean toward expecting him to realize his potential here, boom, another injury. Just when I think he's done with us, boom, another stable performance when is most needed. And I rock back and forth for years...
We need a midfielder, that much is obvious. We need solidity in midfield, which we lost from prior seasons. We need a ball winner, we need legs, we need a creator, etc., we need to improve so many aspects of our current midfield, which is beyond recognition. We also know that we are after Bellingham (whether we can pull that off is another issue). Given his price, we are limited in the choice of which midfielders we can bring in in January, and maybe the next year in addition to Bellingham. I'm thinking that perhaps one of our current players out of Milner, Ox and Keita, hell, even Jones, must be retained for an extra year, and my choice would be Keita. His availability has been a major issue, but he's been more available than Curtis... I thought that Curtis will take over that role in the team, but I have no clue what's going on with him, and I think the situation is forcing the Club's hand a bit to keep Keita. Or bring in another midfielder if we had the funds.