Allen is a smart player, has good movement & keeps it simple; Very well suited to playing a short passing possession style, but Allen is not on Aquilani's level & is a different style player IMO so I don't see them being in direct competition if we do get him. Had we got Sigurdson I think Aquilani would have had direct competition for a place but not with Allen.
I don't think so. As I said in my earlier post there's three positions we'll have in midfield.
Defensive midfielder - Leon Britton at Swansea.
Deep-lying playmaker - Joe Allen at Swansea
Central Attacking midfielder - Sigurdsson at Swansea
Now Britton and Allen would be more suited to swapping roles with each other than they would with Sugurdsson.
These are our options:
Defensive midfielder - Lucas, Spearing.
Deep-lying playmaker - Aquilani, Henderson, Allen if we sign him.
Central-Attacking midfielder - Gerrard, Shelvey, Adam, Suso.
The deeper two roles are about controlled possession and more short passing to keep the ball ticking over, which Aquilani is well suited to. The attacking role is about creativity, looking for the killer balls and scoring goals from midfield. Aquilani and Gerrard could swap roles, for example, but their natural games are better suited to those positions.
If we had Aquilani, Henderson and Allen for the deeper role. Plus the fact we always play Gerrard there these days for some reason. Then something would have to give. That'd probably be Aquilani.