the curious case of Jason lowe

[robinrover]

According to the daily fail west brom,Brighton and hull are after our versatile player
now I am baffled by the interest and how highly rated he is by every manager we have
now I have seen with my own eyes how much effort he applies and if he had the vision he would be top class however that's the thing a lot of effort and not a lot else
so if he were to go would anybody be disappointed or should we keep hold of him?

[AucklandRover]

According to the daily fail west brom,Brighton and hull are after our versatile player
now I am baffled by the interest and how highly rated he is by every manager we have
now I have seen with my own eyes how much effort he applies and if he had the vision he would be top class however that's the thing a lot of effort and not a lot else
so if he were to go would anybody be disappointed or should we keep hold of him?

It is a bit of a puzzle, Robin. Hardly any fans rate him - except for his work ethic - but he has always been an automatic choice when fit. The problem is - even as captain - he rarely seems to have a major influence on the shape of a game.
Any idea what he is likely to be worth?
His departure might mean we could introduce or bring in a more creative player. After all, we still have Lenihan, Mulgrew, Akpan, etc. to play the role just in front of the back four. I'm not sure he would be badly missed, in other words, but successive managers clearly think I'm wrong - and they should know!

[robinrover]

Yes they should know better but having seen many times he does not seem comfortable in midfield or right back
running forward he resembles a giraffe with his legs tied together
now he is a trier and does the breaking up bit well but his passing his woeful
valuation?well his contract expires in the summer so a deal of around 2 million would be good business.

[Despair]

I hold my hand up and admit I have always stood up for him and said I think he could well mature into a very decent midfield Dynamo, also I held the belief that him getting captaincy could be the catalyst in making that so. Well I'm sorry to see my beliefs shattered, in that he is still the negative cog in the ***** mix, and captaincy is beyond him. At least here, and now.
As said many seem to see him differently, so maybe we're all missing something. Maybe it's a clean break and a new start that's req'd.

[AucklandRover]

I hold my hand up and admit I have always stood up for him and said I think he could well mature into a very decent midfield Dynamo, also I held the belief that him getting captaincy could be the catalyst in making that so. Well I'm sorry to see my beliefs shattered, in that he is still the negative cog in the ***** mix, and captaincy is beyond him. At least here, and now.
As said many seem to see him differently, so maybe we're all missing something. Maybe it's a clean break and a new start that's req'd.

I think your last statement is right, Despair. The problem is, it's hard to make someone captain and then drop him, so Lowe is almost guaranteed a place, however ineffective he appears.
At the moment, perhaps we need to bite the bullet and do the hard-nosed thing. That is, ship out most of the one-year loanees, along with Lowe and Marshall.
That would mean goodbye to:
Greer
Hoban
Hendrie
Brown
Lowe
Marshall.

In addition, we could also consider releasing Akpan and Henley, but Akpan is at least a 100%-player, and that shouldn't be dismissed lightly. Then we have Evans and Conway. Time for them to go too? (And what about Bennett and Feeney?)
It does seem we could lower the wage-bill considerably without losing too much quality. This would also provide more encouragement for youngsters. It must be frustrating for them to see players drafted in, and then quickly sidelined when shown to be not good enough.