Personally I never saw it as that complicated: he's a left winger. I think it was a bit unfair to criticise him for failing to track his man, or giving the ball away or whatever because I think his physique had him pigeon holed into a position his talents and weaknesses had no business being in.
The fact that we signed him to play in a double pivot because he played (sort of) in a midfield 3 at Juve with two incredibly goodactual midfielders was ridiculous in itself.
Maybe in a better team, with consistency of position and a different agent and a better manager and more support and, etc, etc, etc.
He provided some good moments, was largely disappointing and should have been moved on possibly 3 seasons ago? There is plenty to suggest that he is a consumate professional and an easy guy for his teammates to get along with anywhere.
But I'm just absolutely sick of the agent, the international duty flirtations, the increasingly lengthy injury breaks to Dubai, the insane contract offers relative to performance, the lot of it. He'll leave on a free again, and the fact that we'll get nothing for his departure (again) is oddly symmetrical in our having gained practically nothing for his being here.