Contract expires in a year is my guess. Some players are late bloomers, no harm in it. He looked great at the world Cup, and then Fiorentina wise his stats profile looks excellent this past season.
- 93rd percentile for passes completed (quantity)
- 97th for success rate
- 97th for progressive passes
- 98th for passes into final 3rd
- 99th for long passes and completion
- 89th for touches (shows he loves to get on the ball)
- 90th percentile in successful take ons
- 93rd in carries
- 84th in miscontrols, 62nd in dispossessed which are both very good numbers for a midfielder who is on the ball a lot and likes to move with it
21/22 looked very good too, and just clicking through the previous years it seems like that's the season he made a step up to dominating in the Serie A (so would've been when he turned 25). We know he's a DM and he has respectable defensive metrics (though I always think those are tougher to quantify than on ball metrics). He's basically a DM who is that first phase passer, deep playmaker who is both press resistant and can provide dynamism in there, and has shown it to a dominant level in the Serie A despite playing for a mid table side.
There's a ton to like about what he's shown so far and I do think he'd be less a backup and more a genuine competition for the starting 11, depending on opponent, playing deeper next to Casemiro (maybe pushing Mount or hopefully not Bruno wide right).
I always think that if a player is dominating the analytics in what he is supposed to do relative to the league, then they are for sure good enough to make the step up to a tougher league. Doesn't always work like with Sancho, but much less likely at finding a dud.