Normally I would 100% agree but I have strange feeling he's back in Poyets plans a bit. I thought he was ok yesterday. Plus he's our only midfielder on the bench.
The back of the program speaks volumes. No sparrow, Vincelot or Hoskins but Harley is there. He's definitely in Gus' plans as it stands. He played a fair amount pre season too.
No, I think Gus clearly see a player there and he is a attack minded midfielder, hence why he replaced Crofts and not Dicker. He may yet come good and even if he doesn't I can't see anyone taking him off our hands, probably on a decent screw with us.
Nah I think it's so he gets game time with the rest of the midfield in case one of our first teamers gets injured he will be a bit more ready to step in.
He's got fantastic technique and close control, he just needs to improve his overall play. Maybe Gus can now provide him with games as a sub to help that.
Harley has an unfortunate manner when playing ,of not being really bothered,which i am sure is not true. I hope that he can win his critics round,and although he missed a couple yesterday ,he was there to miss them !Booing his name is not the answer......
Despite personally not seeing an awful lot on the pitch to suggest he's got what it takes at this level, I reckon Gus has seen a bit more of what he can do. He might have seen him train once or twice - worked with him a bit or something, or maybe Harley's agent put together a really impressive youtube montage. Anyway, I'm feeling generous today so I might just admit that Gus Poyet knows a bit more about football than I do, might have a bit more information about Harley's ability and where he fits into the grand scheme of things so... on this occasion, I'll leave this one as his call.
In a more specific response to the OP, Gus doesn't seem too worried about getting other players 'in the shop window' - if he doesn't rate them, he leaves them out & makes it clear they are not in his plans rather than jeopardising results. So I would say that Ryan Harley is very much in his plans (or he's being given one last throw of the dice to prove he's up to it).
It's hard to ever be impressed by Harley. Yesterday he missed that header that he really should of put away and didn't do anything else in the game apart from give the ball away a couple of times.
I prefer him to Dicker I think but wouldn't have him in instead of him as they are two dfferent sorts of players. When JFC comes back I think we'll be seeing less & less of Harley. According to my Oxford supporting mate Jake has been MOM every game so far!!