With Jonas and Ferguson on the books? Wouldn't a right winger be a higher priority?
Nope. We've got Barton. Purely in terms of investment into the first team, left-wing would be a position i'd look at first.
Barton should be play CM imo. We need a distributor in the middle. When playing rm Barton has a tendency go too much inside, ruining the width. Had a good example today where Shola was forced to finish from 20 m because neither Barton or Simpson used the wide open space that was available on our right side.
It was discussed so often that Barton's best position is on the right.
Even if we do consider Barton a RM now, he's our only one if Routledge leaves. Bearing in mind that Ben Arfa, Jonas and Ferguson can all play on the left, I would definitely be signing a dedicated right winger before a left one.