January is when you need to replace him, the summers when you sell him. It’s a mistake we’ve made a number of times over the years, with us we need a centre back, central midfielder, and two strikers in January because that’s what we’ll be selling next summer.
You’ve got to replace, before you sell, if you don’t have the budget to buy Championship experienced players, (which I’m assuming you don’t) because it’s such a hard league for players to find their feet in. As we found last season with a full squad of players inexperienced at this level, and as yourselves will find this season.
You need next seasons replacement leaning from him in training, and replacing him towards the end of games, and for suspensions and resting processes, to give him a fighting chance. If you look at our last 5or6 games Alex Mowatt our captain, who’s contract is up in the summer, as gone from a 90minutes every game, for the past 3 years player, to getting subbed off in the 75th minute most weeks to give Romal Palmer some experience, because we’re obviously cashing in on him during January if possible, this is what you need to be doing with young players at this level we’ve learnt the hard way.