Grant is great and had a fantastic season. Clearly his all round contribution especially as a team player/more well rounded central midfielder kicked on hugely this year. BUT the playoff games did slightly make me think he was more replaceable than I would have said three months earlier.
I'm sure a lot would say, that's a tiny sample size and it's three games but he did basically disappear in our biggest games. Worse than that really his two big contributions were the mistake for the first Blackpool goal and missing a penalty and Appleton shunted him out on the left in the end; so had less confidence as a central player than say, a McGrandles. I did feel at the time, especially having listened to a podcast where Grant basically said he's all about playing centrally and it was great Mapp had the confidence him to play there, him getting shifted out to the left in the playoff final after a mistake wasn't a great situation all round.
The argument is there that we would not have got in the top 6 without him, but I also had a bit of his revisionism thinking about the numbers he put up in the end. His 13 goals were vastly inflated by penalties and his 9 assists by the glut of Montsma goals in the first half of the season? The penalty misses were also very big ones in the context of the season in the league- both against Doncaster in a game we lost and the Peterborough draw. Not to say he didn't score some important ones of course.
There is then the argument we might miss his set pieces but as a midfield schemer/his contributions breaking from the three in midfield are perhaps slightly less than you might expect/more replaceable from a purely moneyball type point of view? The set piece contributions also dried up significantly after the start of the season.
As a replacement, a more functional midfielder who can progress the ball might also be an option, e.g. you don't need to replace him with a 10 as the goals and assists come from the front three. And as long as we have someone who can take a set piece, that covers that base.
Might be overly negative and clearly not going to be upset if we retain him after a L1 team of the season 20/21, but I'd have more confidence in finding a replacement than say a Bridcutt who I'm sure will be here (where the experience was a huge loss) or a Tom Hopper as we just seemed to look a team bereft of ideas when Morton came in. Likewise finding someone who can do the Brennan Johnson x-factor role!
More generally, I'd see Grant bottom end Championship based on his technical ability and how his all round contribution has grown - and I can really see it happening now that's all been confirmed regarding his clause. I think it'll be quite favourable to him as he wouldn't have signed the deal if we'd put in an absurd clause that lower Championship teams wouldn't match. Even one of the teams that have got promoted?