I only say that because the player he once was (pre injury) was one of the best CBs in the world. Now he is a very good CB but probably no longer in the world class bracket.
I agree that the Stones and Dias partnership has shown to be our best, but Laporte will not settle for being the out and out number 3 CB here, when he can walk into the starting line up of most big clubs in Europe.
If we freeze Laporte out, he goes and Ake becomes our 3rd CB, for me that is just too big a drop off in quality when the manager likes to rotate CBs. We have to have to find a way to keep all of Stones, Dias and Laporte happy. Ake can’t play 20+ Prem games season without us seeing a drop in quality at the back.