He's not going to be first choice, and he's further away than ever before. Sterling Silva De Briyne will obviously be the starters.
I can see navas being above Nasri, because his pace will be useful and he works hard in defence, plus Pellers loves him.
Bony might even affect his game time because in some situations where one of those 3 are injured, I'm sure Pellegrini will fancy 2 strikers.
nasris problem is that he's so inconsistent. When he's on top form then he's world class, but it only happens half a dozen time s a season, and when he's not on top form, he doesn't add as much as the others - in fact his style contributes a lot to how pedestrian the attack can be.
---------------------------
But back on topic to Lopes....
We know Pellegrini has this "2 players for each position" rule. As I see it, that puts Rony in the squad.
Sterling, Silva, De Bruyne.
Lopes, Nasri, Navas.
6 players, 3 positions. 60 games a season.
That should be more than manageable. The first choice players would expect to start nearly 40 games a season, and the second choices can look forward to 15-20 starts +sub appearances.
That should be enough for Lopes to be happy, and for us to see how good he is, whether he could replace Nasri.
And why wouldn't we keep him in the squad? Can't loan a player with 10 months left on his contract, and the amount of money he'd bring in if we sold him would be negligible - £5?
Keep him to his contract, and use this season to show him he's got a place in the club's future. If he plays a decent amount of games, I'm sure he will happily renew his contract by Christmas.
If we can't convince a 19 year old kid of that plan, then we have some serious issues. And if he's not good enough, doesn't play and we lose him for free, we've only lost a couple of million. It's worth the gamble to keep him.