How about both?
I think there is a problem in fitting them into the team, Petrov already occupies one of the centre midfield spots so reasonably we need one other player to fit in beside him and ultimately replace McCann. We need someone who can play the killer pass, someone who will score 10 goals in season.
But the arguement against is, the midfield would be prone to attack, which would give our defence a problem so, yes you could buy both but that would mean having to consider dropping Petrov and will MoN do this, hmmmm im not sure he will
I think MON will play Barry in the middle next season alongside Petrov /a new signing. This new signing is needed for competition i.e. in place of McCann. When MON talks about a squad I don't think he is waffling, he means it. This means dropping Petrov if necessary. NRC would be a very decent signing.
Fair points mate