Manchester City are set to return to Aston Villa with an offer in the region of £24m for James Milner and at the same time make it clear that they have no intention of meeting the Midlands club's asking price for the England international, which is closer to the £30m mark.
City, who had a £20m bid for Milner rejected in May, remain determined to sign the former Leeds United trainee but are prepared to turn their attention elsewhere if Villa stick to their higher valuation.
My enthusiasm for signing James Milner has dampened somewhat recently. With the signings of Yaya Touré and David Silva we have improved our muscularity in midfield and our inventiveness in wide areas - the two elements Milner would bring us. Obviously he's an excellent player who would still improve us.
But this has echoes of the Lescott and Adebayor signings last summer. There comes a point when I'm happy with what we've done in certain areas, and, combined with the attachments I have to players already at the club, this makes me unenthusiastic about recruiting. If James Milner came it would be bad news for Gareth Barry, who I like, and Vladimir Weiss, who excites me. Throw in the fact that we could only get him for an inflated fee and that it somehow feels worse to bully an English club than a foreign one (I accept that this is ludicrous) and I'm not exactly desperate for this to come off.
But this has echoes of the Lescott and Adebayor signings last summer. There comes a point when I'm happy with what we've done in certain areas, and, combined with the attachments I have to players already at the club, this makes me unenthusiastic about recruiting. If James Milner came it would be bad news for Gareth Barry, who I like, and Vladimir Weiss, who excites me. Throw in the fact that we could only get him for an inflated fee and that it somehow feels worse to bully an English club than a foreign one (I accept that this is ludicrous) and I'm not exactly desperate for this to come off.
That's not to say I wouldn't welcome him to City and revel in his successes though.
7 comments:
I agree with you. I am not sure if James Milner would add that much to what is starting to look like a well balanced and rounded squad. At 24 million, I think the money could be better spent elsewhere; although his presence will help with the quota requirements for English livestock.
He would deepen the strength of the squad no doubt, but who would lose out?
At that price you'd also expect him to start, and therefore put a more established (at City) player on the bench.
Milner takes up a space that is best used elsewhere. In a 4-4-2, the first choice midfield is probably NDJ, Yaya, Silva, and one of Barry, AJ, SWP, Vlad and Milner. I realize that City will play at least 50 matches this season, but I see a lot of disgruntled players in this scenario.
World Cup has shown the guy for what he is ... a good (but far from exceptional) player with potential. Milner is far from the finished article and I'd rather see present and academy players given a chance to learn on our time than have to waste £24m for the privilege.
Milner is so average it hurts, if he was anything other than English no one in the league would take any notice of the guy. Yeah he scored a few goals and got a few assists, how many of those goals were penalties? Surely you expect assists from a premier leaugue midfielder of decent standard.
At the end of the day if he was world class he wouldn't be played out of position in centre mid.
Agreed. That's way too much to pay for Milner. I've seen news that links Arteta - that move excites me more and offers a more contrasting option in midfield.
I agree. Milner would be an outstanding squad member because of his versatility but only a decent first XI option.
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