millbrook85

Equally, the club has intimated that several other players are for sale at the right price. So, even if the club has to sell to buy, I don't think the entire transfer strategy is solely reliant on the future of James Milner. Combine that with the General's comment that the club is more focussed on reducing the wage bill and that money is available for MON to spend regardless of transfer revenue and I would say that you're misreading the situation. This is a good point, and one that I don't think Trent has considered yet. If, as the general has implied, it is true that we are concentrating more on reducing the wage bill than on transfer fees, surely selling a few of Sidwell, Davies, Shorey, Luke Young, Heskey, NRC, and Beye is worth more to us than selling one James Milner. Perhaps MON has just been told to clear the wage bill before he can spend his transfer kitty. In this case, we could keep Milner (if City don't meet our valuation), sell some of the squad players and still be allowed to buy.

I hope that E&S article is right. I don't think we should sell for anything less than our asking price and I would much prefer to keep him anyway.

I disagree with you, at least in your opinion on Michael Bradley. I think he's exactly the type of midfielder we need right now - a tough, athletic midfielder who is slightly defensive-minded but can get forward and score a goal. He might not be quite good enough at the moment for a starting spot in our midfield, but he's only 22 years old and in a year or two I think he might be. Until then, he would be a great replacement for the likes of Sidwell. The only problems are that he would probably be relatively expensive, especially as well as he's played so far during the World Cup, and I'm not sure he'd want to move the Premier League if he were going to sit on the bench for a year or two. That being said, I would find a future midfield three of Milner, Delph and Bradley (or a two of Delph and Bradley if Milner were to leave) very, very appealing.

I don't think one can really draw the conclusion from the poll results. I think you'd find most people's opinions to be a bit more nuanced than the choices of the poll allow. For instance, if he's happy to stay and sign a new contract, I wouldn't sell him for any amount, but I suppose the only person to know that for sure at this point is Milner himself. On the other hand, if he pulled a Barry and made it very clear that he wanted to go, I would sell him to anyone who came in with an offer of at least 30 million pounds (which is why I voted for "30 million to anyone." We have to be pragmatic about it, and if we have a player whose head has been turned and the choice is either to sell him now for 30 million or next summer for 15, we've got to sell now.

Except Milner doesn't have an agent. Yes, he does - if I'm not mistaken, he is represented by someone at the PFA. Just because he doesn't have a private agent doesn't mean he doesn't have someone looking out for his financial best interests - that's what his PFA representative does. It's certainly better for the club that he's not working with someone like Alex Black because Jimmy's rep won't be looking for a huge commission, but his representative will certainly be trying to get the best deal possible for Jimmy.

Villa. This is a particularly easy decision for me since I'm American and I'm hoping we'll beat you come June 12th However, I would choose Villa making the Champions League over the US winning the world cup, as remarkable and as powerful an experience as that would be. I didn't choose to be American; I was just born here. Contrastingly, it was my decision to start supporting Aston Villa, so seeing them be successful is much more fulfilling for me.

I'm not so sure that City in particular are being as logical about it as you are suggesting. They have foreign owners, a foreign manager, and have many foreign stars - I think they want to look more English, and James Milner is the it boy of the moment for England. I think they want to point to his signing as an indication that they are a local, British club. That's not to say we can definitely find someone as good as him for less, but I think Man City's motivation is not that he's the best they can find for 30 million pounds.

It's hard to know exactly what to do here without knowing what our financial situation is this summer in terms of signing players. If we're looking for a net spend of 0, I think if we could get 20 million plus Ireland and one of Onuoha or Richards, it would be a fantastic deal. From there, if we were to sell off a few fringe players and buy a strong defensive midfielder, a striker, and perhaps one other player (a young left back, perhaps, or another creative midfielder/winger), we might well be stronger for it. If, however, we don't need to sell Milner to achieve these goals then I would much rather keep him. The only thing that makes me uncomfortable about the whole exercise is the idea that we can buy a young player, help him grow, and them automatically lose him to a bigger (read: richer) club as soon as he distinguishes himself. It doesn't matter so much how much money we get for him - as a fan, I want to be able to feel connected with a team, but that's very difficult to do if we only have players for a couple of years at a time. Milner is the type of player that I would love us to be able to cheer on for a long time, so I do hope Randy and MON decide that we don't need the money. At a certain point, we could well be getting just ridiculous money and I'm having trouble deciding whether that is worth turning down on principle alone. I really don't know.

Because for all the Milners and Youngs, he also signed Harewood, Shorey, Sidwell, Beye. Doesn't trust any of them to play regularly or to rotate. Because MON has shown no signs of looking to europe to perhaps find a cheaper Arteta type signing rather than going for the more expensive UK based players. So 25-30 mill means nothing when your not going to get your moneys worth. If MON is planning on changing the habit of the lifetime, then its worth selling Milner, if he isn't no point. You know that Arteta had just come off a 50 game stint playing for Rangers when Everton got him on loan from Real Sociedad, right? Following the logic of the many who decline to view Cuellar as a foreign signing, shouldn't you say that Arteta wasn't a foreign signing but a British-based player? Back on topic, though - I hope we don't sell Milner, but if we do we should be looking for around 30 million pounds. I think it's unfair not to trust MON to replace Milner considering it was MON who brought him in in the first place.

That was the worst I've seen us play for quite some time now; however, that part could not possibly matter less at the moment. We got the derby victory and, more importantly, we picked up three points in the race for fourth to take us level on points with Spurs. Blues will rightly feel hard done by on the penalty, but after all of the questionable refereeing decisions we've been on the wrong end of recently, we deserve a bit of good luck. It's all to play for now! All the pressure will be on Man City and Tottenham, who both have something to lose. We, on the other hand, have nothing to lose, and I think that should allow us to go out and play freely these last two games. I know we're still a bit of a long shot, but I'm very proud of the courage and determination the players have shown in the last few weeks to pick up 13 out of 15 points in the last five games and put themselves back in the race. At the end of it all, even if we don't finish fourth I think we can all be proud of the season. That being said, I've just got a funny feeling about these last few weeks of the season - I wouldn't bet against us sneaking in there and pipping fourth at the last moment. Up the Villa!

What a **** goal!!!!

That's not the point ... the intent to play attacking football and least really try to win, to take risks, is the point. There is a thin line between taking risks and playing stupidly. When playing against top, top sides who are ruthless in punishing the smallest mistakes, what you might call "taking risks" is just stupid. We've beaten Man U, Chelsea, and Liverpool this season along with drawing Spurs twice and Arsenal once. I think those results against top sides more than justify the way we play against them. The race for the top four will be decided on gritty afternoons at Stoke, Wigan, Wolves etc. (and that's taking nothing away from those teams - no disrespect intended towards them). The games among the top sides are usually pretty cagey, with neither team wanting to give too much away. I think we need to do a much better job of controlling games when we're up against lower-placed teams who come to play defensively, but our results against good sides show that we have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about in terms of how we play against them.

I think your post makes some sense from a Spurs perspective. The two games Villa have played against Spurs this season have been easily our two most defensive performances. We've actually really gone at teams like Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City, but against you we go into our shell. Of the four contenders and their gung-ho-ness, I'd put Liverpool bottom; they are a defensive team that try to break through Torres and Gerrard. After them, I'd struggle to separate you, us and City on intent. I think you're capable of better attacking football than we are, but I think we're capable of better defensive football than you are, I think City are probably capable of being better at both but aren't so good at reaching their potential. In terms of attacking intent though, I'd say we're on a par although I can well understand your point of view given that the two Villa games you'll have paid most attention to this season have been two of our most defensive performances. Exactly.

I think (and I may be wrong) it's just because he's a rather big player who you might expect to slam one in, but instead he just sort of passed it into the corner.

NO GOAL FOR YOU!

EDIT: I'm dumb.

We won the only away game relevant for that particular match-up. Milner in the middle has been an absolute revelation. Also, I would love to see Cuellar sneak into the Spanish World Cup side - if he keeps this form up, I feel it's imminently possibly. Finally, having Milner, Young, and Downing all fully fit has been a joy to watch. Our style of play has become so much nicer to watch in the past couple of games. Long may it continue! UTV!

And all of the sudden, with Downing's inclusion, we finally have someone on the bench capable of coming in and changing the game for us. Too often this season (I'm thinking of Blackburn and Wolves in particular, although I'm sure there are more examples), we've been stuck in a draw with nobody on the bench to come on and give us an extra attacking threat. I rate Heskey perhaps a bit more than quite a few of our fans, but he's not a player to come on as an impact substitute. I can see this game being 1-1 with about 75 minutes to go and then Downing coming on to create or even score the winner - exciting news!

Anyone calling for Petrov not to get a recall will be disappointed. He is the club captain and thus will always play when available. For me, the biggest factor in our performance today was the attacking four all having great games - particularly Carew, who, as it has been said by others, is absolutely impossible to defend when he is in the mood. Also, it was really, really great to see Luke Young back. It was fantastic to have two proper fullbacks working up and down the touchline, and I don't envy MON's task in choosing a defence for the rest of the season because Cuellar has been excellent this season (he had another great game today) and our CB pairing of Collins and Dunne has also been excellent - we have at least five very strong players for only four spots. Anyway, in the end I would bring Petrov back in for Sidwell and Collins back into central defense with Cuellar shifting back to RB. It's harsh on Luke Young for sure, but today was only his first game back so he will need time to work back into the team.

To be fair, that was an amazing goal. We just need to get it back together and start playing again, as we look a bit stunned at the moment.

Albrighton to Heskey!

I believe the commentator referred to him as Ashley Cole once during the Atalante match. It makes me sad.

Ashley looking a little incredulous after that challenge - the Porto player went down like he had been shot!

I noticed that! I suppose MON could either be banned for this game after getting thrown out of the last one or possibly even (shudder to think!) working on a signing? Or maybe someone at GolTV is just a bit thick and mislabeled John Robertson as MON.

I was the first vote! Option A for me - 4th place would be the best thing for us this season in my opinion. Although that's ONLY if I had to choose. I would love nothing more than an FA Cup win, a UEFA Cup win, an 3rd place!