Harry

Except if he cost nothing we could afford to pay him more. If we pay him £50k a week more than we would like to that's £10m over four years which sounds like a cheap price for Joe Cole. I would agree that its a great theory except you would have a queue of players at MON's door asking for more money when we are trying to trim the wage bill and I also doubt he would go to a side outside the Champions League. Arsenal it is then.

Apparently he's bunked up with David Bentley.

I think that's probably a fair conclusion. Yes Man City will progress but do any of us really think they will win the PL next season because I don't. They may have a shout in a cup if they take it seriously but the £200m plus they have spent so far have got them a handful of points more and less cup success than Villa. There is a huge difference between building a team and buying a bunch of trophy players and the more of them they have the more difficult it becomes. The bottom line is that it will take a few years to build a side that can consistently challenge. Controversial opinion but you could say the same about Villa so. Man U and Chelsea are already there so if he goes I think that is the sort of club he would go to. As he said its about silveware over his career and to win that I know where I would go.

The press have made a big deal of Milner not apparently committing himself to Villa. Why should he at this stage? He is focusing on the World Cup and I got the sense watching the interview that he was a little bemused by the speculation. Milner is a pretty honourable bloke IMO and Villa have promised him a new contract so he will hear our proposals. I don't think he will easily dismiss the progress he has made under MON. Its probably 50/50 as to whether he will stay. I guess he would be more interesting if either Chelsea of Man U were in for him. But of he does not want to stay there is no point in him staying and we should get the best price we can. For the first time ever I agree with Jamie Carragher in something! For me that's in excess of £30m and I would be happy with a deal of say £20m plus Stephen Ireland plus Micah Richards.

£20m is taking the proverbial. I think Man City like the most of the media have not read RL's comments in full namely that it was categorically not a sell to buy policy - ideally yes but money would be available if required. My take is that Milner is a pretty club loyal player and clearly respects MON. He is also a player much admired by RL (according to a contact at VP). All that suggests he is not looking to leave and given the right deal in the summer I think he will stay. After all City can't offer CL football and for all the money they have spent they have neither built a cohesive side nor have they built a side tangibly better than say ourselves. OK that could change but I don't thing very quickly. As for the other potential suitors. Too much money for Arsenal, Chelsea possibly but they have a lot of midfielders already so that leaves Man U which is the next best shout. I honestly think they do not have the money. Anything north of say £25m and I think Milner's just too expensive for them. Clearly if Man City table a crazy offer and that for me at least would have to be £30m plus we would have to seriously consider it but at minimum I think we should be waiting for the Worlc Cup to finish as that could make him even more valuable.

The fun has started with plenty of bullshit articles to read. Any club in the world can lose good players if another club is prepared to pay enough. Milner is not for sale, both RL and MON have made that clear and I doubt that Milner is rushing to leave given his history of club loyalty. Clearly if enough money is offered we have to consider it but I think that would start at £30m+ What annoys me and to be fair its not been the case on this forum is the hysterical reaction you see from some fans principally centring around whether RL has the money to fund the club now and in the future. These sort of articles simply fuel their insecurities.

Much as I don't like Spurs but when you look at their performance tonight you really see that we still have some way to go.

Agreed we looked very one paced in the middle with Petrov and Barry. MOn would have definitely stuck with that set up so Milner would have remained on the wing and we would not have bought Downing I would guess. Better off? No I don't think so but we have still not sorted out our central midfield properly either.

John I think you have been slightly generous on a couple of the scores but the overall sentiment of the article is spot on. I am enjoying the fact that MON is proving Terry's comment to be wrong and reminding the media of it after every game and also that our season has not fallen away like last year despite the gloomy predictions of some soothe sayers. Separately I thought the behaviour of the Blues players in the aftermath of the penalty award and at full time was appalling and I hope the FA treats them accordingly. What's that old expression? - win with humility lose with grace. Well they certainly did not do the latter and I very much doubt we would have seen the former had they won. Worse still on some forums their fans are positively celebrating their thuggish and obscene behaviour as typified by Carr's gesture to the Villa fans after the final whistle. Fans, players....says it all really

Just watching MotD 2 and they have just described Craig Gardner as life long Blues fan. Just goes to show if you say it enough everyone will believe it.

That prick! word removed You can't buy class they say. I agree, you just buy has beens who definitely have no class at all.

The trouble is we have spoilt their cup final, again. Six points of the "Veeeeela" and relegation - successful season. No points off Villa and a top ten finish - abject failure. Sack the manager.

That pretty much hits the nail on the head. It just shows how lacking in class Birmingham City really are. Embarrassing players and fans who both lack any sort of class.

I have to say I'm enjoying all the bleating from the noses over today's game. Sore, sore losers or what.

My thoughts entirely. Bigger teams - says it all really.

Not a game for the purist and we rode our luck on occasion but its three points and gets us a Europa League spot. Brad Freidal MotM for me but that tells you all you need to know. Nice to beat Blues yet again and it puts their chavvy fans in their place. If I was a Blues fan I think I would be pretty disappointed as they definitely deserved a point but for once we had the rub of the green. About time! It looked like Blues had not sold their complete ticket allocation. There seemed to be a few empty seats. Can anyone confirm that?

It really, really doesn't. He signed Dunne becasue Distin chose Everton. Don't forget he only signed Milner becuase Bentley chose to go to spurs. Great signings granted, but lets not get ahead of oursleves. People really do think he is a genius don't they? :shock: I think that is bollox. Milner was a long term target of MON's. I think Bentley was more interested in coming to Villa than we were ever interested in signing him. Last summer he was gagging to sign. I would agree Distin was a target and I think we ended up with Collins instead. Dunne was a target for MON, as the Laursen replacement. as soon as he knew he could be available. As for genius managers they all make good and bad signings and good and bad sales. Ferguson bought Djemba Djemba and Juan Sebastien Veron and grossly overpaid for both Berbatov and Hargreaves. He also sold Stam and for that matter McGrath. Conversely he bought Ronaldo for £12m? and sold him for £80m Benitez at Liverpool - where do you start??

Dare I say typical from United 'fans'. As the Barry sage proved RL won't be bullied by the so called bigger clubs. If Milner wants to go and asks for a transfer, which I doubt he will, Man U had better be prepared to pay big big money for him. Have they got it??? Now there's a question and I suspect the answer is no without selling players.

I'm not quite sure I agree that he is our best CB but as regards everything else BB has said I totally agree.

Exactly! Luke Young is another player who MON has frozen out for some reason. There was some talk on another forum that he had an almighty bust up with MON during the Peace Cup - I don't know whether that is true or not but were it to be the case it may explain something. Conversely his half brother died last year and that could have been a factor too, affecting him in training. My recollection is that many of his appearances this season have been at left back in the absence of Warnock and instead of Shorey, another player who has been frozen out. All in all I think he's being treated pretty shabbily by MON and is pretty much a dead cert to leave. As for Carlos it took him most of the first season to establish himself at a higher level than the SPL and I seem to recall some assured performances at CB towards the end of last season. Clearly MON wants to play him so he gets the RB berth over LY maybe in part for the reasons I have suggested. Personally I see him as being out of his depth at RB. He was run ragged against Wolves, for example, as their winger sacked him many many times. He also has a tendency to drift in to the CB position, two examples being the Portsmoth game for their goal and also in the FA Cup semi final for their (first, I think?) goal. I don't think the Chelsea league game should be held against LY. He lacked match practice and Chelsea were on fire.

Good report, its always interesting to hear a first hand account of a reserves game. My question is: when are some of the better players going to get a shout in the first team?

Apologies in advance for the General but I think the club should categorically clarify MON's position. I appreciate that neither MON, the Club nor Mr Lerner likes to respond to speculation, if that's what it is, but if the Club does not make a firm statement the rumours will simply multiply. Such is the nature of the British media and the internet.

Totally agree with the theory but will he? I'd say it needs to be a couple of very good players. Couple that with getting rid of the mediocre players / no hopers (about six at my count) and I think that sounds like a plan. MON is certainly not a bad manager but probably not as good as everyone thinks he is. His biggest fault is not learning from his mistakes.

MON makes a virtue out of not commenting on press speculation as do both RL and the club. The fact that the club have said nothing does not surprise one jot.

If he has gone, which I doubt, we are a big enough club to attract a very high quality manager so personally I'm not too worried. There is a little bit of me that could see MON quitting over a matter of principle with Randy Lerner but overall I just can't see it. For the record I don't see his departure, if true, being anything to do with comments on forums like this. If he does leave I would go for a top foreign manager - Ranieri or alike.