barry'sboots

Be great if he stayed. Sell the bench warmers for circa £20m + £10m of FX Pro money and bring in Clyne, LB cover, Bentley, Flamini and Keane/Doyle. Much stronger than last season.

See Blues have been linked with Tshabala and the Baggies with Andre Ayew for £12.5m'ish. These two are probably more exciting options than McGeady?? Also, if we wanted squad numbers/cover/rotation, I would have thought Chris Eagles at £1.5m would have been a decent buy. He always seemed to make things happen for Burnley ... he just had to do it all on his own. Don't know whether he has completed the move to Rangers.

294 pages and barely a comment from MON or Villa. Just imagine how many pages we could fill if Redknob was our manager??

Surely that's 16m 50p coins i.e. £8m??

I thought SWP always looked better for Chelski when he played in the middle, with two sitting midfielders behind him. I do not see him as a wide player.

I would love to keep Jimmy and buy Ireland - I think they would be a good pair in front of a strong DCM, say Flamini! They are different players - Jimmy is much more energetic and industrious with some quality, Ireland is probably a better/more intelligent (footballing brain) footballer. Clearly Mancini doesn't fancy him as he appears to like the more hardworking type of player, particularly through the spine. I would have thought that he would be the ideal player to keep to rotate with Jimmy in the ACM role and provide a contrasting option in games where it was needed.

MON must be smiling all over his face now seeing all of these managers like Redknob with the problem of cutting their squad to 25 players. No such problem for our MON, eh?

I would love for him to stay but I can't see why there are so many posters on here saying he will be on the bench so much. Mancini likes to play 4-3-3 (from what I have seen) and they do not have another attacking CM'er that will get in front of Jimmy. I think he is great buy for them in this respect and he will be in their first XI as much as he should be - being appropriately rested sometimes?

As opposed to Stan who is lightning quick and able to track back and make tackles???

I think the key word may be "intimated". This suggests that he hasn't come out and said "I want to go" directly (as I understand it that would equate to requesting a transfer and potentially damage his take?) but he has probably said something like he is not interested in signing a new contract or would be happy to leave if Villa got a deal that they were happy with which MON has construed, not unreasonably, as Milner not being committed to Villa and looking for a move. Milner has had plenty of opportunity to rebut this but has consistently failed to do so which suggests he wants to go but is keen not to be seen as the bad guy.

I would take him back for the right price/valuation but what would happen with his wages?? I would also only take him back if MON is prepared to play him in a 3 man CM as I don't think he has the energy to play in a 4-4-2, certainly not alongside our Stan!

Milner has kept very quiet amid all of the speculation which suggests to me that he does want to leave but doesn't want to be seen as a bad guy. He could quite easily have come out and said that he was more than happy at Villa and was looking forward to the new season with his team mates as, say, Doyle has at Wolves and Ash has recently. This doesn't mean that you won't move if a deal is agreed but by not even stating this it suggests to me that he hasn't wanted to discourage suitors and has wanted to go from the start of the rumours etc..

And when you're a genius, like Paul & George. Fair point.

From what ive heard, Johnson's taken the Georgie Best route through his football career. Was just going to say, I'd be more worried about his drinking arm than any hip injury! Paul McGrath ..... not unknown for him to have a drink?? although probably easier to get away with at CB.

considering how much money theyve spent, that midfield is not that great ------------------ Toure/De Jong ------------------- ------------ Barry ----------------------------------- ------------------------------- Milner ---------------- Silva --------------------------------------- Johnson ---------------- Tevez/Adebayor/Dzeko ----------- Doesn't look a bad front 6 to me? I would be struggling to pick one I'd prefer in the premiership.

Very tedious now and I am surprised that we have let this drag on. We need Milner to put up or shut up and Citeh to pay what we want or clear off. I can't believe that Mancini is being continually allowed to speak about Milner without sanction. What does constitute tapping up in today's football ..... even forcing someone to wear your jersey is not seen as such??

I kind of agree with you there. I was thinking yesterday. We havent got 90,000 a week to pay Joe Cole. BUT, Liverpool certainly havent got it. Now obviously Liverpool are a bigger club than we are, but why have we never got the balls to to take a risk. Im all for, not bankrupting the club, but you definately have to speculate to accumulate, and for me, if Randy lerner really wants champions league football, he isnt risking anywhere near enough. Now of course he may know that he hasnt got enough and the target is to finish as high as possible, but if MON is being judged on a top 4 finish then he faces an almost impossible task to sustain a challenge on the budget he has I'm not sure I would want Joe Cole - just not convinced due to his lack of action over the last two years and I view him as an expensive gamble - but if we did want him a £5m signing on fee (equates to c.£25k p.w.) and £65k p.w. would be within our structure I think so could be done. I'm guessing that this is how Plop have thought of it.

I find it odd that we can tie up Stan for 3 years when he was on his last legs 2 seasons ago but not get Ash and Jimmy on much longer term contracts.

I really don't think it was that big a risk to be honest and neither do I think it was that genius. We had an extremely hard working, hard running player who is very robust playing on the wing but who was only okay at crossing and who saw himself as a CM. I'm with you Trent. The much bigger risk was leaving Sidwell in there as our attacking CM'er!!

Just imagine how many pages we would have filled if we were Citeh fans??

The problem is though Gabby, we're trying to catch those very clubs and they are moving further ahead. This summer MON really needs to be more creative with his signings or we'll lose further ground. We are, but we all know we are not going to match Utd, Chelski and Citeh in the transfer window. Doesn't mean we can't make good buys though.

Flamini would be fantastic - and for £5m if the story is to be believed. He is obviously too young to get into Milan's first XI. Perhaps he could also smuggle KVH in when he comes across? This would be a great buy.

Mixed feelings for me. Happy that we kept our best player but sad that we would have drastically reduced our transfer budget But we will have kept our best player who we should be building a team around? Bring in Bentley (8), Keane (6), Prince Boateng (5) and Flamini (5) and sell Heskey (2), Shorey (2), Davies (6 or swap for Keane/Bentley), Sidwell (2), NRC (2), Beye (1) and we have a net spend of 9m (and probably little change in wage bill) which is less than normal and less than the speculated sponsorship deal and I think we would have a much stronger side than last year with options out wide, up front and in the CM?

^^^^^^ Agree completely. We don't want to/don't have to sell. He was our POTS last year and is under contract. He is also English which is both a big attraction given the imminent UEFA ruling on English players in a squad but also probably quite valuable from a marketing perspective. If we want £30m then that's what they'll have to pay if they want him. If not let them move on and we keep the best young English ACM at the minute.

Don't understand how people are predicting anything other than 6th. Have I missed something? Has anybody around us strengthened particularly? We are the same team at the minute minus Gardner and possibly Sidwell - 2 players that did nothing and hopefully he will replace with at least one decent player. We will hopefully bring Keane in hopefully for Emile, which IMO, will make us a better team. If we do lose Milner then we will have nearly £30m to spend. Moyes has done really well with Everton but is potentially struggling up top with two strikers, in Yakubu and Saha, than can eb very injury prone, so will need luck with this. Plop have switched Benayoun for Cole - great if Cole can deliver but I don't think anybody can guarantee this and, at £90k pw, this is somewhat of a gamble. Carragher is another year older and his powers/pace are very much in the ascendancy. I don't see much funding being available for replacements/improvement unless Torres goes and then they will have a big gap up front. Torres, who is key to Plop given the limited other options, looked poor at the WC but equally importantly is becoming rather injury proof. Equally, Stevie G hasn't looked the player he was over the last 12 months - this may change but when you get to his age he is probably looking at deterioration rather than improvement. Maybe I am being optimistic but after consistent 6th place finishes, I would say we have as good a chance as anyone of staying there. I also believe that if MON learns the lessons of the next few seasons - a bit of flexibility, resting and rotating and using his subs more effectively - we could be challenging for CL. I am, of course, ever so slightly sceptical that he can do this!!