claret75

I havent had a dump in 9 days ........its a PB im quite proud of, but feel if i dont go soon it'll be like giving birth. If anyones got any bright ideas other than lactulose, they'll be gratefully recieved.

Who knows? Can you really see MoN taking a punt on a foreign player? He does it every blue moon, and there isn't going to be another one. Not too sure. He obviously has a preference for Britsh based players, but I get the feeling that he may well look for that extra bit of class needed to enhance this team, regardless of their geographical roots. Maybe MON now feels he has the base of a solid side and is now ready to take more of a chance on a foreigner.

You're half right, in my opinion.. The squad he has assembled lacks the quality for rotation while chasing a Top 4 finish. However, this squad has been assembled from a position of 16th. It's an evolutionary process. Moving from 16th to within 2 games of finishing 4th doesn't happen with the click of his fingers. The squad he has assembled is enough for us to finish Top 10, and the first XI got us close to the promised land. Now the evolution continues and the lesser players get moved out and replaced with sufficient quality to supplement the quality of our first XI. Even with the massive financial resources that Man City have at their disposal, they haven't been able to achieve Champions League football in the timescales they wanted. Spurs have achieved it, but it wasn't an overnight achievement for them either. We're on the right track, I believe. With some tweaking I'm sure we will get there. But a squad of quality cannot be assembled overnight, especially given the weak starting position MON was handed. Agreed.

If he had a better squad im sure hed know exactly how to use it. Lets face it, the quality in the squad isnt there at the mo. Im in the minority in thinking MON didnt have much of a squad to rotate last year, either certain players werent quite ready or were injured or just didnt look the part. thats the bug bear with ONeill - the squad, as you rightly pointed out, isnt there for him to rotate. But the problem is that sqaud after the first 11 has been assembled for massive money by MON............ so we shouldnt use that as an excuse for MON but more as a stick to beat his luckycharm eating head with !! agreed But overall MONs made good signings, not great but good. I agree that if hed spent better on the squad players wed may be top 4 already, but to be fair, its difficult to get everything right. You say hes spent 'massive' money, but in comparison to competing clubs, over the last few years, he hasnt. On balance hes spent well IMO, so im not going to criticise too much him for not using his squad.

If he had a better squad im sure hed know exactly how to use it. Lets face it, the quality in the squad isnt there at the mo. Im in the minority in thinking MON didnt have much of a squad to rotate last year, either certain players werent quite ready or were injured or just didnt look the part.

Turin Brakes - State of Things.

Agree with this. £30m plus for Milner is good business. I hear people on here saying we wont be able to replace him with as good a player, but we dont necessarily need to. We could buy a very good CF and CM with that sort of money and wed have every chance of improving next year. If he does go im looking forward to an exciting summer in the transfer market. Something that slightly worries me is the knock on effect this might create. If Milner goes will Young and Gabby think its time to move on as well?

I didnt rate Milner that highly either till last season and know a few people that thought the same thing!!

This. People are picking names out of the bag on this forum like there's no tomorrow. Do you honestly believe we'll be signing anyone further than the UK? I don't think so. As much as I like MON as a manger and I've said it before, his transfer dealings 75% of the time are over priced or just awful! Saying that I wouldn't let Milner go for any less than 30M. So if we do get that then from MON's point of view who do we bring in? Jermain Beckford? My God. We're crying out for a striker here... 30/08/06 Stilian Petrov 6,500,000 Celtic 12/09/06 Didier Agathe Free Celtic 03/10/06 Chris Sutton Free Birmingham 22/01/07 John Carew Swap Lyon 23/01/07 Ashley Young 9,650,000 Watford 31/01/07 Shaun Maloney 1,000,000 Celtic 05/07/07 Nigel Reo-Coker 8,500,000 West Ham 17/07/07 Marlon Harewood 4,000,000 West Ham 29/08/07 Zat Knight 3,500,000 Fulham 31/08/07 Moustapha Salifou 50,000 FC Wil 30/01/08 Wayne Routledge 1,250,000 Tottenham 03/07/08 Curtis Davies 8,000,000 West Brom 10/07/08 Steve Sidwell 5,000,000 Chelsea 26/07/08 Brad Friedel 2,000,000 Blackburn 01/08/08 Brad Guzan 600,000 Chivas USA 07/08/08 Nicky Shorey 4,000,000 Reading 08/08/08 Luke Young 5,000,000 Middlesbrough 12/08/08 Carlos Cuellar 7,800,000 Rangers 30/08/08 James Milner 12,000,000 Newcastle 23/01/09 Emile Heskey 3,500,000 Wigan 16/07/09 Stuart Downing 12,000,000 Middlesbrough 04/08/09 Fabian Delph 8,000,000 Leeds Utd 07/08/09 Habib Beye 2,500,000 Newcastle 12/08/09 Andy Marshall Free N/A 27/08/09 Stephen Warnock 8,000,000 Blackburn 01/09/09 Richard Dunne 6,000,000 Man City 01/09/09 James Collins 5,000,000 West Ham Ok - this is a list of all the players that he's bought. Detail the 75% that were awful of overpriced. Unless you're an idiot who can't back up his point. Id say hes done ok in the transfer market.

Turin Brakes - Slack.

If Milner leaves he leaves and thats the end of it. We'll have around £30m in the bank and will still have a shot at 4th if MON makes good signings, which i think he probably will.

I think you could be right. It wont be the end of the world if we get £30m for him.

Whoever offers the most money. What am I not getting from this question? I think yillans saying we might be better off with him going to Man U, because we wouldnt be directly competing with Man U for 4th.

I rather him at Man U for slightly less money. Then again City will just go out and buy another big name so maybe wed be better off selling him to City for more money.

Milner isnt the second coming, hes a professional footballer and like all the good ones he probably wants to play for the best teams. I wouldnt be surprised to see him go, but not to City.

Thats not easy to answer while the variables are still to be made apparent. A contingency plan in case anyone stumps up silly money for Milner must be in place. Bentley can play wide or in the middle and this makes him an attractive purchase. He could also be the sought of restoration project MON may like. If Milner went, I wouldnt be against signing Bentley, but if he stayed and say we had £20m net spend this year, i wouldnt go anywhere near Bentley as wed need a CF, a DCM and probably a full back before Bentley. Like you say, there are a lot of variables to consider though I agree largely with that position depending on money. I'm a firm believer that to keep Milner we have to show him we mean business. In that I mean same calibre purchases. This article is caustic to start with but goes on to be quite accurate. Mail Online Keeping him would be a whole lot easier if we had money to spend. I dont see Milner going to Man City if MONs told him we're bringing in the standard of player that will push on into 4th, but that doesnt seem to be the case does it. Id hate Milner to go, but £30m plus wouldnt be bad business.

Thats not easy to answer while the variables are still to be made apparent. A contingency plan in case anyone stumps up silly money for Milner must be in place. Bentley can play wide or in the middle and this makes him an attractive purchase. He could also be the sought of restoration project MON may like. If Milner went, I wouldnt be against signing Bentley, but if he stayed and say we had £20m net spend this year, i wouldnt go anywhere near Bentley as wed need a CF, a DCM and probably a full back before Bentley. Like you say, there are a lot of variables to consider though

Probably no worse than blacking out for a second or two while you're driving down an interstate. ...and then not quite knowing whether that loud clunk was your car hitting the guardrail, another car, or something else... (sleep and food deprivation FTW) Scary stuff. A few years ago my mate had been working long hours and was driving back to Brum when he fell asleep on the motorway. He had a blow out, veered to the right and went straight through the central reservation where there was about a 10 metre gap in the barrier. Jammy get.

Santa Cruz is always injured, and when hes fit hes gash! Plus hes not getting any younger.

Claret - First of all Bentley can tackle, not a holding player but he can tackle., as does Milner. Second I agree with your synopsis to a point and see another holding player coming this summer, replacement for Petrov or not. How's £10m and Bentley for Ash Young sound? (maybe not £10m but close) I know Bentley can tackle, but hes not a particularly good tackler and not someone id trust with a holding midfielders job. Theres no way id want Bentley plus £10m for Young. I still think Youngs our best player, if we lost him things may fall apart. I wasnt suggesting Bentley for the holding role. I think Milner is our best player and others 'may' have to be sacrificed to keep him. Where would you play Bentley? I think Milners been our best player this year, but i'll say hes our best player when hes done what Young has done for us over 2 or 3 seasons.

Would you play him in the centre? If Milners still here i mean.

Claret - First of all Bentley can tackle, not a holding player but he can tackle., as does Milner. Second I agree with your synopsis to a point and see another holding player coming this summer, replacement for Petrov or not. How's £10m and Bentley for Ash Young sound? (maybe not £10m but close) I know Bentley can tackle, but hes not a particularly good tackler and not someone id trust with a holding midfielders job. Theres no way id want Bentley plus £10m for Young. I still think Youngs our best player, if we lost him things may fall apart.

Agreed hed be a good squad player if we could afford him as a sub.

Agree that Downing is better on the left, but Young is better. However, i think we'll see a different Downing next season. Anyway, if Bentley IS better than Downing on the right, hes not better by much and i wouldnt bring him in when theres other positions of more concern that need seeing to first.