Rob182

Id go one further, Hart+Onouha+Ireland+Bellamy In return for Milner. We would end up with a replacement for Milner, Good Keeper to take over Brad Friedel for perhaps the next 15 years, Young Quick Right Back to Fight with Carlos for Right back and Bellamy who i think would be perfect up front for us. Do that deal and i think we would have a stronger starting 11 and squad. Sounds good! Nit-picking.. but is Bellamy worth £10m? Either way, we'd have a pretty strong squad! Hart, Friedel, Guzan Onouha, Cuellar, Davies, Dunne, Collins, Warnock Young, Downing, Ireland, Petrov, Delph, NRC Delfouneso, Gabby, Bellamy, Carew (I'm excluding the people I assume could be sold, and adding Heskey because that's my preferred departure!)

As someone mentioned earlier in the thread Milner for £10m + Ireland + Onouha + Hart would be a brilliant deal. Then we'd have £10m on top of whatever we get for the outgoing players (Sidwell/ Luke Young/ Shorey seem destined to go) to buy a decent striker. I don't think Hart would be happy sitting on the bench behind Shay Given next year so if Man City really, really want Milner (and he wants to go), this should be our offer!

isn't he wanted for huge money due to his season playing cm in a 4-4-2? How is that not using him properly? I think he could be utilised better in a 4-3-3, but only because it'll actually give him the freedom to roam around like he wants to! (and won't leave the other CM unprotected when he's off on a run).

Did those same people base their entire reseach on having spent 5 minutes perusing this forum by any chance? Probably just your posts Yes Rob, because I am the pinncale of negativity on here, well done mate. Of course not, but at the time I posted that I had just skipped from one thread where you had commented on how it makes no difference of what formation you play (and some comment about - people who haven't played 11-a-side probably wouldn't know this) to this topic where you made a comment about people moaning on a thread.. (seemingly what you had done on the other thread, minutes earlier).

Did those same people base their entire reseach on having spent 5 minutes perusing this forum by any chance? Probably just your posts

Probably, and he was right Not necessarily Well yeah, cos hes not done anything since he moved to Barcelona. Not done anything since he ran clear in the champs league final for arsenal, to make it 2-0, and made a total arse of it, before blaming tired legs in his post match interview. A player doesn't match up to the high standards of the Barcelona team - therefore he is "past it".. Ok.. we'll agree to disagree.

Though it's true, there's more chance of him coming here than to West Ham! Not with the money West Ham are reportedly offering. My opinion on it was more to the fact of him playing for one of Arsenal's london rivals

Probably, and he was right Not necessarily

Though it's true, there's more chance of him coming here than to West Ham!

I'd love to see Henry playing for Villa! Even if he is 32, he's still a quality player who, I think, could score 15+ goals per season. He'd also be able to teach the youngsters a thing or two! (Gabby/ Fonz)

It's not though. You can buy before you sell. "Sell-to-buy" means that the net deals should balance at the end. It does not mean you must rigidly do them in that order. But as we say, it's irrelevant for us anyway. It is right tho. I hear what you are saying BOF (and its (hopefully) is irrelevant to us) but - Lets say you run a restaurant. You dont go and buy a shite load of ingrediants on the HOPE that loads of people come in. What you do is say, right its a Monday night, we have 12 booked, and its forecast rain so we wont get many walk ins. And then you go and buy the necessary ingrediants that you think you will need. Now, you dont go and buy david Bentley on the back of paper rumours about James Milner. You get an agreement with Man City for example (and even then you run the risk of a transfer falling through), and then go and buy bentley. The Bentley transfer might be finalised before the Milner transfer but that doesnt mean you have bought before you have sold. One problem with your example is that we're not a restaurant. If we were then I'm sure Randy Lerner has enough money and faith in the manager that if Martin O'Neill (Restaurant Manager - for you Woodytom) told him "we really need to buy this widescreen tv! It'll bring in loads of business" then he'd fork out the cash knowing that it'd end up paying for itself.

i can't believe how wound up people get over other peoples opinions. respect what the lad is saying. I think people get more annoyed at the same opinions, statements and questions spouted over and over, in numerous threads without ever accepting the answers given.

Football is about more than just the money. Unfortunately, however, if you want to be really successful you have to have loads of it! The question is, would you swap what we have for what city have? Never. How could we feel proud if we won the league after buying a squad of £20m-£30m players? I play in a band and people ask "would you go on X Factor" or "Are you going to send your songs off to Simon Cowell?"... :? .. no I'm not. Going on a reality show is a fast-track to being famous. What is your legacy? A few number one hit singles and then people forget about you. Man City are the same in my opinion. If they win the league in the next 3 years... what are people going to say? ... "Wow! What an acheivement!!! You won the league and you only spent £350m !!... How ever can we live up to that?".. I hate to refer to spurs .. but they go about things a better way.. investing in talent, selling them on for £20m/£30m... continuing to invest in quality. Now they've broken into the top 4, will probably buy a few players of a higher quality - and then they will probably aim to break into the Top3. That's what we should be doing - and it'd be much more of an achievement. (I know that what I am explaining - sounds a lot like "sell James Milner"... but it didn't mean to :winkold: )

Damocles, The Yorke transfer? I don't blame Man U for that.. Yorke maybe, but not Man U. And yes our owner is a billionaire, but he's not going to poach every decent player in every club he can just to try and win the league.. Randy Lerner sees Villa as a business and that's how football should be. Man City are one of the clubs that are ruining football. What happens if your billionaire gets bored or decides that he isn't getting enough returns for his investment? If he leaves then you'll have more wages than your "record breaking" stadium can cope with. Harry Redknapp, as much as I dislike him, said that Man City used bullying tactics when Spurs were looking to buy Bellamy. Aparantly they said "if you don't back out of the Bellamy bid, we'll also bid for Palacios". I honestly would hate it if Randy Lerner ran our club the way that yours is being run. Football should be about training, trusting youth, playing with skill and passion, tactics, loyalty and the romance of the game. Not - "we have more money, therefore we win".. If you win the league then I doubt you'll enjoy it as much as if you'd won it with homegrown youth/ players that you've bargained for/ selling a player and then buying someone for half the price who turns out to be double the player/ having players that are so loyal to your club that they'll run themselves ragged for 90 minutes of every game. It's the football equivalent of selling out. And I hate it. (rant over) ... so yeah, on topic.. bid rejected... bring us the next bid.. you'll get the same response

I've just been watching that video from the Man City chairman.. "We haven't stopped, for one day, investing in this club. And investing in the club is not just about the team of players... It's about... err.. infrastructure, it's about...errr.. people, it's about... err.. IT... it's about... errr.. future training facilities.." He sounds like he knows what he's talking about.. :winkold:

I personally view Man U as a class side in the way that they are consistently building a squad of youth and experience combined and have challenged for the title year after year for a while now. The years of having youngsters like Scholes, the Neville bros, Beckham etc.. I think that Man City are "class" about as much as I think that winning the lottery is "class". Man City are the equivalent of a tramp who found a pound in the kerb and then won the lottery.

Not much to read.. but thought I'd post it on here to keep the topic updated.

Get lost City.. where did you get to in the FA and Carling Cups again? We'll see you and your billionaire owners in the Europa League

Or a reason to raise their real value by 5/6 million. So... in my eyes, a realistic price for Milner is £36m. Nothing less before we even start talking about which Man City players we'd want on top of that amount.

If the bids aren't accepted and we do firmly tell them that Jimmy's not for sale - I think we can forget any idea of buying Onouha/ Richards/ Bellamy/ Ireland from Man City this summer lol Oh well.. All of them together are worth less than Milners armpit.

Hi General, Please consider my statement, given below, for the response to Man City.. "Thanks for your offer, As you know - every player has a price. James Milner's is £100m. Yours Sincerely, Aston Villa" Hope all is well with you Gen, (and apologies, on behalf of Villafans, for the rush of messages you will surely get in the next 24 hours!)

James Milner doesn't need money. He built the town that he lives in so he gets all his food, drinks and clothes for free.

I'm sure Milner, MON and Randy knew this was coming. Randy has said that Milner is wanted at Villa so I'm fully expecting the response to Man City to be "James Milner is not for sale". It'd be good if we could jump into the transfer market this week and sign a quality striker to ensure that Jimmy knows that we're ambitious.

I'm not sure about N'Zogbia's consistency. I've seen him play games when he makes really good runs or scores screamers. But then I've seen other games when I've not even realised he was on the pitch. (You could say that Downing has the same characteristics I suppose - but I rate Downing higher) Also - He's been banned for driving because he got someone else to take his theory test for him.. I wonder if that is something that would put MON off him

I'm not great of thinking of these little footall questions.. but a few similar examples to what you asked (baring in mind that we're not IN the champions league) - Fulham have loaned Greening from Baggies and they got to the Europa League Final. West Ham used to have Joe Cole/ Terry/ Lampard etc - I can't remember who left when they got relegated (or how many of them stayed in the team to bring them back up to the prem) Leeds had Aaron Lennon, Milner, Paul Robinson etc.. (again - I can't remember who was with them when they got relegated) If a player has potential, they could do a job at your club and their team is getting relegated - it's better to pounce on the player while they might want to move to keep their career in the Prem League (imo).