Rob182

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).

I agree that Keane and Bellamy are the most realistic options (also Carlton Cole - as he seems like a MON signing) and I'd prefer Bellamy but Keane would probably be with us for longer and isn't as injury prone

So.. you're either hoping that we sell one of our best players or that MON starts sh*tting money? Van Der Vaart/ Forlan/ Bent... I think it's a bit optimistic to this we could fork out £20m on a striker. It's not likely that we'll be able to do that as well as replacing the players that leave this summer. Also - Are you assuming that the people mentioning Fletcher/ O'Hara/ KP Boateng are saying that we buy them and them only? Because I'd like us to sign a decent striker & midfielder AS WELL as some of these cheaper players to fill up our squad.

James Milner made up the rumour that the moon is made of cheese

Youth is good in moderation - we have gabby and fonz up front so experience is essential. Also the youth has to be impressive and Cattermole aint better than what we already have sitting on the bench I'm not too bothered about Cattermole myself - I don't think he really shines in a Sunderland side so I wouldn't be too hopeful of him being great for us. But how about O'Hara? I'd much prefer to have O'Hara on the bench than Sidwell. Same as KP Boateng. He is a really fiery player and would be a decent impact sub for the last half an hour of a game (much better than the impact that Sidwell or NRC have on games IMO). Fletcher looks like he has potential and could be a replacement if Heskey was to leave. (If Heskey/ Carew don't leave then we probably wouldn't need him because Fonz will take Harewoods place in the first team. - but still.. it's just a suggestion).

V111A - you have something against signing youth? What's wrong with replacing ageing squad players (Bouma/ Shorey/ Sidwell/ Harewood etc) with younger, possibly cheaper, versions that are as good (if not better)? Sidwell for Boateng/ O'Hara Harewood for Fletcher Shorey/Bouma for Richards/ Onouha (all rough examples - obviously..)

I'd add O'Hara and Kevin Prince Boateng to that list. If we are going to lose a few squad players this summer, it's better that we replace them with better squad players.

I think Rooney will be our best player (*fingers crossed* he avoids injury) as he is, imo, the best player in our team - by far! Other than Rooney - I think that Ashley Cole will have a good WC.

I'd be happy wirh that tbh. Although I think that the Scott Parker price might be optimistic and also the fact that MON will let Heskey go (We can all see that he's not needed, but it seems that MON has some strange attachment to him). If the price was too much for Parker then maybe replace him for a cheaper, foreign option. Also - Parker will lose his value because of his age. (Maybe that chap linked at the top of this page? .. Although I know nothing about him :winkold: )

The same guy on bluemoon (who posted the above quote) also said something about a City player coming our way in part of the deal.. Someone mentioned Onouha.. Another mentioned Ireland.. and then they continued to discuss having Ribery & Milner in a formation... lol I swear it's like a game of monopoly for those idiots. You're not getting Milner.. He's not the type to run around in tight, baby blue tops! Maybe you should buy Julian Clary?

do people still consider Walcott a striker? when was the last time he played up front. Never at Arsenal in my recollection. Hes a winger now and we have better. I do. He has that clinical finish which we miss a lot of the time. The problem with him playing on the wing is that he's too prone to use his pace. He wears himself out and doesn't have the same effect for the last 30/40 minutes. Upfront he could conserve his energy and make shorter runs into dangerous positions (Although the fitness part could be temporary and due to his injuries)