SPECULATION : Milner to City/Utd/Chelsea/Spurs

[Richard]

As I have said previously, players have a huge influence over whether they stay or not, especially when a club has not encouraged a transfer. More than happy to accept that Milner may not want to leave the club and so has not asked to leave.

However, should Villa accept a Citeh bid I think he'll be off.

[Richard]

i dont think we will sell for ANY PRICE

Really?

Say 30M, 40M ?

30M and Bellamy and Ireland and Richards ?

[BOF]

The sad thing is this is where we are as a club now. Get a player turn him into a potential world beater and selling him on for more money. A feeder club

Like Man Utd selling Ronaldo to Real. Or Arsenal selling Fabregas to Barcelona. We're in pretty good company I think. Face it, when a club has Citeh's money or has the lure of CL then until you get there you are at their mercy. "Feeder" club and "selling" club both mean something different and they do not apply to us.

[Maradona10]

The sad thing is this is where we are as a club now. Get a player turn him into a potential world beater and selling him on for more money. A feeder club

If that's true, presumably you can provide some examples of where it's happened over the past 4 seasons?

Funny, but I can't actually think of any.

So maybe it's not the real position that you present it as, just your worry that this might be the position?

Just a question isn't that what Spurs have done and done it well, i'd even say Everton have to an extent. If we lose Milner and its a BIG IF, I think we'd recover and use the money well! Even that article is slightly misconstrued, he mentions our elder players but doesn't mention Young, Downing, Gabby, Delph, Delfonz and Albrighton. A core of players still at the club.

[Richard]

The sad thing is this is where we are as a club now. Get a player turn him into a potential world beater and selling him on for more money. A feeder club

If that's true, presumably you can provide some examples of where it's happened over the past 4 seasons?

Funny, but I can't actually think of any.

So maybe it's not the real position that you present it as, just your worry that this might be the position?

No, because I have clearly said this is where we are as a club now, not four years ago to now.

[Jez]

he also signed Harewood, Shorey, Sidwell, Beye. Doesn't trust any of them to play regularly or to rotate.

They are and were signed to be bodies. They were never meant to be first team or to be rotated - they are there as back-up in case someone from the first team gets injured. It's clear as **** daylight. Everyone first team player MON has signed, has been good.

Clear as daylight to the players when they signed, or were they told they could fight for their place?

Fight for your place, but not really i'll play the best 11.

How does that work for new signings? Agents are not stupid, is their client a first team player or not, if not why would i go to Villa i'll be on the bench!

So as i said before unless MON changes, which he needs to do anyway whatever money we get for Milner will be shit compared to any replacement in the long term.

[claretandblue77]

As I have said previously, players have a huge influence over whether they stay or not, especially when a club has not encouraged a transfer. More than happy to accept that Milner may not want to leave the club and so has not asked to leave.

However, should Villa accept a Citeh bid I think he'll be off.

i sort of agree but i thing with the manager and owner we now have they would only consider selling if the player wanted to go, as shown with the GB saga, i just dont think Jimmy wants to leave which will mean we will not sell at ANY PRICE.

people seem to think that if they offer us a ridiculus offer we will take it, i dont, as the general has stated randy wants the best for the villa, and he doesnt seem to be the sort of owner that would be swayed by a big money offer.

[claretandblue77]

Also if anyone can get to wentworth for the golf ,then they can ask MoN direct as he's there today.

[Grant(aka_eddy)]

The sad thing is this is where we are as a club now. Get a player turn him into a potential world beater and selling him on for more money. A feeder club

Behave Richard, 5 years ago we'd have all sucked on Ellis' plums to be a club that buys players for £12 million, turns them into regular internationals and firmly rejects bids of £20 million.

Profitable player trading from a position of strength is where we're at. Good place to be as well.

Everyone bar Man City and maybe Chelsea is trying to get there, with only a few clubs in a better position than we are. Man U, Spurs, Arsenal...i think that's it?

Every player has their price including Kaka, Ronaldo, Fabregas & Henry; and to a lesser extent Berbatov, Carrick, Barry, Tevez & Lescott.

Would love it if we hang onto him but every player from any club can go when other clubs can afford to pay ridiculous sums. Important thing is we now have players who want to stay and we can afford to hold out for top price which will allow us to capitalise on this, whereas before we were being taken advantage of. That's growth.

[briny_ear]

he also signed Harewood, Shorey, Sidwell, Beye. Doesn't trust any of them to play regularly or to rotate.

They are and were signed to be bodies. They were never meant to be first team or to be rotated - they are there as back-up in case someone from the first team gets injured. It's clear as **** daylight. Everyone first team player MON has signed, has been good.

Clear as daylight to the players when they signed, or were they told they could fight for their place?

Fight for your place, but not really i'll play the best 11.

How does that work for new signings? Agents are not stupid, is their client a first team player or not, if not why would i go to Villa i'll be on the bench!

So as i said before unless MON changes, which he needs to do anyway whatever money we get for Milner will be shit compared to any replacement in the long term.

I'm still a bit puzzled.

Did he not actually buy Milner, then, and if he did, what has changed so we don't now believe he can make similar purchases?

[Grant(aka_eddy)]

he also signed Harewood, Shorey, Sidwell, Beye. Doesn't trust any of them to play regularly or to rotate.

They are and were signed to be bodies. They were never meant to be first team or to be rotated - they are there as back-up in case someone from the first team gets injured. It's clear as **** daylight. Everyone first team player MON has signed, has been good.

Clear as daylight to the players when they signed, or were they told they could fight for their place?

Fight for your place, but not really i'll play the best 11.

How does that work for new signings? Agents are not stupid, is their client a first team player or not, if not why would i go to Villa i'll be on the bench!

So as i said before unless MON changes, which he needs to do anyway whatever money we get for Milner will be shit compared to any replacement in the long term.

All of those quoted had at some point been highly rated (admittedly a stretch for Marlons one good season ) and were available reasonably cheap. So signed as squad players who could potentially recapture their best form. Not much lost if they dont, but worth the gamble as cover and to put pressure on others to improve, which they have.

[MR.Smalljob]

Okay, sell him and then go to south america and buy a midfielder who is much better than Milner for £10m, and while you're there MON, take a striker with you too for about £10m

it's the way I always build my success villa team in FM and win everything :-)

[Richard]

Face it, when a club has Citeh's money or has the lure of CL then until you get there you are at their mercy

Agreed. So how can we get there and so give ourselves an advantage of warding off potential suitors when we sell our better players?

[Mr_Dogg]

The sad thing is this is where we are as a club now. Get a player turn him into a potential world beater and selling him on for more money. A feeder club

That has never happened in recent times.

[Kiwivillan]

i dont think we will sell for ANY PRICE

Really?

Say 30M, 40M ?

30M and Bellamy and Ireland and Richards ?

I took a dump today that could defend better than Richards.

[GaztonVilla]

Face it, when a club has Citeh's money or has the lure of CL then until you get there you are at their mercy

Agreed. So how can we get there and so give ourselves an advantage of warding off potential suitors when we sell our better players?

I would say by doing what we did when we lost Barry.. Improve the team as a unit.

Barry was seen by many/most as our most important/influential player. Moving Milner into the middle, signing Downing and improving our defence has made us (in my opinion) a better team as a unit.

I would imagine that something similar would happen if we lost Milner.

[Richard]

as the general has stated randy wants the best for the villa

What if Randy thinks what is best is taking 30 or 40M, clearing some debts and funding our summer transfer spending?

[GaztonVilla]

as the general has stated randy wants the best for the villa

What if Randy thinks what is best is taking 30 or 40M, clearing some debts and funding our summer transfer spending?

Then if thats what Randy thinks and MON agrees, I'm all for it.

[millbrook85]

Why do you think the manager who had the insight to bring Milner to Villa, put him in central midfield and help him develop into such a strong player can't be trusted now?

Because for all the Milners and Youngs, he also signed Harewood, Shorey, Sidwell, Beye. Doesn't trust any of them to play regularly or to rotate.

Because MON has shown no signs of looking to europe to perhaps find a cheaper Arteta type signing rather than going for the more expensive UK based players.

So 25-30 mill means nothing when your not going to get your moneys worth.

If MON is planning on changing the habit of the lifetime, then its worth selling Milner, if he isn't no point.

You know that Arteta had just come off a 50 game stint playing for Rangers when Everton got him on loan from Real Sociedad, right? Following the logic of the many who decline to view Cuellar as a foreign signing, shouldn't you say that Arteta wasn't a foreign signing but a British-based player?

Back on topic, though - I hope we don't sell Milner, but if we do we should be looking for around 30 million pounds. I think it's unfair not to trust MON to replace Milner considering it was MON who brought him in in the first place.

[TJVilla]

If they start talking 30M then I think you may see a different response form the club as 30M would cover our total summer outlay I think

Problem is every player we went for would suddenly be a few million more expensive.

This.