SPECULATION : Milner to City/Utd/Chelsea/Spurs

[Rob182]

I'll be a bit disappointed in Milner if this goes through. He'll be going to a squad that could be title challengers and could get into the CL. But on the other hand he might be limiting his first team opportunities, they might not get 4th again or, worst for Milner, he might not perform as they want him to and he'll be one of the many City outcasts who get replaced within a season.

However! £28m is a lot of money and if we get it right we could really work this to our advantage.

£28m from Milner & around £20m from the rest of the fringe players or input from RL.

(Rough estimates - Shorey £2m, Beye £1m, Davies £6m, L Young £3m, NRC £5m, Sidwell £3m)

We could buy:

Ireland £12m

Van Der Wiel £15m

Rodallega £14m (or an alternative striker for £12m-£15m)

And still have a few million left to boost the squad (or maybe buy a defensive midfielder to gradually replace Petrov)

[Maradona10]

Citeh messageboard is saying milner deal to be announced today! little gutted but no-one is bigger than the club! Move on and move forward! Trust is with MON to get the right players in and keep us going and challenging!

Up the Villa!

ps would love to see villa fans stop the booing and really get behind the team/club this year! (not trying to start a booing debate)

I'd take that with a pinch of salt, our forum is full of WUMs.

It's a bit of a shame over the reaction to Milner here. Thread starts with "he'll never go, is a top lad is our Jimmy, honest as the day is long" and ends with "shown he's a money grabbing word removed".

Perhaps he moved to City because he believes that with the quality of the squad that we are building (plus the multi million pound training ground we've just completely refurbished), and the future plans we have, we've a better shot of success in the long term than Villa.

A fan over on RAWK said something quite apt. "City haven't been a big club for thirty years, but football changes everyday. City's 'project' is far more interesting than ours and I wouldn't be surprised if the Silva signing turned his head" (talking about a possible bid from City for Torres).

My point, is that there are legitimate footballing reasons why Milner could come to City rather than stay at Villa. I'm not saying that that is why he might join, as I don't know the man and wouldn't like to second guess him, but it is just as likely as for the money.

Your a patronising fool, i work with a few Man City fans and they do not have the same attitude as you! You come on here try and act all friendly and then sort of make out Man City are huge, you talk about this so-called project, the project is based on £££££££££ and nothing else, so stop trying to fool us with all this ploy to win us over with your chairman's words, its disgusting the way football is going.

[barry'sboots]

As Spok would say - scarifice one for the greater good - or words to that effect.

£28m + the money from clear out, say £15m + £20m from sponsorship = a decent war chest to bring in quality and balance.

6 or 7 £10m players could make us a strong side?

I think Citeh, with all of their firepower, will be up there with Chelski now with Man U trailling in third spot and us competing with Arsenal, Plop, Spuds and Everton for that fourth spot.

[bannedfromHandV]

Skybet are still offering 2/5 on Milner to join Citeh.

If what MysteryMan says is true (which we all know it is), then it could be a nice way of making yourself feel just a tad bit better about it......£100 returns £140.........just a thought......

[Woodytom]

I'll be a bit disappointed in Milner if this goes through. He'll be going to a squad that could be title challengers and could get into the CL. But on the other hand he might be limiting his first team opportunities, they might not get 4th again or, worst for Milner, he might not perform as they want him to and he'll be one of the many City outcasts who get replaced within a season.

However! £28m is a lot of money and if we get it right we could really work this to our advantage.

£28m from Milner & around £20m from the rest of the fringe players or input from RL.

(Rough estimates - Shorey £2m, Beye £1m, Davies £6m, L Young £3m, NRC £5m, Sidwell £3m)

We could buy:

Ireland £12m

Van Der Wiel £15m

Rodallega £14m (or an alternative striker for £12m-£15m)

And still have a few million left to boost the squad (or maybe buy a defensive midfielder to gradually replace Petrov)

£40million on them three players???

[sir_gary_cahill]

As Spok would say - scarifice one for the greater good - or words to that effect.

£28m + the money from clear out, say £15m + £20m from sponsorship = a decent war chest to bring in quality and balance.

6 or 7 £10m players could make us a strong side?

I think Citeh, with all of their firepower, will be up there with Chelski now with Man U trailling in third spot and us competing with Arsenal, Plop, Spuds and Everton for that fourth spot.

6 or 7 £10m players??

what planet are you on?

[Rob182]

Laughable people think we will be able to replace him with someone who will have the same impact.

This. Can't really see how our midfield is going to be better next season than it was last season TBH. Both petrov and Milner will have to be replaced (IMO) and are we really going to find two players to play in the centre of midfield that would make us better? I can't imagine Downing would be good in the centre given his tackling allergy.

Do you not remember last season when Milner was constantly running to every inch of the pitch? Yes he's a workhorse but also he leaves the centre of midfield completely unprotected.

I'll be gutted to lose him, but if we replace him with a disciplined centre-midfielder then we'll probably have more shape in our team and not lose the ball in the centre of the pitch so much.

[Richard]

As Spok would say - scarifice one for the greater good - or words to that effect.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few

[Shillzz]

I accept its unlikely, but i can see where BarrysBoots is coming from.

£28m Milner

£5m NRC

£4m Sidwell

£3m Shorey

£3m Young

£5m Davies

£1m Beye

£2m Heskey

+ Say 10 - 15m invested, that takes you way beyond £60m.

I accept that football doesnt work in this simplistic manner and that money will come through in dribs and drabs for these players, if they are sold at all. But we could probably see an outlay of about £45m with a net spend of £0.

[Richard]

Which is why we need a mega rich owner, or preferably, a Randy Lerner in charge backed by disgustingly huge sums of money.

welcome to the darkside. You'll enjoy it here

[stewavfc]

I'll be a bit disappointed in Milner if this goes through. He'll be going to a squad that could be title challengers and could get into the CL. But on the other hand he might be limiting his first team opportunities, they might not get 4th again or, worst for Milner, he might not perform as they want him to and he'll be one of the many City outcasts who get replaced within a season.

However! £28m is a lot of money and if we get it right we could really work this to our advantage.

£28m from Milner & around £20m from the rest of the fringe players or input from RL.

(Rough estimates - Shorey £2m, Beye £1m, Davies £6m, L Young £3m, NRC £5m, Sidwell £3m)

We could buy:

Ireland £12m

Van Der Wiel £15m

Rodallega £14m (or an alternative striker for £12m-£15m)

And still have a few million left to boost the squad (or maybe buy a defensive midfielder to gradually replace Petrov)

£40million on them three players???

That's what I thought a lot of money that doesn't really replace Milner. I know player swaps are fairly rare, but if I was doing the deal and the players would come, I'd look to swap Milner for Ireland, De Jong and Richards. Then look to add someone like Rodallega as a second striker

-----------------------FRIEDEL------------------

RICHARDS---CUELLAR---DUNNE---WARNOCK

-----------------DE JONG--PETROV-------------

----RODALLEGA----IRELAND----A.YOUNG----

-----------------------GABBY--------------------

Subs: Guzan, Collins, Delph, Downing, Albrighton, Carew, Delfouneso

[Rob182]

I'll be a bit disappointed in Milner if this goes through. He'll be going to a squad that could be title challengers and could get into the CL. But on the other hand he might be limiting his first team opportunities, they might not get 4th again or, worst for Milner, he might not perform as they want him to and he'll be one of the many City outcasts who get replaced within a season.

However! £28m is a lot of money and if we get it right we could really work this to our advantage.

£28m from Milner & around £20m from the rest of the fringe players or input from RL.

(Rough estimates - Shorey £2m, Beye £1m, Davies £6m, L Young £3m, NRC £5m, Sidwell £3m)

We could buy:

Ireland £12m

Van Der Wiel £15m

Rodallega £14m (or an alternative striker for £12m-£15m)

And still have a few million left to boost the squad (or maybe buy a defensive midfielder to gradually replace Petrov)

£40million on them three players???

And?

Either you're questioning the values of the players?

(which in Today's market looks realistic to me)

Or questioning the players I've mentioned?

(I think Ireland has a touch of class, I haven't seen much of Van Der Wiel but he's looked good when I have seen him and I mentioned Rodallega but put "Or an alternative striker" as I know there are people who don't rate him)

Or questioning the fact that we'd spend £40m on 3 players?

(Let's face it - we're not gonna get far by buying more NRC's or Davies's for £8m-£10m. Also MON mainly uses the players he thinks are the best. So I think that spending the full amount on as few players as possible is the best option. (Providing that we fill the gaps required - striker, RB, midfield))

So which one is it?

[chappy]

hope we buy a quality CM, and keep NRC with him and petrov and delph fighting for the second CM spot.

i am very confident that when delph comes back from this injury he is going to be a brilliant player, we saw glimpses last season (i'm thinking in particular the fa cup 3rd round game against blackburn before he was subbed).

[Rob182]

stewavfc, I think it's very optimistic to think we could get De Jong, Ireland and Richards for Milner.

Even if it wasn't a swap deal and we used the money from Milner and from the fringe players - they'd probably want around £12m for Ireland, £15m for De Jong and £10m for Richards.

[Shillzz]

I never thought i'd say this but i kind of feel sorry for spurs and old brown bag arry.

They achieved 4th place through the right means of cultivating a winning side with modest investment. (Not a million miles apart from our own). They beat City to 4th place last year through some pretty damn good football, and now theyve got to somehow do it all against against a team of assembled world all stars. This basically means that if they want to finish top 4 again next season they are going to need to finish higher than Liverpool and Arsenal, a fete which i dont think any side other than United or Chelsea have achieved this century.

[Woodytom]

I'll be a bit disappointed in Milner if this goes through. He'll be going to a squad that could be title challengers and could get into the CL. But on the other hand he might be limiting his first team opportunities, they might not get 4th again or, worst for Milner, he might not perform as they want him to and he'll be one of the many City outcasts who get replaced within a season.

However! £28m is a lot of money and if we get it right we could really work this to our advantage.

£28m from Milner & around £20m from the rest of the fringe players or input from RL.

(Rough estimates - Shorey £2m, Beye £1m, Davies £6m, L Young £3m, NRC £5m, Sidwell £3m)

We could buy:

Ireland £12m

Van Der Wiel £15m

Rodallega £14m (or an alternative striker for £12m-£15m)

And still have a few million left to boost the squad (or maybe buy a defensive midfielder to gradually replace Petrov)

£40million on them three players???

And?

Either you're questioning the values of the players?

(which in Today's market looks realistic to me)

Or questioning the players I've mentioned?

(I think Ireland has a touch of class, I haven't seen much of Van Der Wiel but he's looked good when I have seen him and I mentioned Rodallega but put "Or an alternative striker" as I know there are people who don't rate him)

Or questioning the fact that we'd spend £40m on 3 players?

(Let's face it - we're not gonna get far by buying more NRC's or Davies's for £8m-£10m. Also MON mainly uses the players he thinks are the best. So I think that spending the full amount on as few players as possible is the best option. (Providing that we fill the gaps required - striker, RB, midfield))

So which one is it?

All 3 to be fair mate. Think Id cry if we spent 40million on those 3

[Wainy316]

Why don't we just totally hold them to ransom? If they want him, they will pay for him. **** them, they should deal with the downside of having endless cash.

I really hope we get a player or two from them. Thye want our best player, then we should benefit greatly from it.

[Maradona10]

Wainy it is not that simple, players have far too much power and in the end they usually get their own way.

[barry'sboots]

As Spok would say - scarifice one for the greater good - or words to that effect.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few

Thanks Richard.

[Wainy316]

Wainy it is not that simple, players have far too much power and in the end they usually get their own way.

Like Barry did when he wanted to go to Liverpool?

It's Man City, there is nothing they can't afford. Rape them.

They will pay.