The Milner Novela... Final episode page 296

[Chris Smith]

think if he goes, we can guess there's'no exciting signings joining. i'm sure he'll ask what mon's plans are before making a decision.  my guess is he'll hear the transfer target list and run a mile

Whilst I frequently agree with you, I think you've upped your level of gloominess to insupportable levels recently, Greg (your posts have been a bit like being stuck in a lift with Ronnie Irani whilst Muse are blasted in at top volume of late. No offence).

However, on this one, you've touched on a decent point. Last year we were told Barry was sitting down with MON to hear his plans. He left. This year we've heard Milner is doing the same. If he leaves, is it about the plans not ringing true?

Or is it all purely about money? And if it is about money, it is surprising to hear it from a player many have touted on here (me too, probably) as being "not the type to be all about the money".

Maybe the players aren't all that convinced by the club's vision? Just a thought.

I think we have to take Man City as a special case. If he was to leave us for Everton then I think we'd have cause for concern but the money they can offer him and the type of player they can sign for him to play alongside are out of our league and most players would be tempted by that prospect. It's just a sad economic fact of modern football.

[dublinfran]

It's getting to the stage where I'd be very dissapointed if we kept him.

Keep him and we plod along in 6th-8th.

Sell him and we can completely revamp the whole team and come back a new force. Atleast we'd have a bit of excitement. It's a policy that's worked for some of the top clubs in the big leagues all around Europe and has worked for Spurs the last few years.

£28million, bite their hands off. Replace for a third of the price, and add the right back and new centre forward we're craving.

Why would we plod along 6th-8th if we keep him?
We can buy players without selling him and add to him. Its not like he's stinking our team out. All we need to do is keep him and add a couple of quality players which is quite possible.

Of course, if he does go we can take the opportunity to change things around and freshen it up, I know what you mean. But keeping Milner is still a very good idea by my reckoning. Especially if Man City take the piss and dont meet our valuation.

id love to know if there are funds for players,or is it a sell to buy policy this year,i get the feeling its the latter.selling Milner for 28m or say getting Ireland and 20m would let us change the side for the better imo.

[Moorski]

Milner's transfer is likely to be a straight cash deal shortly.

Any signings from Man City would happen at a later date, probably August.

[Mazrim]

It's getting to the stage where I'd be very dissapointed if we kept him.

Keep him and we plod along in 6th-8th.

Sell him and we can completely revamp the whole team and come back a new force. Atleast we'd have a bit of excitement. It's a policy that's worked for some of the top clubs in the big leagues all around Europe and has worked for Spurs the last few years.

£28million, bite their hands off. Replace for a third of the price, and add the right back and new centre forward we're craving.

Why would we plod along 6th-8th if we keep him?
We can buy players without selling him and add to him. Its not like he's stinking our team out. All we need to do is keep him and add a couple of quality players which is quite possible.

Of course, if he does go we can take the opportunity to change things around and freshen it up, I know what you mean. But keeping Milner is still a very good idea by my reckoning. Especially if Man City take the piss and dont meet our valuation.

id love to know if there are funds for players,or is it a sell to buy policy this year,i get the feeling its the latter.selling Milner for 28m or say getting Ireland and 20m would let us change the side for the better imo.

There is money to spend on the team. Randy has said so. We do not need to sell players in order to buy players although we will be looking to sell some players who arent needed which is just common sense.

[dublinfran]

Milner's transfer is likely to be a straight cash deal shortly.

Any signings from Man City would happen at a later date, probably August.

some things never change with our manager so,why sign players so late.he's like someone hanging around the bargains in a shop..

[Greg N'Ash]

Milner's transfer is likely to be a straight cash deal shortly.

Any signings from Man City would happen at a later date, probably August.

we'll see if milner asks for a transfer first. would be rather stupid to sell him before that, not to mention displaying questionable ambition.

[dublinfran]

It's getting to the stage where I'd be very dissapointed if we kept him.

Keep him and we plod along in 6th-8th.

Sell him and we can completely revamp the whole team and come back a new force. Atleast we'd have a bit of excitement. It's a policy that's worked for some of the top clubs in the big leagues all around Europe and has worked for Spurs the last few years.

£28million, bite their hands off. Replace for a third of the price, and add the right back and new centre forward we're craving.

Why would we plod along 6th-8th if we keep him?
We can buy players without selling him and add to him. Its not like he's stinking our team out. All we need to do is keep him and add a couple of quality players which is quite possible.

Of course, if he does go we can take the opportunity to change things around and freshen it up, I know what you mean. But keeping Milner is still a very good idea by my reckoning. Especially if Man City take the piss and dont meet our valuation.

id love to know if there are funds for players,or is it a sell to buy policy this year,i get the feeling its the latter.selling Milner for 28m or say getting Ireland and 20m would let us change the side for the better imo.

There is money to spend on the team. Randy has said so. We do not need to sell players in order to buy players although we will be looking to sell some players who arent needed which is just common sense.

but do we have enough to say buy three £10m players,because thats what we'll be able to do by selling Milner,the only thing is though id rather us have our own transfers in before we sell.if other teams get wind of what we have sold milner for our targets will be way over priced..

[pauliewalnuts]

There is money to spend on the team. Randy has said so. We do not need to sell players in order to buy players although we will be looking to sell some players who arent needed which is just common sense.

When asked about sell to buy, he said something along the lines of every team is in a sell to buy position to some extent, as they're all about managing their incomings / outgoings on squads.

He then went on to say (in his usual, likeable but slightly round-the-houses and not particularly clear way) that if we had a sell to buy policy but the manager found a vital player, that we'd break the policy.

I don't understand how the press then managed to spin this as "Villa haven't got a pot to piss in unless they sell someone", and why so many people on here are so happy to buy into it.

Like you said, it is blatantly obvious that we have quite a few non-performing, unused players on decent wages we need to get shot of.

If there's an argument for keeping people like Beye and his 40k a week on, it would have to be a pretty convincing one.

[dublinfran]

There is money to spend on the team. Randy has said so. We do not need to sell players in order to buy players although we will be looking to sell some players who arent needed which is just common sense.

When asked about sell to buy, he said something along the lines of every team is in a sell to buy position to some extent, as they're all about managing their incomings / outgoings on squads.

He then went on to say (in his usual, likeable but slightly round-the-houses and not particularly clear way) that if we had a sell to buy policy but the manager found a vital player, that we'd break the policy.

I don't understand how the press then managed to spin this as "Villa haven't got a pot to piss in unless they sell someone", and why so many people on here are so happy to buy into it.

Like you said, it is blatantly obvious that we have quite a few non-performing, unused players on decent wages we need to get shot of.

If there's an argument for keeping people like Beye and his 40k a week on, it would have to be a pretty convincing one.

im all for getting rid of players like Beye,Heskey.im just saying do we have 30 or 40 million to spend on the top class players that we need o push us on.maybe like you say by selling the likes of Beye Heskey Davies and Reo we'd have a good lump plus whatever we have in the transfer budget.

[pauliewalnuts]

Rough guesses:

Beye 1m
Davies 6m
Heskey 2m
Reo 5m
Sidwell 3m

It isn't 30 million, no, but like you said it is a decent chunk - half of 30 million.

If we're going to have that much tied up in, say, NRC and Davies for them to be bit part players, we may as well move them on, promote from the reserves and use that cash towards improving the "business end" of the squad.

Not to mention the wages saved, too.

[eastie]

A lot depends how seriously we take Europe- if mon isn't going to go for it then we won't need a huge squad but if he Is then we need to strengthen significantly.

Either way we need 3 first teamers at least in midfield striker and right back , and if milner goes we would need 2 midfield signings.

[Concrete John]

think if he goes, we can guess there's'no exciting signings joining. i'm sure he'll ask what mon's plans are before making a decision.  my guess is he'll hear the transfer target list and run a mile

Whilst I frequently agree with you, I think you've upped your level of gloominess to insupportable levels recently, Greg (your posts have been a bit like being stuck in a lift with Ronnie Irani whilst Muse are blasted in at top volume of late. No offence).

However, on this one, you've touched on a decent point. Last year we were told Barry was sitting down with MON to hear his plans. He left. This year we've heard Milner is doing the same. If he leaves, is it about the plans not ringing true?

Or is it all purely about money? And if it is about money, it is surprising to hear it from a player many have touted on here (me too, probably) as being "not the type to be all about the money".

Maybe the players aren't all that convinced by the club's vision? Just a thought.

I think we have to take Man City as a special case. If he was to leave us for Everton then I think we'd have cause for concern but the money they can offer him and the type of player they can sign for him to play alongside are out of our league and most players would be tempted by that prospect. It's just a sad economic fact of modern football.

Thing is, if Barry heard the plans and wanted to go anyway, does that make him an idiot (that amongst other things) as we actually had a good summer and even Martin's critics generally agree he signed some good players in 2009?

[Concrete John]

Rough guesses:

Beye 1m
Davies 6m
Heskey 2m
Reo 5m
Sidwell 3m

It isn't 30 million, no, but like you said it is a decent chunk - half of 30 million.

If we're going to have that much tied up in, say, NRC and Davies for them to be bit part players, we may as well move them on, promote from the reserves and use that cash towards improving the "business end" of the squad.

Not to mention the wages saved, too.

Don't forget Young and Shorey.  That should push it past the £20m mark, although with 1 year left in his contract we'd be doing well to get £5m for NRC.

[john e]

if a lot of the unused players are on massive wages, then no ones going to buy them,
 if Beye is 40k a week he could well be seeing out his contract as i cant imagine anyone paying him that sort of cash, unless he takes a drop.

i can see us going into the new season with many of our outcasts as they are on to much money and the clubs that will be interested ie lower prem and championship teams just havent got the money

[peter w]

think if he goes, we can guess there's'no exciting signings joining. i'm sure he'll ask what mon's plans are before making a decision.  my guess is he'll hear the transfer target list and run a mile

Whilst I frequently agree with you, I think you've upped your level of gloominess to insupportable levels recently, Greg (your posts have been a bit like being stuck in a lift with Ronnie Irani whilst Muse are blasted in at top volume of late. No offence).

However, on this one, you've touched on a decent point. Last year we were told Barry was sitting down with MON to hear his plans. He left. This year we've heard Milner is doing the same. If he leaves, is it about the plans not ringing true?

Or is it all purely about money? And if it is about money, it is surprising to hear it from a player many have touted on here (me too, probably) as being "not the type to be all about the money".

Maybe the players aren't all that convinced by the club's vision? Just a thought.

The point surely though, is what are the clubs plans in relation to Man City's. We clearly can't compete their transfer targets and realistic ambitions. The fact that we are sitting down with players shows that we think we can compete and have a plan, but in reality if you are a footballer who are more exciting and appealing at the moment, Villa or Man City?