The Milner Novela... Final episode page 296

[Karl Bridges]

Isn't he back next week? If we could get Ireland and Onouha and £10-12m I would be happy with the deal.

[JJ-AV]

If you'd have said to me 2 months ago that on our terms we could swap Milner for Ireland, I probably would have.

The only thing now is it makes us look like a selling club if we let him go. And it's not good for us to be losing our best players.

£10million to bring in a forward and Onuoha would get me over that though.

[magic monks]

James Milner has been fantastic for us, but if we can have Ireland + £10m that represents excellent value in my book.

We all know Villa needs something a bit different and Stephen Ireland is exactly that, that bit of flair and creativity which we so desperately needed last season, the potential to change a game. At 24 too (in a few weeks), great player, great deal.

[JUAN PABLO]

15m plus Ireland would be  better

[luke25]

Ideally we'd have Milner, Petrov and Ireland in a midfield 3

[eric woolban woolban]

Ideally we want the U.A.E to go bust.

[VillaAlways]

Carlos has said on his Facebook account.That he doesn't think he's leaving but doesn't know for sure :-/

[VillaAlways]

Or words to that effect in his pigeon English

[boboonthecorner]

If you'd have said to me 2 months ago that on our terms we could swap Milner for Ireland, I probably would have.

The only thing now is it makes us look like a selling club if we let him go. And it's not good for us to be losing our best players.

£10million to bring in a forward and Onuoha would get me over that though.

Yep that would make for another season of thrilling football at Villa Park. Why does everybody think signing Man Citys rejects is a good thing for our team? Onuha, just what we need another centre half playing as a full back. Irelands a decent enough player but we need a hell of a lot more than him to improve upon last season.

[JJ-AV]

He'd be the creative spark we've missed since Merson IMO.

I rate him very highly and he'd help us turn that awful home form around to something more watchable.

[Karl Bridges]

Why does everybody think signing Man Citys rejects is a good thing for our team?

I know what you mean Richard Dunne has been a disaster.

[Dave]

Or words to that effect in his pigeon English

Getting that exclusive is quite a coo for the site.

[KevinGage]

But part of their motivation is to scupper a rival.
As per Liverpool with Keane and the Barry interest, and Citeh themselves last year with Lescott and Barry.

It's not just taking players to improve their squad, they've got that much money that they can afford to bench a few of that lot should they so wish. Better on their bench or in the stands than performing well at clubs around them, they might reason.

I'm not syre that really falls into their thinking.  You could argue that losing Gabby would hurt us more, so why not target him?  And selling us Dunne wouldn't be the best idea if they're trying to weaken us.  We all agree that selling Milner for £20m + Ireland would improve us, so surely that works against the theory as well?
 

Or it could be that they just criminally undervalued and misjudged the value and worth of a player like Dunne (and hopefully Ireland) already on their books and overvalue talent at other clubs.

As for Gabby, I think most realize he has his limitations -even outside of B6. Whilst they might want to make strategic signings to weaken a rival, thats generally going to be a rival clubs better players.

Milner was seen as our go-to guy last year, and his profile is attractive to them. Young, mid-20's and starting to feature in the England first XI.

If Ash -or indeed Gabby himself- had had that kind of succesful campaign, and Milners year had been more like his previous one, it's very likely that we'd be seeing endless, mindnumbing speculation about their imminent switch to Eastlands instead.

[adrenachrome]

Or words to that effect in his pigeon English

Getting that exclusive is quite a coo for the site.

It's a feather in our nest.

[VillaZogmariner]

Or words to that effect in his pigeon English

Getting that exclusive is quite a coo for the site.

It's a feather in our nest.

We're homing in on the truth.