The Milner Novela... Final episode page 296

[pauliewalnuts]

Rubbish Chris, Risso is spot on here. Ireland is just the player we need and a player who is perfect to work with our current manager. Robbie Keane, Stephen Ireland and £10m in the bank is IMO an amazing deal for Villa. With £25m in the bank no club will let their player go unless they rinse us for a top top price.

Its' not rubbish, he is border line mental and his inconsistency is the reason he's for sale.
.

Chris.
You know fine well we're not going to sign him, otherwise you wouldn't be playing the 'mental' card.
Your tune would be somewhat different if MON raved about him.

Bollocks, Mark.

I think he's a good player, I wouldn't mind us signing him but he's a luxury player and not one you'd want to rely on away at Bolton in January. So for that reason if we sign him the price would have to be right, not as an excuse for them to knock £15m off the Milner money.

Hedging your bets a bit there, Chris?

One moment he's a "borderline mentalist" and for sale because of his inconsistency, then minutes later he's a good player and you wouldn't mind us signing him,

Just in case?

[BannedUserIAT]

If we could sign Ireland, Keane and say Parker with the money from Milner , we'll still have our summer budget and money from offloaded players to bolster the rest of the squad with.

With Delph coming back around Christmas, I think we'd have a better balanced squad which would give us more flexibilty tactically.

THIS.

Sadly, MoN strikes me as the sort of bloke who's wife might be flexible enough to put her ankles behind her head but he'd still insist on missionary position every night.

[eamonn]

Rubbish Chris, Risso is spot on here. Ireland is just the player we need and a player who is perfect to work with our current manager. Robbie Keane, Stephen Ireland and £10m in the bank is IMO an amazing deal for Villa. With £25m in the bank no club will let their player go unless they rinse us for a top top price.

Its' not rubbish, he is border line mental and his inconsistency is the reason he's for sale.
.

Chris.
You know fine well we're not going to sign him, otherwise you wouldn't be playing the 'mental' card.
Your tune would be somewhat different if MON raved about him.

Bollocks, Mark.

I think he's a good player, I wouldn't mind us signing him but he's a luxury player and not one you'd want to rely on away at Bolton in January. So for that reason if we sign him the price would have to be right, not as an excuse for them to knock £15m off the Milner money.

Hedging your bets a bit there, Chris?

One moment he's a "borderline mentalist" and for sale because of his inconsistency, then minutes later he's a good player and you wouldn't mind us signing him,

Just in case?

In fairness to Chris I think he said from the start that he'd rather Milner over Ireland but he he wouldn't mind having both.

[TimTheVillain]

If we could sign Ireland, Keane and say Parker with the money from Milner , we'll still have our summer budget and money from offloaded players to bolster the rest of the squad with.

With Delph coming back around Christmas, I think we'd have a better balanced squad which would give us more flexibilty tactically.

THIS.

Sadly, MoN strikes me as the sort of bloke who's wife might be flexible enough to put her ankles behind her head but he'd still insist on missionary position every night.

THis.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

In regards to Ireland, I think a lot of people are putting 2 and 2 together to make 5.
There is no evidence we want Ireland and I think MON will want the cash with no players in exchange.

Just as well, as I think Chris would short circuit.

He gave the Liverpool offer of players + cash for Barry short shrift, and I think it will be the same this time.

I believe the final figure will be £23m, but will officialy be 'undisclosed.'

[Mazrim]

In fairness, the players being offered by Liverpool were shite. Ireland is significantly better than that.
I would be amazed if MON wasnt interested in Ireland.

However, I wouldn't be suprised if any deal for Milner is straight cash and we negotiate a deal for Ireland seperately. It might sound daft but we might do better out of it that way.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

He gave the Liverpool offer of players + cash for Barry short shrift, and I think it will be the same this time.

It depends on what players are offered (if any), Liverpool were trying to offer there dross to us as part of any deal whereas Man City will have some useful players that will not see much game time next season.

[Chris Smith]

Rubbish Chris, Risso is spot on here. Ireland is just the player we need and a player who is perfect to work with our current manager. Robbie Keane, Stephen Ireland and £10m in the bank is IMO an amazing deal for Villa. With £25m in the bank no club will let their player go unless they rinse us for a top top price.

Its' not rubbish, he is border line mental and his inconsistency is the reason he's for sale.
.

Chris.
You know fine well we're not going to sign him, otherwise you wouldn't be playing the 'mental' card.
Your tune would be somewhat different if MON raved about him.

Bollocks, Mark.

I think he's a good player, I wouldn't mind us signing him but he's a luxury player and not one you'd want to rely on away at Bolton in January. So for that reason if we sign him the price would have to be right, not as an excuse for them to knock £15m off the Milner money.

Hedging your bets a bit there, Chris?

One moment he's a "borderline mentalist" and for sale because of his inconsistency, then minutes later he's a good player and you wouldn't mind us signing him,

Just in case?

So where is the contradiction in that? I've never said he lacks ability.  He's a player worth having at the right price but not one to build the side around as he has failed to demonstrate in his career to date that he has the consitency and maturity to take that responsibility and so should not be a pre-condition of the Milner sale as I think we'd get screwed on his value.

[PaulTheVillan]

He gave the Liverpool offer of players + cash for Barry short shrift, and I think it will be the same this time.

It depends on what players are offered (if any), Liverpool were trying to offer there dross to us as part of any deal whereas Man City will have some useful players that will not see much game time next season.

I imagine Liverpool offered us total shit like Insua and Deggen.

If they offered us Benayoun or Babel then maybe it would have been different.

Onuha and Ireland and £20m would be hard to turn down (cant see them offering that though). Young Right/Centre back and a midfielder who gets forward through the middle.

[Merv]

I think he's a good player, I wouldn't mind us signing him but he's a luxury player and not one you'd want to rely on away at Bolton in January.

Chris, with respect, have you got the right player here? Whenever I've seen Ireland play, he's put in a real shift, he's a box to box goalscoring type, he doesn't hide. He's not just a fair weather player, at all. I don't see why an away game in Bolton in the winter would affect Ireland, he's played in the PL his whole career and been used to those games every season....

[Concrete John]

I think Ireland can match Milner's output in terms of goals and assists, but I share Chris' concerns over the defensive side of his game.  The way I see it, is if you're playing him in a 4-4-2, you'll need a genuine holding player behind him, so a Petrov upgrade, which most of us thought we needed anyway.  I also wouldn't say no to partnering him with NRC, who I'd play in the role he did so well in during the 07/08 season.

Having said that, I'd still want him though!

[Chris Smith]

I think he's a good player, I wouldn't mind us signing him but he's a luxury player and not one you'd want to rely on away at Bolton in January.

Chris, with respect, have you got the right player here? Whenever I've seen Ireland play, he's put in a real shift, he's a box to box goalscoring type, he doesn't hide. He's not just a fair weather player, at all. I don't see why an away game in Bolton in the winter would affect Ireland, he's played in the PL his whole career and been used to those games every season....

Yes, I have got the right player thanks, Merv, but accept that it is just my view and others might see it differently.

I just don't see him as box to box, half way line to box more like. He's got an eye for a pass and scores goals but it comes at a cost as it leaves you more exposed. As others have said as part of 3 in the middle he'd be useful but if we're also, as rumoured, buying Robbie Keane how do you play both?

[Risso]

I think he's a good player, I wouldn't mind us signing him but he's a luxury player and not one you'd want to rely on away at Bolton in January.

Chris, with respect, have you got the right player here? Whenever I've seen Ireland play, he's put in a real shift, he's a box to box goalscoring type, he doesn't hide. He's not just a fair weather player, at all. I don't see why an away game in Bolton in the winter would affect Ireland, he's played in the PL his whole career and been used to those games every season....

Have a look at the stats for the two seasons before last year, they back your view up completely (a view I share by the way).  The season he was City's Player of the Year, he was almost the complete midfielder, with a high number of tackles, passes, goals and assists.

[VillaZogmariner]

Well Mr Ireland is over in Australia with Man City at the moment, he scored for them yesterday.

Which is very impressive, considering they are playing in the USA at the moment! ;)

[Merv]

I guess you'd have to pick your games to field both, we wouldn't have to select a formation at the start of the season and then stick with it (although....). I do think three midfielders suits us better, or suits our resources better, but I still think Stephen Ireland has the engine and the all-round game to function in a 4-4-2 in certain games, which would allow us to play both him and Keane. What we can't really do is have Ireland at CM and have two genuine wingers either side, we'd struggle then.

Ireland's a bit more adaptable than a luxury player (although I think it wouldn't hurt us to have the odd luxury player to give us something different) and I think he has a team ethic which would fit in well at Villa. He's not the strutting primadonna superstar type which would upset the dressing room, I don't think.