The Milner Novela... Final episode page 296

[boboonthecorner]

as good as Milner was, he's not the sort of player you build a team around,
he ended up our best player because MON's team was functional and not very exciting, the only 'get you out of your seat' player was Ashley Young, and he had a calmer season last term.

Milner should be the Des Bremmner in the side , the worker, in the City side he will be the 'water carrier', every team needs one, and they are important, but they are replaceable.

but you dont build the side around the water carrier, you build it around a Cowans or a Mortimer a Platt etc

thats what we need, hopefully Ireland will step up, but we are in desperate need of a bit of ceative quality,
i'm hopefull that can be addressed now

Perfectly summed up.

[cb]

O'Neill is only a relatively small paddy.

Well you should know!!!   

[placeforparks]

I agree - Randy has gone back on his word.

...

Lerner added that midfielder James Milner will be not be leaving the club.

and since that date, milner has said he wants to go to man city and was not prepared to sign an improved deal with our club.

put the knives away, this is the best deal for aston villa football club.

[stevenjos]

No Knives drawn, just confused why he ever said anything along those lines really.

[Toronto Villa]

No Knives drawn, just confused why he ever said anything along those lines really.

Because life in general is dynamic and always changing. Randy meant it at the time, but a number of things led to him changing that position. Would it have been better if he had stuck to his guns, kept the player who is ultimately disgruntled, and turned down a deal no other club would ever have offered simply out of principle? Even principle has limits. This is a fabulous deal for the club. We're losing one very good player, but getting another with a lot of money thrown in.

[TimTheVillain]

It is widely thought that we have come away with the better deal here.

Stephen Ireland is a VERY VERY good player - capable of scoring more goals than Milner and to linking attack with defence extremely well.

We have handled these dealings very professionaly from what I can make out.

Is that important anymore though ??

[Villa'Zawg]

I understand perfectly well why we chose to do the deal but it's not true to say we couldn't have simply refused Man City's request to buy a player who was less than half way through his contract. In fact it is almost de rigueur for big deals to be drawn out over a season or more these days.

[Mazrim]

O'Neill is only a relatively small paddy.

Well you should know!!!   

Not really. 

[PaulTheVillan]

Randy hasn't 'gone back on his word'.

He's simply got the best deal for the club.

Can't wait to see Ireland in a Villa shirt.

[Toronto Villa]

I understand perfectly well why we chose to do the deal but it's not true to say we couldn't have simply refused Man City's request to buy a player who was less than half way through his contract. In fact it is almost de rigueur for big deals to be drawn out over a season or more these days.

How much more drawn out did you want it to be, and at what point does all of the speculation just end up being a distraction to the club and player? Yes, we could have refused the deal, but I don't see how that could have made any sense. You're playing with fire to an extent, because I don't think any other club would have been able to offer this package. If Man City pulled the deal, then you're left with a player who is pissed off. That would be cutting off your nose to spite your face. No club, not even Man U can stand in the way of players wanting to leave. You just have to get the very best deal if they are under contract which they did for Ronaldo, and we did for Milner.

[damon loves JT]

Ronaldo is a good analogy.

[TimTheVillain]

Randy hasn't 'gone back on his word'.

He's simply got the best deal for the club.

Can't wait to see Ireland in a Villa shirt.

...........and scores against the barcodes !

[Mister E]

We have handled these dealings very professionaly from what I can make out.

Is that important anymore though ??

Yes, I think it is. Look at the way we managed to prise Delph away from Leeds; done on our reputation for being honourable, if the post-deal press is to be believed.

[Mellin]

We have handled these dealings very professionaly from what I can make out.

Is that important anymore though ??

I think so. It's one of the things that seperates us from what Citeh have become.

[JJ-AV]

Ireland>Milner