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Been thinking. and yes, it hurt.

Should we sign Milner we will have the following midfielders at the club;

Milner, Silva, SWP, Jonno, Jonno, Baz, Yaya, Nige, Stevie, Bellers, Vieira, Weiss.

Now for league games, I feel we should play our strongest 4, being;

Silva--Bazza--Yaya--Jonno

and cup / euro second string being;

Bellers--De Jong--Stevie--SWP

now any of the second string are perfectly capable of playing premier league games as a sub, or injury stand in, and we'd have fine backup in M jonno, Vieira, and Weiss should we get desperate.

Now for wingers I feel competition will be fierce between Bellers/SWP/Jonno/Silva to be automatic starters, with all of them good enough to be playing in a top 4 team.
Centre mid, again competition will be fierce between Yaya/Stevie/Baz/Nige with all of them good enough to be playing in a top 4 team.

So the whole point of this post basically is to ask the question

WHY ARE WE TRYING TO BUY JAMES MILNER FOR £30M WHEN WE DON'T NEED HIM????
I wouldn't even replace any of the second string for him, SWP is better, and Nige and Stevie are better.
This transfer is winding me up good and proper.

millner and some of our midfield can also play defence to? your right though does seem a few midfielders in squad but with uefa cup/number of games are we covering backsdies

Matter of opinion. I think he'd be a great addition, and English to boot. I'm not the biggest patriot ever but the quotas are looming. My prediction: he'll sign up this week and become a regular starter alongside Yaya in the middle of a four-man midfield (Silva and Johnson out wide). All Mancini signings.

Milner is a great footballer Bingo and gives us another dimension...he's not SWP or Stevie...you know why?

He can actually cross a ball ;-)

Ok...so the price is ridiculous...but I think it's safe to say we won't pay 30 mil for him

so we pay 24 mil...Villa bought him for 12 mil...he has come on in leaps and bounds since then...plus he is young and english

So that bumps it up to about 20 mil

Add the 4 million for the 'City Factor' and it's not that bad

Like i've said in another thread...there will be a few eating their words over this lad shortly

Bingo Lewis wrote:
Now for league games, I feel we should play our strongest 4, being;

Silva--Bazza--Yaya--Jonno

If that's our first choice then we should be going all out to buy Milner. I'd have him over Barry any day.

Bingo Lewis wrote:
WHY ARE WE TRYING TO BUY JAMES MILNER FOR £30M WHEN WE DON'T NEED HIM????
I wouldn't even replace any of the second string for him, SWP is better, and Nige and Stevie are better.
This transfer is winding me up good and proper.

apart from the highlighted bit you're completely right mate. but SWP is not better than James Milner. I like the midfielders we have with the way it is. Personally I just can't see a place for Milner. Its going to be hard enough as it is keeping everyone happy (ie NDJ will prob lose his place to yaya which is totally undeserved) without adding another into the mix.

Barry is class, and massivley under-rated.
He's twice the player Milner is.

Beeks - I hope you're right.

Well you can forget Ireland, Weiss, and probably Johnson (M) as well. 9 midfield players for 4 or 5 places, allowing injuries, suspensions and 4 competitions, doesn't seem unreasonable. We tried to start last season with about 4!

Bingo Lewis wrote:Barry is class, and massivley under-rated.
He's twice the player Milner is.

Beeks - I hope you're right.

this is wrong. when gareth barry plays well man city play well, but there were lots of occasions last year when he didn't know where the ball was and when he got it seemed to think he had all the time in the world. very inconsistent, and iom OVER-RATED.

colonel_muck wrote:

Bingo Lewis wrote:Barry is class, and massivley under-rated.
He's twice the player Milner is.

Beeks - I hope you're right.

this is wrong. when gareth barry plays well man city play well, but there were lots of occasions last year when he didn't know where the ball was and when he got it seemed to think he had all the time in the world. very inconsistent, and iom OVER-RATED.

I'm with Bingo. Extremely under-rated among City fans but an excellent player, which is why he's always first name on Mancini's teamsheet just about. Played when injured/battered etc toward end of season, so all these signings will give him a breather.

IanBishopsHaircut wrote:Milner is a great footballer Bingo and gives us another dimension...he's not SWP or Stevie...you know why?

He can actually cross a ball ;-)

Ok...so the price is ridiculous...but I think it's safe to say we won't pay 30 mil for him

so we pay 24 mil...Villa bought him for 12 mil...he has come on in leaps and bounds since then...plus he is young and english

So that bumps it up to about 20 mil

Add the 4 million for the 'City Factor' and it's not that bad

Like i've said in another thread...there will be a few eating their words over this lad shortly

fuck me, I've said it before and I'll say it again, word 'great' is tossed around easily these days. Milner is good player, occasionally even very good, but he is million light years away from any sort of greatness.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:

IanBishopsHaircut wrote:Milner is a great footballer Bingo and gives us another dimension...he's not SWP or Stevie...you know why?

He can actually cross a ball ;-)

Ok...so the price is ridiculous...but I think it's safe to say we won't pay 30 mil for him

so we pay 24 mil...Villa bought him for 12 mil...he has come on in leaps and bounds since then...plus he is young and english

So that bumps it up to about 20 mil

Add the 4 million for the 'City Factor' and it's not that bad

Like i've said in another thread...there will be a few eating their words over this lad shortly

fuck me, I've said it before and I'll say it again, word 'great' is tossed around easily these days. Milner is good player, occasionally even very good, but he is million light years away from any sort of greatness.

We can grow 'great' together!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

--------Adbyr Tevez--------

Silva Toure Milnr Jhnsn

Brdge Kmpny Toure Botng

------------Hart-------------

The reason why i think he wants milner desperately is because he will run all day. He will defend as good as he gets forward. SWP, Ireland and johnson wont do that. thats what i think anyway.

Milner was the player of the year and best player last year for Villa, they finished just below us and got to the final of the League cup. It kind of looks like he must of played significantly better than quite a few of our players otherwise we would have been further ahead of them.
To me he looks like a decent quality utility player he can play right accross the midfield and also full back, works like a Trojan and is pretty reliable. When I have seen him play he has a good pass a very good cross and a decent shot on him as well as a great engine, he can also dribble a bit. He lacks the real pace and acceleration to be an outstanding winger and so far looks a little slow in his passing to be a 1st class central midfielder but that may come. Most of the top teams have a 'Mr Reliable' who they can chuck on to do a job of marking or vary the play a bit. This is probably going to be his role at first but at his age he may well develop a lot furthe.
The prices quoted look a bit steep but not outrageously so for a player who Villa clearly didn't want to sell.

I suspect that a few of our midfielders will not be in the squad come 1st of Sept. Weiss may well be off on aloan, Ireland looked increasingly peripheral last season. AJ may well not figure in the '25' if there are fitness doubts and be kept for Euro and league cup games. Regretably the bookies odds make it seem like there is strong information that Bellamy will be at Spurs, really do not want that.

BlueMoonAwoken wrote:The reason why i think he wants milner desperately is because he will run all day. He will defend as good as he gets forward. SWP, Ireland and johnson wont do that. thats what i think anyway.

i think that's harsh on SWP. He's a pretty solid defender on the wing due to his pace and determination. Johnson not as much, but only because he's not that fast. two years ago i thought ireland had a fantastic year defensively, but didn't seem as committed to it last season.

Bingo Lewis wrote:Been thinking. and yes, it hurt.

Should we sign Milner we will have the following midfielders at the club;

Milner, Silva, SWP, Jonno, Jonno, Baz, Yaya, Nige, Stevie, Bellers, Vieira, Weiss.

Now for league games, I feel we should play our strongest 4, being;

Silva--Bazza--Yaya--Jonno

and cup / euro second string being;

Bellers--De Jong--Stevie--SWP

now any of the second string are perfectly capable of playing premier league games as a sub, or injury stand in, and we'd have fine backup in M jonno, Vieira, and Weiss should we get desperate.

Now for wingers I feel competition will be fierce between Bellers/SWP/Jonno/Silva to be automatic starters, with all of them good enough to be playing in a top 4 team.
Centre mid, again competition will be fierce between Yaya/Stevie/Baz/Nige with all of them good enough to be playing in a top 4 team.

So the whole point of this post basically is to ask the question

WHY ARE WE TRYING TO BUY JAMES MILNER FOR £30M WHEN WE DON'T NEED HIM????
I wouldn't even replace any of the second string for him, SWP is better, and Nige and Stevie are better.
This transfer is winding me up good and proper.

i cant understand what your so fussed about. i get the feeling that you dont like his style. I dont think Milner is brilliant or flash.. yet somehow i think he is effective in the Prem. Besides which footballers can sometimes double their money by being very good in partnerships, particularly in the axes of a formation. CB pairing is obvious, but midfield pairings can make a team. Strike partnerships and full backs and wingers. So with reference to Barry, he is underratted.. and possibly massivley, but imo he needs a partner who allows him to do what he does best. He is for me a key City player, and i live and hope that Bob is the kind of manager who is looking to bring the best out of his players, after all he is committed to making City the best team in the world. and that is no mean feat, and if you really take that seriously, that aim... you will not only be ruthless but also thinking a fucking lot about how to get the best out of people. I would argue that Milner brings a completely different dimension to anything we have already and on that count alone he is worth bringing in. The second point is what im refering to in partnerships. Who is going to make the best midfield partnerships out of all the mids we have.. or better still how many good midfield parnerships are going to show themselves out of that lot. i think Milner brings something different to the party and if Mancini can see that he wants that, then fucl it, let him get on with it. I wouldn't care to put money on who would form good or even great central pairings out of Yaya, Milner, Irleand, Barry, M.Johnno, A.Johnno, DeJong

Just want to refer back to this what i said before we signed Milner.
He ain't all that is he? why is he keeping jonno out of the team? we've got to play him too after how much he cost us.
not impressed me at all since the scouse game.

Bingo Lewis wrote:Just want to refer back to this what i said before we signed Milner.
He ain't all that is he? why is he keeping jonno out of the team? we've got to play him too after how much he cost us.
not impressed me at all since the scouse game.

I think he's a decent premier league player, yet to see him be decent for us though, he's been on the whole, very poor. Thought he would settle into the team more being a northern, english lad who has played in this league all his life.

the_georgian_genius wrote:

Bingo Lewis wrote:Just want to refer back to this what i said before we signed Milner.
He ain't all that is he? why is he keeping jonno out of the team? we've got to play him too after how much he cost us.
not impressed me at all since the scouse game.

I think he's a decent premier league player, yet to see him be decent for us though, he's been on the whole, very poor. Thought he would settle into the team more being a northern, english lad who has played in this league all his life.

yep. if we're gonna play 3 in midfield then i reckon nige, yaya and silva should be the three. tevez balo and jonno in front of em.
Milner to fill in when neccesary.