James Milner Gives Manchester City 24 Hour Ultimatum

I’ve come full circle on him. After wanting him to go, and then seeing him on Saturday, I want us to keep one of our obviously best players around. I think if we manage that, then our goals for the season remain intact.

I honestly don’t know what to think.

And a lot of that is based on some conjecture on my part, I will admit. A big part of the reason I wanted him to go was predicated on the fact that I thought he genuinely wanted to leave Aston Villa. And with this, and the timing of it, and trying to read him after his goal on Saturday, well, I’m less convinced that that’s the full story. And I think that, if after all of this, he is willing to draw this type of line in the sand, he’s someone we should want to keep around. Now, that’s not to say that I’ll be disappointed if the rumored deal comes to fruition; I still think that it’s fair value, and I don’t think that the club would be worse for the wear either way. But the feeling of inevitability has faded a lot.

I was actually going to write a post stating that the longer this drags on, the better the chance Milner does stay. Given I wrote an expansive post stating I think they should sell him recent revelations have caused me to reconsider.

1. I cited Milner’s goal output and compared it to Ireland’s tally in 2008-9 when he was fully fit. After Saturday it might be fair to say that MoN’s rigid 4-4-2 might have stifled him. I didn’t actually see the match, but based on highlights and reports K-Mac’s 4-2-3-1 was much more versatile and gave all of the midfielders a lot more latitude

2. Villa would not use the money to bring in 2-3 players because the wage bill is too high. That is likely why MoN was not going to be given all of the money. He has been able to offload the majority of the overpaid squad players they have been trying to offload. If they keep Milner perhaps they will cut their losses and negotiate releases, send them out on loan, or Lerner might just swallow hard and cut another big check.

3. Sends a firm message that Villa is not a selling club.

City might be offering £15,000-£25,000 per week more but Milner must be looking at a club that literally has more players than they know what to do with, there are rumblings that the manager is on the hot seat, and they were putrid on Saturday. He has had talks with the board at Villa after MoN clearly tried to push him out. If he stays he is guaranteed to start, solidifying his England spot.

If he does stay I really think there is a good chance he stays long term. City will move on to somebody else and whoever the next manager is might want to target somebody else. Beyond that, who else in England is going to spend even £20m on him? Is he going to go to Spain or Italy? English players travel so well. I still think this is what Lerner wants.

Barry could just have gotten old and started to lose a step. To be fair he did not have a great 1st year with City either. Barry could easily lose his spot to Yaya Toure or Patrick Viera.

I guess I was right in a way, the deal dragged on only another 11hrs and now it’s over. Given all that has happened the only way Villa does anything else is if they can move any more of the squad players to cut the wage bill.

I am still excited about the Kevin MacDonald era.

So the deal’s finished. 18m pounds + Stephen Ireland to Villa for this Milner guy. I hope he’s good.