What is Milner thinking of?

August 19, 2010

News of the Day: James Milner to City

So it finally happened. The protracted transfer saga that began as early as the last day of the previous season has ended. So the question is, do you think this is a good move for City or the player. Personally, I like Milner a lot as a player, his work rate is exceptional and positioning is quite brilliant at times. However, moving to City is may be a very lucrative but potential a very bad footballing move.

The question is begging to be ask: where will he be playing if at all. At Villa, he has a roving role in midfield and that is his best position, I feel. At City, there can only only be one player playing this role:  Carlos Tevez. Mancini likes play with 2 holding players and there they already have Yaya Toure, Nigel de Jong and Gareth Barry. So the only position available are the wide positions where the positions are currently occupied by David Silva and Adam Johnson (Shaun Wright Phillips doesn't really count cause he will definitely be below Milner given the performance over the weekend). As we have seen in the World Cup, Milner doesn't have the pace or dribbling skils to play as a wide player. So my conclusion, he will be warming the bench most of the season if the above players stay healthy. Unless, Mancini plays Milner ahead of Adam Johnson, which would be a travesty because Johnson definitely is someone that City needs. Look at the impact when he come on during the Spurs game and you would be hard pressed to include Milner ahead of Johnson. Whatever it is, the English national team would be the poorer of the lot given that either one of the more promising youngsters would not be playing on a regular basis for his club.

Elsewhere in the Premiership...

 It seems that Arsene Wenger is finally getting out the checkbook to sign Sebastian Squillaci from Sevilla. This is definitely a good move as the Gunners are down to only Thomas Vermaelan as their only fit senior defender.

The Blackburn takeover is also rumored to be completed imminently. This should give Big Sam a boost to his transfer kitty but he has come out to say that he plans to be prudent and sensible in his spending. Don't think Big Sam knows what to do with the money I suppose. He has not really managed a club with big spending power and the last time he had money with Newcastle, he got the boot before Christmas.