Martin O’Neill has revealed that James Milner wants to leave and play for Manchester City, at the same time, earning himself a silly amount of money for keeping the bench warm.
Having played with Nigel Reo-Coker, Habib Beye and Luke Young this year, he has seen how lucrative going to a bigger club can be and he wants to cash in.
In all seriousness, who wouldn’t want to have their salary doubled? Milner is like anyone that you and I know – they’d always go to work for double the money doing the same job.
I don’t begrudge him – he’s said he wants to leave and he knows that he’ll be filthy rich if he signs. At 24 he can, and probably will, win things at Citeh. They are buying a lot of talent – à la Chelsea of 2003 – and I expect them to not only win things but also to challenge for the league. So why wouldn’t any of our players want that?
I sincerely hope we get a good price for him. Citeh don’t want to pay £30m but why would we let him go to a direct competitor for a low price. Given how O'Neill wastes money we need all the cash we can get.
Updates
Martin O'Neill, July 22nd 2010
I had a conversation with James before the World Cup and he intimated that he'd like to go. I'd imagine things will be resolved in the foreseeable future. City made an offer but it did not meet our valuation. I'm sure matters will be resolved soon. James is back next week having had extended holiday.