Manchester City close in on Aston Villa's James Milner
• City move ahead of United in battle to sign midfielder
• Champions League football and £24m fee may seal deal
Tweet this (10)Stuart James guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 April 2010 23.05 BST Article history
James Milner's future at Aston Villa may be dependent on Martin O'Neill's as Manchester City prepare a summer bid. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA
Aston Villa face a major battle to keep hold of James Milner after Manchester City identified the midfielder as one of their summer transfer targets.
The England international has been in outstanding form this season, prompting Martin O'Neill to admit last week that he anticipates interest in Milner from leading clubs at home and abroad. There has been speculation that Manchester United are monitoring Milner's position but City's interest is known to be stronger and promises to pose a major threat to any hopes their neighbours might have of signing the former Leeds United trainee.
City's Abu Dhabi owners will sanction another lavish spending spree before the start of next season as part of their plans to become a major force in world football and that process will be largely overseen by Brian Marwood, the club's football administrator. Marwood has long admired Milner's qualities as a footballer and also knows the player well from his previous employment as head of UK operations for Nike, which sponsors the 24-year-old.
Villa would be likely to demand double the £12m they paid Newcastle United for Milner two years ago and the player could also expect to double his £45,000-a-week wages at Eastlands. Financing a deal will present no problem for the world's richest club but much may depend on whether City seize the final Champions League qualification spot and how events unfold at Villa Park during the summer.
Milner has two years remaining on his contract and, although Villa have signalled their intention to extend that deal and offer improved terms, no talks are scheduled. O'Neill said last month that he was keen to ensure there are no distractions for Milner and suggested that the two parties might not sit down to discuss a new contract until after the World Cup.
Since making those comments, however, O'Neill's long-term future has become uncertain and it may well be that Milner's next move is dependent on the decision the Villa manager makes on his own position in the summer.
Milner is known to feel a debt of gratitude to Villa and in particular to O'Neill, whose desire to sign Milner led to the club paying Newcastle what many felt at the time was an inflated fee, and his decision this season to move him from wide right to central midfield has proved a masterstroke.
Both those factors are likely to weigh heavily on Milner's mind should O'Neill opt to stay at Villa Park for a fifth season. There is, however, also an acceptance that Champions League football would be hard for him to resist at a time when Villa appear to have hit a glass ceiling. O'Neill said this month that "for James to continue to improve we will need to improve the standard of our player", yet there have been suggestions that the club's owner, Randy Lerner, will tighten rather than loosen the purse strings this summer.
O'Neill suggested that, if that were the case, one potential way to deal with it would be through "maybe taking a risk with a major player to be transferred [out] to sort things out". He would, however, be extremely reluctant to lose Milner. Fabio Capello described him as England's most improved player this season and his impressive performances were recognised last week when he was shortlisted for the Professional Footballers' Association young player of the year award.
Those performances have also caught Sir Alex Ferguson's eye, although the United manager is expected to have other priorities in the summer, including a new striker, before he turns his attention to strengthening an ageing midfield.
It would rankle with Villa supporters if another key player was sold to City in the wake of Gareth Barry's transfer last year, although the circumstances are different. Whereas Barry had been agitating for a transfer for 12 months and was happy to join a club that had failed to qualify for Europe, Milner has never rocked the boat at Villa and is unlikely to move unless Champions League football were on offer.
