Mister Appointment said:Lancet Fluke said:I don't expect any particular loyalty beyond the terms of his contract.
I do, precisely because of the success that Milner's enjoyed whilst at the club. I could understand if he'd spent the last three years on the bench but he has played big roles in every trophy we've won. The supporters clearly love him. In many respects he's heading to a lesser club because he's won so much at City. But why deny us the transfer fee? Because it's about pure self interest, which to many people is fair enough, but to me by doing that and in the manner he's doing it he's disrespecting the club which has given him the most successful period of his playing career.
I also don't think players leaving on free transfers is a particularly regular occurrence in the premier league, and even less so at the top clubs unless the club choose not to extend the players stay.
Somewhere at the start of this thread I acknowledged that there's a level of hypocrisy involved in the way I feel. If City wanted rid of him they'd make him find a new club even if he wanted to stay as they've done with Nastasic. But my reasons for having the ill feeling I have towards Jimmy remain. Of course I'll wish him all the best when he goes because I'm not that arsed. But i'll remain of the opinion he's an idiot for leaving and a snide one for doing it in the manner he's doing it.
Lancet Fluke said:Mister Appointment said:Lancet Fluke said:I don't expect any particular loyalty beyond the terms of his contract.
I do, precisely because of the success that Milner's enjoyed whilst at the club. I could understand if he'd spent the last three years on the bench but he has played big roles in every trophy we've won. The supporters clearly love him. In many respects he's heading to a lesser club because he's won so much at City. But why deny us the transfer fee? Because it's about pure self interest, which to many people is fair enough, but to me by doing that and in the manner he's doing it he's disrespecting the club which has given him the most successful period of his playing career.
I also don't think players leaving on free transfers is a particularly regular occurrence in the premier league, and even less so at the top clubs unless the club choose not to extend the players stay.
Somewhere at the start of this thread I acknowledged that there's a level of hypocrisy involved in the way I feel. If City wanted rid of him they'd make him find a new club even if he wanted to stay as they've done with Nastasic. But my reasons for having the ill feeling I have towards Jimmy remain. Of course I'll wish him all the best when he goes because I'm not that arsed. But i'll remain of the opinion he's an idiot for leaving and a snide one for doing it in the manner he's doing it.
I think these days it's a bonus if players have a loyalty above and beyond their own self interest. We obviously have a few who have that loyalty but I reckon most of them don't. The difference is that for lots of them, they would never be allowed to get anywhere near this point.
Mister Appointment said:Lancet Fluke said:Mister Appointment said:I do, precisely because of the success that Milner's enjoyed whilst at the club. I could understand if he'd spent the last three years on the bench but he has played big roles in every trophy we've won. The supporters clearly love him. In many respects he's heading to a lesser club because he's won so much at City. But why deny us the transfer fee? Because it's about pure self interest, which to many people is fair enough, but to me by doing that and in the manner he's doing it he's disrespecting the club which has given him the most successful period of his playing career.
I also don't think players leaving on free transfers is a particularly regular occurrence in the premier league, and even less so at the top clubs unless the club choose not to extend the players stay.
Somewhere at the start of this thread I acknowledged that there's a level of hypocrisy involved in the way I feel. If City wanted rid of him they'd make him find a new club even if he wanted to stay as they've done with Nastasic. But my reasons for having the ill feeling I have towards Jimmy remain. Of course I'll wish him all the best when he goes because I'm not that arsed. But i'll remain of the opinion he's an idiot for leaving and a snide one for doing it in the manner he's doing it.
I think these days it's a bonus if players have a loyalty above and beyond their own self interest. We obviously have a few who have that loyalty but I reckon most of them don't. The difference is that for lots of them, they would never be allowed to get anywhere near this point.
I could argue Nasri, Dzeko, and Kolarov in particular showed that loyalty last summer. They could all have done what Milner has done and at the very least hedged their bets until January to see who would be interested in a free, but they didn't. The three of them could also argue that they could be playing more elsewhere and all three of them at varying times in the last 18 months have found themselves outside our best XI.
Completely agree with your last sentence btw.
ChicagoBlue said:At the end of the day, James Milner has to do what is in the best interests of James Milner and Man City have to do what is in the best interests of Man City. If those interests do not fall on the same sheet of paper, then one side will be deemed to have unrealistic expectations of the other. Simple.
This is multi-million quid business, nothing more. We can all say Mr X is a twat, or Club Y are a bunch of tossers, but it is all emotive fan nonsense.
Milner is already a multi-millionaire who could ride off I to the sunset knowing he had a great career with some top clubs and his reputation as being an excellent utility player for club and country already in his back pocket.
City could look at his age and contributions, value them less than they once did in a FFP environment and see the need to improve the quality of their required English/Homegrown talent pool, using some of the "Milner money" to do it.
Who knows? But, what I do know is that just like when you buy a car, both sides have a number that provides them each with perceived good value before a deal gets done. I hope those numbers are the same in this instance, because James Milner is, for me, the best value utility player in the Premier League and provides us cover in multiple positions.....often all in one game!!
If it is not to be, I wish him the ABSOLUTE BEST WISHES for the work he has done in helping my club be the best it has been in history, playing football, and against teams, that could only have been dreamt of just a few short years ago.
tolmie's hairdoo said:bluekev1969 said:Do you think that he really downed tools yesterday or just had a poor game at a time when we desperately needed him to dominate a game?tolmie's hairdoo said:Milner has played our club like a violin. Has betrayed our manager and downed tools yesterday.
Fuck him off now or let him rot.
Sadly, neither will happen. Technically limited bit of British beef at best.
Oh, but he can run.
No question he was poor and ineffectual and it was absolutely the right thing to hook him. I also think that the game marked the end if the road for this "negotiation" but downing tools?
Not looking for an argument as I was not at the game and so can't properly justify my view. I'd just be very disappointed if this was the case. Thought he was better than that.
Just my opinion, bud.
I got a bit of stick a few months ago by suggesting he was a holding a gun to our heads, on the premise of playing more games.
He was exposed on a number of fronts yesterday. I even thought he was pretty rude to Natalie Pike when she interviewed him coming off the team coach?
Bog-standard responses and walked off in a huff when she stated we wanted him to stay a couple more years, without even his usual lip-service soundbite.
The manager has taken him at his word and I believe there has been a real shifting of the sands the last couple of weeks.
He's stopped trying to talk him up behind the scenes when asked questions.
He had an absolute shocker yesterday and if he was foreign, would probably have got it in the neck more than he has?
His lack of technical capacity is even more pronounced when he's only in the team because we could not select anybody else, with Yaya and Samir missing.
I want the best for City, he wants the best for himself. I don't have a problem with that.
What I do have a problem with is the way he has gone about it, costing City the best part of a £10m fee - on top of his previous transfer and wages.
He's a decent impact squad player, nothing more. He obviously feels different.
ChicagoBlue said:At the end of the day, James Milner has to do what is in the best interests of James Milner and Man City have to do what is in the best interests of Man City. If those interests do not fall on the same sheet of paper, then one side will be deemed to have unrealistic expectations of the other. Simple.
This is multi-million quid business, nothing more. We can all say Mr X is a twat, or Club Y are a bunch of tossers, but it is all emotive fan nonsense.
Milner is already a multi-millionaire who could ride off I to the sunset knowing he had a great career with some top clubs and his reputation as being an excellent utility player for club and country already in his back pocket.
City could look at his age and contributions, value them less than they once did in a FFP environment and see the need to improve the quality of their required English/Homegrown talent pool, using some of the "Milner money" to do it.
Who knows? But, what I do know is that just like when you buy a car, both sides have a number that provides them each with perceived good value before a deal gets done. I hope those numbers are the same in this instance, because James Milner is, for me, the best value utility player in the Premier League and provides us cover in multiple positions.....often all in one game!!
If it is not to be, I wish him the ABSOLUTE BEST WISHES for the work he has done in helping my club be the best it has been in history, playing football, and against teams, that could only have been dreamt of just a few short years ago.
Davs 19 said:Stretford Born Blue said:The issue with Jimmy is that he wants 120 grand per week...!
Who told you this ? Milner ? The club ?
Please tell, I'm really interested.
Stretford Born Blue said:Davs 19 said:Stretford Born Blue said:The issue with Jimmy is that he wants 120 grand per week...!
Who told you this ? Milner ? The club ?
Please tell, I'm really interested.
Obviously I can't say who can I....!