Milner Fits City Glove

Article by Doe aka SilvaPlatta

The pursuit of Milner, with latest £25 million bid, seems to spur on the controversy surrounding where his future will best be served. Many believe that place is Villa Park, with some saying OT or even the Bridge. With City showing serious interest however, there has been many (city fans included) saying we don’t need another midfielder, isn’t worth 25 million in comparison to other possible transfer targets, or the difficulty in seeing where he would actually fit into the current squad; but I do think there’s more to what meets the eye, especially with the latter.

Milner has tremendous versatility being able to play anywhere along the midfield, but he does seem best as a box to box midfielder and would never play him wide even if you had 2 world class central midfielders (with England’s World Cup performances pretty much sealing my thoughts on this one). In the past we’ve usually seen Barry and De Jong sitting in front of the back four, but having Yaya play alongside any one of those two in midfield with 2 wingers and strikers wouldn’t allow Milner to fit in (this I believe is what many had in mind when they saw City as a misfit), but to the contrary – I think he would fit in quite snugly adding the much needed dimension in midfield we’ve been lacking.

With a much stronger squad now, and one that should expect to control more of each game than previous seasons, I can certainly see Milner coming in with Yaya to sit back, dictating play amongst the backline, and making late runs into the box when we’ve pushed up, got to the by-line or behind the opposing defence. This could very well be what Mancini has up his sleeve for the near future!

Could be well worth the price tag in the long run, and whilst there is Arteta, Milner just seems to be make the better combination with AJ and Silva who are also very clever and equally creative. I hope this puts a fresh and blue perspective on the Milner debate, as I am very optimistic about this signing.