Nout major, Milner, Wednesday, round-up

Morning to you.

There is not much to get my teeth into this morning, but one or two big stories are beginning to develop.

The main one floating round this morning is that James Milner is ready to make the move from Villa - probably to Manchester City, as they are the only club willing to meet his frankly outrageous 30 million price tag. I think Martin O'Neill is probably trying to get the best deal possible as there is no way he would pay that much for a player of Milner's stature. If you actually listen to the interview where his quotes about Milner come from, he's not asked about him - he just brings it up unprovoked. Sign of a man who is sending a big message I think. Pay up City or no deal. So like Barry saga already.

Milner has bags of quality, he works very hard for the team and can offer potential or even a sell-on profit if he continues to improve. But 30 million is City prices, not sensible ones. If O'neill is smart he will bag Stephen Ireland and Micah Richards plus 10/15 million. City would probably do it as those two promising players seem surplus to requirements with the number of players they are looking to bring in at full back and central midfield. Likelihood is Spurs, Liverpool or even Arsenal in the case of Richards could be sniffing around for the scraps coming of City's huge arabic dining table. Crazy.

Now money is a big swinger in football nowadays but I believe people who accuse Milner of moving for money are just wrong. Although he might sacrifice a few starts (that will be down to his performance at the end of it all) Milner will be at a club who could make a title challenge this season, and should really be pushing hard for a Champions League spot. Unfortunately for Villa, they are not at that level. Milner seems confident that he could play a part in something big, so I say good luck to him. Villa's squad has always been 2 or 3 players too small, causing them to run out of steam in March - some kind of record stands with O'Neill winning no games in that month as Villa manager. Strange. It is a shame because they are a huge club with big history but players don't seem to recognise it in the face of City's huge potential for future success. Plus I prefer them to Spurs, City and Liverpool. If I were O'neill I would bite City's hand off, get Richards and Ireland in the deal and use any surplus cash to grab a top finisher. Maybe Robbie Keane - not sure he is exactly what Villa need. Pavlyuchenko? Bent? We shall see!

Sheffield Wednesday have been given a winding-up order by HMRC - but are apparently confident that they can cover their £550,000 deficit. This could become a big story over the next few weeks. It may require a take-over ala Cardiff and countless other clubs before Wednesday are out of the financial woods. It is highly unlikely that the club would cease to be, such is the business opportunity available in football today, some White Knight will ride in to save the Owls - I've no doubt of that.

That is about it in terms of potentially big news...Sven Goran Eriksson wants to manage in the Premier League again. He might as well be down by the Thames in Fulham attempting to suck off Mohammed Al-Fayed as you read. I think he'd be as bad for Fulham as Martin Jol would've been good.

Titus Bramble has moved to Sunderland. Wigan are such a selling club. I genuinely hope they go down this season. Their stadium is never full and I don't believe they bring anything to the Premier League. However, if they can hold onto N'Zogbia and Rodallega they will probabaly be ok. Also McCarthy could be an emerging talent for them this season.

Liverpool are playing Dr Robotnik from the Sonic the Hedgehog series in the Europa league and Thierry Henry scored against Spurs last night. Two things that make me quite happy.

Dan Gosling has completed a free transfer from Everton to Newcastle - very strange one that from the way he left to the side he has joined. Will he get more first team footy at St. James's Park? And Ian Holloway really wants to get some new players in for Blackpool. Hope he does, cos I've backed them to stay up...not at the bookies though. I'm not mental.

Saturday tomorrow. Cant wait till real football is back on the best day of the week. That's your lot. Cheers