Liverpool continue to be linked with a January move for Manchester City star James Milner, and in a disturbing turn of events, Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has fanned the flames of speculation with a trademark fawning tribute to the player.
Liverpool are regularly linked with £15m-rated Milner, and in LFC's pre-Sunderland press conference on Thursday, a journo put the following question to Rodgers:
"James Milner is a player who's been particularly strongly linked. Is he a player that's interesting you?"
Rodgers insisted that he'd 'never speak publicly about a player until he's signed and in the door', but then proceeded to do exactly that, when he raved:
"James is a wonderful player. He's an outstanding footballer, and has been since I saw him at Leeds as a young player, but players are linked here regularly by Agents"
'Wonderful' and 'outstanding'? Maybe it's just me, but I definitely hear the shrill wail of alarm bells ringing in the background. Rodgers hailed Mario Balotelli in similarly gushing terms prior to the Italian's £16m move to Anfield, and it appears that the manager has his eye very much on Milner.
It doesn't surprise me at all that Rodgers rates Milner. The harsh reality is that LFC's manager cannot attract the European elite, so he sticks to targets within his reach, i.e. inexperienced young players, or overpriced Brits (Allen, Lallana, Milner etc).
Reds legends Graeme Souness and Gary Gillespie will be happy if Rodgers brings in Milner, though. Analysing the England team ahead of the recent victory over Scotland, Souness raved:
"I really like him [Milner]. He’d be one of the first on the team sheet for me — both at Man City and with England. He’s improved greatly in his time at City. Apart from being a workaholic, he’s now added quality to his game"
When asked in October about Liverpool's alleged interest in Milner, Gillespie enthused:
"He [Milner] is a manager's dream. He doesn't upset the apple cart, and you know what you're going to get. He doesn't really catch the eye, but he works his socks off, and doesn't get the rewards he deserves".
Milner is a steady, reliable payer, but his pedestrian brand of huff-and-puff football is definitely not going to take Liverpool to the next level. Milner's creative stats over the last 4 years:
* 2014-15: 3 goals/7 assists in 28 apps (so far)
* 2013-14: 2 goals/15 assists in 44 apps.
* 2012-13: 4 goals/7 assists in 35 apps.
* 2011-12: 3 goals/5 assists in 37 apps.
* 2010-11: 3 goals/8 assists in 42 apps
* TOTALS: 15 goals/40 assists in 173 apps
* Goal every 13 apps | Assist every 4.5 apps.
Thankfully, City boss Manuel Pellegrini confirmed this week that Milner is likely to sign a new contract. He told reporters:
"We are talking with James, and I hope he will sign his contract. I repeat, he wants to stay and the club wants to keep him.”
Sign that contract now!
Author: Jaimie K
Liverpool are regularly linked with £15m-rated Milner, and in LFC's pre-Sunderland press conference on Thursday, a journo put the following question to Rodgers:
"James Milner is a player who's been particularly strongly linked. Is he a player that's interesting you?"
Rodgers insisted that he'd 'never speak publicly about a player until he's signed and in the door', but then proceeded to do exactly that, when he raved:
"James is a wonderful player. He's an outstanding footballer, and has been since I saw him at Leeds as a young player, but players are linked here regularly by Agents"
'Wonderful' and 'outstanding'? Maybe it's just me, but I definitely hear the shrill wail of alarm bells ringing in the background. Rodgers hailed Mario Balotelli in similarly gushing terms prior to the Italian's £16m move to Anfield, and it appears that the manager has his eye very much on Milner.
It doesn't surprise me at all that Rodgers rates Milner. The harsh reality is that LFC's manager cannot attract the European elite, so he sticks to targets within his reach, i.e. inexperienced young players, or overpriced Brits (Allen, Lallana, Milner etc).
Reds legends Graeme Souness and Gary Gillespie will be happy if Rodgers brings in Milner, though. Analysing the England team ahead of the recent victory over Scotland, Souness raved:
"I really like him [Milner]. He’d be one of the first on the team sheet for me — both at Man City and with England. He’s improved greatly in his time at City. Apart from being a workaholic, he’s now added quality to his game"
When asked in October about Liverpool's alleged interest in Milner, Gillespie enthused:
"He [Milner] is a manager's dream. He doesn't upset the apple cart, and you know what you're going to get. He doesn't really catch the eye, but he works his socks off, and doesn't get the rewards he deserves".
Milner is a steady, reliable payer, but his pedestrian brand of huff-and-puff football is definitely not going to take Liverpool to the next level. Milner's creative stats over the last 4 years:
* 2014-15: 3 goals/7 assists in 28 apps (so far)
* 2013-14: 2 goals/15 assists in 44 apps.
* 2012-13: 4 goals/7 assists in 35 apps.
* 2011-12: 3 goals/5 assists in 37 apps.
* 2010-11: 3 goals/8 assists in 42 apps
* TOTALS: 15 goals/40 assists in 173 apps
* Goal every 13 apps | Assist every 4.5 apps.
Thankfully, City boss Manuel Pellegrini confirmed this week that Milner is likely to sign a new contract. He told reporters:
"We are talking with James, and I hope he will sign his contract. I repeat, he wants to stay and the club wants to keep him.”
Sign that contract now!
free polls
Author: Jaimie K
Done with speculating on transfers , no players want to join us anymore,Xherdan Shaqiri rejected us.
ReplyDeleteDo you know why there is one reason why
BRENDAN RODGERS
Brendan Rodgers is a watford manager he has no aura ,he has no fancy name and he has achieved nothing.
While Roberto Mancini comes back to Inter brings in podloski and Shaqiri after inter struggled for years since Mourinho left to buy big players.
The manager is so key to buying big players unless you are manager of Barcelona.
Bring Rafael Benitez back he joined Napoli signed Higuain,Albiol,Mertens,
Thoose players would not have moved to Napoli if Rafa was not manager and Brendan was,
SACK WATFORD MANAGER BRENDAN RODGERS!
BRING BACK THE GREAT ONE THE LEGEND BENITEZ!
Great option to have in rotation. But at City he has big salary and is a part of trophies, if he comes here he will want to play more probably, and he is not a starter for a top4.
ReplyDeletePlus, you find that type of a player when you have almost everything you need, not when you are trying to turn your season around.
We just need to "fancy" his name up a bit. Throw in a couple of silent Qs and a few well-placed accent marks. Oh, and he should grow a mustache. Not one of those Old West Sam Elliott ones, but one like Hercule Poirot: waxed and gentlemanly. That should sort things out.
ReplyDeleteName is important
ReplyDeleteRafael Benitez
Jose Mourinho
Arsene Wenger
Diego Simeone
Manuel Pellegrini
Jurgen Klopp
Pep Guardiola
Carlo Ancelotti
Andre Villas Boas
Those names sound exciting the name makes them mysterious
then you have
Joe Rodgers
shut up, Napoli are horrible to watch
ReplyDeleteA goalkeeper and striker before anything else or he deserves the sack. a sore head and a sore foot and Rodgers wants to bandage the ribs.
ReplyDeleteYet they win trophies
ReplyDeleteTROPHIES MORE IMPORTANT THEN GOOD FOOTBALL!
Call him Javier Escalante
ReplyDeleteMate, I think you've solved the problem. Fantastic!
ReplyDeleteTell Brendan Joe Rodgers to change his name though
ReplyDeleteWhat, the equivalent of the Charity Shield?
ReplyDeleteWho is the real comedian on here ?
ReplyDeleteYou or Vermhat
can you guys have a jokes competition?
Its bigger in Italy
ReplyDeletePlus last season he won a trophy to play for this Trophy
Kenny Daglish won a trophy one year
FSG sacked him
Joe Rodgers three years no trophies
FSG give him a new contract
FSG
We did. Stuart won.
ReplyDeleteWho is Stuart?
ReplyDeleteIf we did want him a testimonial like the one Rodgers gave will make sure they don't sell him to us. clever boy. get Ibe back buy / loan a top striker, hypnotise Mingolet so Rodgers can click his fingers before the game and say Simon " you can come off your line everything is calm you won't panic"
ReplyDeleteOr his dog?
ReplyDeleteIs Stuart the dog?
ReplyDeleteHa you got best by a dog
Brining back Benitez will be the biggest mistake ever.
ReplyDeleteNothing will be his fault again if things go wrong and those who roll out the red carpet for him will be blaming everyone and everything else again too.
So he should have not spoke out against Hicks and Gillet
ReplyDeletehe should have just kept licking their Ar*e liek Brendan does to FSG?
Are you telling me Rafa should ahve let Hicks and Gillet run us to the ground
Rafa along with H & G needed to go and they did. That is that.
ReplyDeleteHe is steady but we have that already. We need players who are going to be an upgrade;
ReplyDeleteLucas out Schneiderlin in
Gerrard free Moussa sissoko in
Borini out Lambert out Origi and lacazette in
Bernd Leno GK
Johnson out abate or dani alves free transfer
Konoplyanka free transfer in
Andre Ayew free transfer in
Sell:
Enrique
Aspas
Luis Alberto
Assaidi
Coates for sure
Promote rossiter ibe to first team squad. Let's bring on the new homegrown talent. Got Wilson and Ojo too.
You lost the credibility with Abate..
ReplyDeleteRodgers gave his standard response when questioned directly about a player. He's said it plenty of times about players we've never subsequently signed.
ReplyDeleteeven a good blayer dilinihes under BR's control.lallana has dropped,SG scored his least goals per season under br,coutinho not where he was last season, even balotelli has never played this number of leaque games without a goal.br keeps thinking that our problem is sturdge's abse but city have played more than a month without aguaru,dzeko and jovetic and in the precee,they have closed up with chelsea.should a liverpool coach need his bet team to pick up points against sunderland,hull city,liecester, aston villa, westharm?.again city won thier most crucial CL away at roma without four first choice players.br is not good for us.we paid suarex what cavani and falcao were demanding as wages.we are currently paying uselessly almost the same for balotelli,borini and lambert.inconsistency is br's pssword.players whom he put on his departuere list played the most crucial games for him.enrique played both CL matches agst basel,johnson and lucas are first choice players after signing CAN and marguillo.br cannt attrct any ambitius player.
ReplyDeleteThe free transfers would be at the end of the season but we could still try to sign them for low fees this window. Forgot khedira and nigel de Jong are options too. In an ideal world we would be aggressively trying to sign these type of realistic signings, but on past outcomes, we won't! The transfer commitee have January 32nd circled in their diary as the day they will start trying to sign people!
ReplyDeleteDecent player for free that's for sure 👍
ReplyDeleteThat is not Rodgers' 'standard response' in any way. He usually doesn't praise prospective targets; Balotelli, and now Milner are the only recent exceptions I can think of. He usually just says 'I don't comment on other players) or words to that effect.
ReplyDeleteSo we want a decent player from a team strugling to get CL in a lesser league?
ReplyDeleteNot that easy
ReplyDeleteLiverpool are now on a sell to buy policy we have no money
So we can only get best out of our investment
if Rodgesr cant get best out of Balotelli,Markovic,Lallana,Can,Sakho,Lovren
maybe Rafael Benitez will
Rodgers praises everyone. Just because you can't think of it doesn't make it fact.
ReplyDeleteWill Hughes
ReplyDeleteRicky Lambert
...and there you have it.
ReplyDeleteMilner had 15 assists last season, 7 so far this year. That's credible enough. I can see him in a deeper midfield role at Liverpool, perhaps on the left side of the central 3. Allen generally plays there but Milner would offer more go-forward. I'd have no problem with Milner at Liverpool, especially on a free.
ReplyDeletesign, the man ,Ian you out there?
ReplyDeleteI realised today that the month is 1/3 gone and I haven't checked the BBC or Skysports transfer centers once. That's how apathetic I've become towards our transfers. I just don't expect anything impressive happen so I guess I'm happier when we sign no one. Milner is the type of squad player we should pick up in the summer if we can but we shouldn't be paying money for him right now. If we spend money this month it should be on a signing like Suarez was a couple of years back. An exciting player who will walk into the first team and change our season around. But since that will never happen...
ReplyDeleteI've never before voted down a post on this site. Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteFor a free transfer he is a good signing. We can't attract very good players as clearly obvious from previous windows- mkhytarian, Willian, Costa, salah to name but a few. We have to be realistic, unless we have a manager that players want to play under. Then, it might be different. And he's better than johnson.
ReplyDeletePrefer giving Flanno and even Wisdom their chance...
ReplyDeleteDon't you miss him?
ReplyDeleteGet rid of Ian Ayre and problem is solved
ReplyDeleteAnd that solves our problem of attracting better players with Rodgers in charge?
ReplyDeleteOh yes people will easily remember even Alex Ferguson would they. Seriously Scottish people don't know how to name their children
ReplyDeleteTrophies,!!!!! you mean Seria A after buying higuain, callejon. No I forgot they won the super coppa the most prestigious trophy in Italy
ReplyDeleteIs Dodgers being made to buy this crap in the name of moneyball, or is he just a complete prat? (yeah, tough one that) I guess it's a bit of both. FSG don't want a manager to rock the boat, so we got Dodgery, whereas Manure acted quickly in getting shot of Moyes and got LVG...big difference, one's a WINNER and ones a LOSER, one can attract big name, proven proffessionals and one can't. which one do you think we have?
ReplyDeleteWhy cant Rodgers win the community sheild in england
ReplyDeleteor the fa cup or league cup
That different he was the biggest leegedn in teh game he made his sucsess in a different era
ReplyDeleteThe solution is to get rid of Rodgers, not bring back Rafa and to appoint somebody else.
ReplyDeletewe all do
ReplyDeleteagreed until you said Benitez
ReplyDeletevoting yourself up doesn't make it better
ReplyDeleteBR doesnt hint - next?
ReplyDeleteSterling according to talksport is nowhere near signing a new contract
ReplyDeleteIf Milner is our way of improving the team to compete with Chelsea, Man City and Man U, we are in the deepest possible shit there is. Lets hope our sights are set higher or we just say what the hell and add 1-2 veterans and replace all the deadwood with existing kids we have and throw in the towel for this season..............
ReplyDeleteOf course it does, you silly person.
ReplyDeleteplease stick to the COMMENT POLICY!
ReplyDeleteattack the argument not the person ;-)
Nige,
ReplyDeleteNow you are talking!!!!!!!! Put your application to LFC front office asap!!!!!
Not that I'm for or against Benitez coming back.
ReplyDeleteYour ability to see into the future is fascinating can you give me next weeks LOTTO numbers while you're at it.
Orme,
ReplyDeleteAgree 100%. Flanno deserves to reclaim his spot in the lineup either on the right or left with Manquillo and Moreno in a 3 man rotation kind of set-up since Flanno can play both sides. Wisdom is clumsy as an outside back....
let's make a swap deal with TIA!
ReplyDeleteif they bring jason back to us they can have our weird sheikh
You will have more chance of winning the lotto than seeing LFC win the EPL with Benitez.
ReplyDeleteNot point in getting rid of Rogers UNLESS you have a viable replacement and frankly speaking I don't see any TOP CLASS COACH/MANAGER available at the moment so lets just limp on until the end of the season. Oh BTW don't expect any STRONG characters to replace Rogers as thats not the transfer committees way.
ReplyDeleteI
Please dear God, sign the Ajax manager and send BR back to the suburbs.......
ReplyDeleteThe way you said it is not nice but it is the truth...not sugar coated thats where we are.
ReplyDeleteWhy isn't my club going forward? Last season we where brilliant, nearly won the PL.This season Suarez gets his transfer then we loose Sturridge. Next season there's going to be no Stevie G...OMG Still I feel greatness is just round the corner, but FSG give our club a proven signing we need for now.
ReplyDeleteWont happen even though I'd like to give them a chance.
ReplyDeleteThe transfer committee is an utter disaster.
I'm afraid your going to have to endure Brendan until the end of the season and maybe until Xmas 2015 before the wall of noise finally reaches FSG.
ReplyDeleteWhen they dismiss Rogers they should send the infamous transfer committee with him.
Personally I think Milner is underrated and if we sign him for free in the summer I'll have no problem with that whatsoever. We will need a player of his experience as well
ReplyDeleteEvery... Damn... Day
ReplyDeleteRodgers will be gone by the end of the season and the transfer committee will go with him which he is part of.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah I would too , especially flanno! He was going so well before his injury. Kelly too- shame we sold him in my opinion. You need two players per position don't you so it's no harm swapping johnson for another player and definitely keeping flanno.
ReplyDeleteIt's not rocket science in my opinion. We all watch football I'm sure- not only lfc games so we know who's decent and who's got potential and who won't improve our squad. I just can't fathom why we continuously (for the most part), get it wrong every window ?!
ReplyDeleteI was with him until he said "Done"
ReplyDeleteliverpool better get with the program or there going to lose a lot more than just games. Choose 3 realistic quality targets and go super hard even if it means paying overs. Got a couple of duds in summer buy TWO WRONGS DON'T MAKE A RIGHT. Lacazzete fine. You want him pay overs. Benzema pay overs two proven qaulity players. We paid 20 for markovich and no scout noticed he cant take on defenders because he has NO dribling skills. Stop living in a dream world where you think u can devolop a drill from a screwdriver you need to go and buy the right tools.
ReplyDeleteSimply amazing hahaha. TBH I thought he just changed his name to Logan ;) No offence Logan
ReplyDelete