Aston Villa: Club ready to cup-tie James Milner as Stephen Ireland gets banished to Man City's reserves

Aug 17 2010 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail

James Milner’s transfer saga has taken fresh twists with Villa ready to cup-tie him in the Europa League and Stephen Ireland banished to Manchester City’s reserves.

And there are strong suggestions the move could even collapse completely within the next 24 hours with an increasingly frustrated Milner believed to have given City a ‘sign me or I’m staying’ ultimatum.

Milner was overwhelmed by the positive reception he received from Villa fans after scoring in Saturday’s win over West Ham and is now seriously contemplating staying where he is wanted rather than switching to a club who he feels have messed him around all summer.

Caretaker manager Kevin MacDonald is set to include Milner in his squad which jets off for Austria tomorrow for the qualifying first leg against Rapid Vienna.

If Milner plays on Thursday evening it would cup-tie City’s leading transfer target and prevent him from turning out for the Eastlands club in later stages of the competition.

It is yet another complication to the proposed £26 million deal which is set to take Milner to Manchester, with Ireland and £18 million coming the other way.

And there are further problems at the City end after makeweight Ireland was forced to train with the second string yesterday after a heated discussion with first-team coach David Platt.

Villa insist that with the deal dragging on they will have no qualms about selecting Milner for action in Vienna after his successful goalscoring return in the win over West Ham.

Asked if Milner would be considered for action at the Gerhard Hanappi Stadium, despite the consequences of him playing, MacDonald replied: “Yes, he’s a top player.

“Has anyone said not to cup-tie him? Not from us, and to be fair, I’ve not spoken to Mr Lerner regarding that anyway.

“If we were going to stop him playing then we should have stopped him playing in the Premier League, because I think there’s

probably more chance of him getting an injury in a Premier League game because of the physical contact.

“I just think if James hasn’t gone to Manchester City by the middle of the week, I’m sure he’ll want to play, because he just loves playing football as you saw out there against West Ham.”