Chelsea interested in James Milner, possible swap with Spurs and speculation

I might be alone in this, but I want this James Milner thing to be over sooner rather than later now and the talk is Manchester City are going to up their offer to £30mn and if they do, I say take it and concentrate the efforts on finding a replacement.

I'm fairly sure Milner is happy to go and yes, he is a decent player, a very good player, but if Manchester City or any club offer £30mn for him we would be mad to turn it down and there is also talk today that Chelsea might be showing interest, but that is just talk.

The reason I want it over with sooner rather than later, is so Martin O'Neill has time to replace him and every day that passes with O'Neill not making a signing is another day he can't and there isn't any money from the owner, so he needs to raise some and while we all rate Milner, none of this time last season would ever have thought we could have got £30mn for him and if Manchester City didn't have the owner they have, we wouldn't -= we should take advantage.

Webcam

While it will be sad to see Milner go - in so much that we will get as clear as indication as we can that players are not really that committed to O'Neill, I'd actually be surprised if anyone was interested in Webcam after the season he has just had.

He has gone from Young Player of the Year to Mr Average extremely quickly and for every cross that makes it to an Aston Villa player we have 20 that don't, but there was talk yesterday that Spurs are interested and the resulting speculation suggested David Bentley was coming to us.

Now, I like Bentley and some of you won't remember this but before we got Milner we had bid for Bentley - you might even say, he was first choice and actually, he would provide more balance if Webcam were to go in the other direction. For all those that have had a little pop at Downing, I actually think he has had a very good season all things considered and next will be better.

Downing doesn't lose the ball as much as Webcam, his crosses are far more accurate, in so much he puts them in when he knows his chances are higher and he has done all this despite the manager probably telling him to pepper the box. With Bentley on the right, backed up by Albrighton and Downing on the left, backed up by someone else, I think it will be better.

Central midfield is going to be the hardest position to fill very closely followed by up front; let's just hope that nobody comes in for back four and lets also hope that whoever the manager does bring in to replace Milner is up for a bit of running around.

More speculation

In other speculation today; Stoke want Heskey and O'Neill is okay with it, as he'll be close and as long as he gets Eidur Gudjohnsen on load for a season or the manager spends £15mn on bringing in Carlton Cole. I'd actually like both, but that is pointless for us as one will play the other will sit on the bench, if Carew also leaves, which is looking less likely in my book as I don#t think anyone will pay the money for a player of his age and I think it turned out we were his last big pay day.

Also, if you get the chance, please click here and vote for Jonathan Fear - a fellow Aston Villa fan. If he gets the most votes, he wins a trip to South Africa and he is losing to a Manchester City fan at the moment, so we sort of have a responsibility to vote.