No Gray Areas - Milner was right to move

Last week, the most talked about transfer of the summer ended in the most predictable way possible as James Milner finally completed his move to Manchester City. Some have argued that the player should have stayed and shown more loyalty or that by moving to Manchester City he'll be just another player in a squad packed with world class players all competing for a place in the starting eleven. I'm not convinced by those arguments.

At the end of the day, the world's richest club has come knocking at his door and made it pretty clear they're desperate for his services. The fact they've pursued Milner relentlessly and paid such an extraordinary fee for a player who as yet isn't even an established international is testament to how highly Roberto Mancini rates him.

From the player's point of view, it isn't just a case of earning more money than he could ever have dreamt of making, it's also a case of dramatically furthering his career. Aston Villa are a good, solid team with or without Martin O'Neill but they simply can't compete for the biggest prizes in football at the moment.

At Manchester City, he'll be training and playing alongside some of the world's best players and that's a great thing for a young player to be able to do. You learn plenty about the game by being in such distinguished company and that can only help you improve as a player. If, as some predict, City don't win everything they've set out to it certainly won't be as a result of not having the resources and if they do click, then the world really will be their oyster.

Where does James Milner fit in to the City jigsaw then? Well the beauty of having such a versatile player is that Roberto Mancini may not necessarily have him pencilled in for just the one position. He's more than capable of playing in the middle of the park in front of say Gareth Barry and Yaya Toure. Alternatively, he could play down the right so the team can make the most of his superb crossing ability.

He's a completely different player to Shaun Wright-Phillips or Adam Johnson, so the manager may decide on a "horses for courses" strategy and use Milner in different positions throughout the season.

We've seen plenty of expensive foreign stars land at Eastlands since the "revolution" took place but a signing like Milner is just what they need and for my money seriously improves their chances of achieving a top-four finish, which is currently trading at [1.83].

Finally, let's remember that any progress in Milner's abilities is great news for Fabio Capello and England, with the former Newcastle man a key player in the team's short and long-term future.

Andy Gray is now on Twitter so follow him for his exclusive tips and his take on the biggest stories in football each week.

Published: 24 Aug 2010

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