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James Milner is not Coming to Arsenal and that’s Perfectly Fine
By Josh Sippie
One of the more mummed transfer rumors that not so many people were talking about was the free transfer of James Milner. After running his contract out at Manchester City, Milner now has a wide open selection for where he wants to spend his future. At 29-years old, he’d probably like to find a team that can bring him some silverware.
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Arsenal was one team that was in on the midfielder, but recent developments indicate that neither Arsenal nor James Milner are pursuing the potential bond too fiercely.
Liverpool have offered James Milner a pretty solid 150,000 pounds a week and Arsenal have quite simply refused to be drawn into a bidding war and offer him anything similar (via the Evening Standard). According to BBC Sports, Liverpool is right on the verge of solidifying a deal.
James Milner could have brought some useful things to Arsenal. For starters, he’s a team player and his passing is incredibly accurate. Couple that with the fact that he has extreme versatility and the ability to score from distance and he looks like a tried-and-true fit for the Gunners current system.
However, last year while at Manchester City, his stats were a tad inferior to the host of Arsenal midfielders. Take a look at the table (per 90 minutes, via Squawka.com):
[table id=54 /]
As you can see, he doesn’t stand out at all. I’ll use the same argument I’ve used for many other players, Arsenal is now a team that’s steadily improving and they have their eyes set on becoming the best team in football. That can’t be done by acquiring players that just fit in with the crowd, and James Milner has trouble even doing that at Arsenal.
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Whereas Few doubt the greatness of Santi Cazorla and Mesut Ozil and few can deny the prolific attributes of Aaron Ramsey and Francis Coquelin, getting another good player isn’t going to improve the team, especially if James Milner expects to be making the starting XI his home.
It won’t be.
Jack Wilshere is coming into his own after years of setbacks and he’s finding it hard to get into the starting XI. Aaron Ramsey is a proven leader of this team, he’s provided heroics and he’s having trouble finding time in his favored position. Behind them, Arsenal have an absolute fountain of youth stars wanting to make it into the starting XI. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Serge Gnabry both should be starting for Arsenal to progress their development, but you don’t see them as regulars (injuries aside).
James Milner would be a great option off the bench, but we have so many other options that are young and in need of that playing time. It makes sense that Arsenal are backing out of paying more money. They simply don’t have to.
Next: Wojciech Szczesny here for the long run?