Milner non-committal over future

After the reports of the interest, and subsequent rejection of the £20million bid for James Milner, the situation now appears to be back in limbo, with neither parties yet to make a follow-up move.

Interestingly though, Milner himself made some very interesting comments at his press conference whilst at England's pre-World Cup camp. Whilst not revealing anything as such, his lack of commitment to Villa (or even a "no comment" line) revealed plenty. Milner's words were:

"I want to finish my career, go into my trophy room and see winners' medals," he said. "I've enjoyed my time at Aston Villa, it's a great club to be at and we are moving forward in the right direction ," Milner said. "Do I expect to be at Villa next season? I don't know.

Now - and as Jack over at TLDORC states - this isn't a come and get me 'plea', yet you do feel there is sufficient encouragement publicly for an increased bid to tabled, with both the Telegraph and Express & Star suggesting bids in the region of £30million could be forthcoming, although such a leap from opening to follow-up bid would be unlikely.

The Telegraph also reports that Villa could be stung into action to try and seek at least a reassurance from Milner that he intends to remain at the club, with the promise of a contract extension a possibility.

With the new found riches, to some degree the club are still feeling their way at this level in the transfer market. There have been successes, high-profile misses and of course, long drawn out sagas that benefited nobody. 

I imagine this will be a familiar refrain, but having experienced the very public and acrimonious dispute with Everton with the acquisition of Joleon Lescott, the hope is that important lessons have been learned.