EVENING BOLLOXMilner wants cup success for City legend YoungManchester City won the 1969 FA Cup final 1-0 against Leicester with Neil Young scoring the only goal at Wembley.
The legendary winger has sadly been diagnosed with terminal cancer and current wide-man James Milner would like City to win this season’s competition in honour of Young.
By a twist of fate City were held 2-2 by Leicester in the 3rd round of the FA Cup on Sunday and City's 4,000 travelling fans wore red and black scarves - the same colour as the strip worn in that final - as a salute to Young.
Milner said: "The fans' tribute was very good and the fans were out in force supporting us again. It's nice to get that level of support every week. It would be nice to win the FA Cup for Neil.
"We are desperate to win a trophy. It's been a long time and we are geared up to win things. It's been a long time and we want to win a trophy, so we will keep working hard and taking it a step at a time.
"Winning the cup would be the ultimate way to make a tribute to Neil. We have to finish the job with Leicester first, but hopefully we can keep going."
Gunvor bolloxNotts County boss Paul Ince wants to face big-spending Manchester City in the FA Cup fourth round.
Ince`s side, who caused a third-round upset by winning at Sunderland on Saturday, will host the winners of the replay between City and Leicester.
"It's great draw for the lads. Manchester City have spent so much money on so many great players it will be nice to see them down at Meadow Lane," Ince told Talksport.
"It would be a full house, which will be financially great for the club, so hopefully they can do the business at Eastlands."
Should Leicester be victorious, of course, it would see a return to Meadow Lane of former director of football Sven-Goran Eriksson.
Wigan Athletic rival Manchester City for Preston North End keeper Andy Lonergan Wigan Athletic rival Manchester City for Preston North End keeper Andy Lonergan Preston North End goalkeeper Andy Lonergan is reportedly the target of Wigan Athletic.
The Mirror claims Lonergan could be on his way to Manchester City as a replacement for Shay Given.
However, it seems the 27-year-old is also interesting the Latics.
The highly-rated Lonergan would be allowed to go for about £750,000 as new boss Phil Brown needs to raise funds for players.
Newcastle to re-sign Shay Given?The Man City keeper Shay Given has admitted that he is still looking for a way out of the Eastlands this January, and Roberto Mancini has given him permission to find another club if he decides he can’t stay on the bench any longer.
What better club to go to than Newcastle, where Given spent 12 successful years before being tempted away by Man City’s millions. The newly-rich Eastland’s club made Given an offer he couldn’t refuse and the Newcastle board couldn’t afford to match the wages on offer at the time, especially as they were fighting a losing battle against relegation from the Premiership at the time.
Given complained about Newcastle not doing enough to keep him at the club, but he is still held in the highest regard by both the fans and the management. In fact Given is due back to Tyneside in 3 weeks time to give a talk to fans at a “Salute to Shay” evening and wouldn’t he get even more cheers if he went back as the new Newcastle Number One?
New Toon boss Alan Pardew gave a big hint that he wanted to find a new goalkeeper for the club this week when he told reporters how unhappy he was with Tim Krul’s performance Newcastle’s awful performance against Stevenage this weekend. Pardew said: “The goalkeeper had a problem kicking the ball, he seemed to be shanking a lot of kicks.”
“That was putting us under a lot of pressure.”
“That was not the sort of standard we expect from Newcastle and what I expect as a manager.”
Steve Harper is the usual first-choice at St. James Park, but as he spent many years being backup to Given, I am sure he would welcome him back with open arms.
Given would certainly be welcomed back by Pardew and the adoring fans, and to top it all, he only needs to play another 34 games to break the record number of appearances for Newcastle
meanwhile other sources say he's off to Italy ...
Minders of Man City keeper Given in talks with AC Milan, Roma Manchester City goalkeeper Shay Given is eyeing a move to Italy.
Given remains determined to get a move out of City this month.
The Mirror says Given’s advisers – boosted by a ‘good word’ from Republic of Ireland boss Giovanni Trapattoni and his staff – are looking into potential loan moves to AS Roma, Lazio and AC Milan.
It is a long shot and Given, 34, whose chances of a domestic switch have been reduced, was ideally looking for a full-time transfer.
WAG OF THE DAY - Aida Yespica
The WAG of Italian Matteo Ferrari (currently a player at Besiktas in Turkey), Yespica is a Venezuelan-born former beauty queen who became a reality TV star in Europe.
Richards link puts Latics on alert ATHLETIC could be in line for a £4million cash bonanza, should Manchester City’s Micah Richards make a move to Chelsea.
A fee of £20million has been mooted as the cost to take the player — who spent five years with Athletic’s centre of excellence from the age of nine — from Eastlands to Stamford Bridge.
Richards was quoted last week talking of his frustration at missing out on first-team opportunities due to competition from Jerome Boateng and Pablo Zabaleta.
“I want to be somewhere where I’m kicking a ball every week,” said the 22-year-old, who was linked in the weekend’s national press to a big-money move to the capital and who missed out on yesterday’s 2-2 FA Cup draw at Leicester City with a back injury. See Page 32.
Athletic have a 20-per-cent sell-on clause built into the deal which originally took Richards to City.
And a large cash windfall would have a massive beneficial impact on a club struggling financially since the pre-season departure of New York-based bosses Simon Blitz and Danny Gazal.
Last October, Athletic revealed a £1.524m loss for the year ended December, 2009, an increase of £414,000 on the previous 12 months according to accounts filed at Companies House.
And the figures for 2010 are likely to make no less grim reading as crowds fell to record low levels at Boundary Park.
The current transfer window closes on February 2.
Decision looms for peripheral City star Manchester City defender Wayne Bridge will decide whether to join Aston Villa or West Ham United in the next 48 hours according to Sky Sports.
The former England international has been deemed surplus to requirements by Roberto Mancini, and the 30-year-old is subsequently considering a potential loan deal to the Premier League clubs aforementioned.
Skysports.com suggest West Ham and Villa are both willing to match his sizeable wages and such is there mutual desire to sign the 30-year-old, Avram Grant and Gerard Houllier have contacted the former Chelsea star personally, in a bid to lure the left-back to their respective clubs.
Bridge is reportedly mulling over the offers and will decide on his future within the next 48 hours.
Ball heads back to EastlandsSwindon forward David Ball has returned to Manchester City at the end of his six-month loan spell with the League One club.
Ball scored three goals in 21 appearances, 12 of which came from the bench, and manager Danny Wilson is now in the market for a replacement.
"David's going back to Manchester City," Wilson told STFC Player. "I think it's sensible really because he's not been starting games.
"He's been fantastic for us, a great lad to have around but if he's going to be sat on the bench then it's not really productive from his point of view.
"I think he needs to be playing games, possibly go somewhere else where he is guaranteed games, which is fine.
"That might give us a little bit more scope to bring somebody else in and that's what we'll be looking at. There's a lot of key areas that we'd like to look at, whether we get them or not I don't know, but we certainly need to get someone in the forward line."
