Milner's price is not right on any level

TEAMtalk feels Manchester City have paid way over the odds for James Milner, with Mesut Ozil twice as good as him but also twice as cheap.

Milner is a decent footballer. He has a good pair of lungs, a tenacious character, a solid temperament and is one of the few English players who can actually use both feet. The adjective of choice most used to describe him is "versatile", in as much as he can play as a winger, in midfield or at full-back on either flank. But, even if he could fly the team plane to away games as well, he would still not be worth the reported £26million it cost Manchester City to prise him from Aston Villa. Not even close. Not even in the money-mad world of football which saw England's lower league clubs pay agents combined fees of more than £12m last season. And certainly not when, by stark comparison, Germany's Ozil was pulling on a Real Madrid shirt after Werder Bremen had accepted a bid of £12.4m. Remember Ozil? You should do because in many ways he was the brightest star of the recent World Cup. He is the 21-year-old who put the vim and vigour into a German side who played the most exciting football in South Africa. A midfielder whose fleetness of foot and mind did more than fill the void left by Michael Ballack's injury. It turned it into the best break German football has had in years. It was Ozil primarily who drove the youngest German side in 76 years to the semi-final, on the way destroying England 4-1 in Bloemfontein. Ozil is worth it. There is no wish to be unkind here but can the same really be said of Milner? This is the player who, partly because of Fabio Capello's crass tactics, was substituted after just 30 minutes of England's first miserable World Cup match against USA because he was getting the runaround at right midfield by an ordinary Joe of an American full-back. True, he came back to supply the cross for Jermain Defoe's goal in the win against Slovenia and admittedly showed mental toughness. And Milner is a footballer every manager would like in their squad of 25 for his dependability. But Graeme Souness put his talents in context when he was manager of Newcastle. The club, Souness said, would not win anything "with a team of James Milners". Of course it is not Milner's fault that City have forked out so much in a deal which also took Stephen Ireland to Aston Villa. City's owners can afford to gush cash like oil from a fractured pipeline. But, ultimately, a deal which regards Milner more valuable than Fernando Torres, who cost Liverpool £20m, and Wayne Rooney, who cost Manchester United £23m initially, is one which takes English football another step closer to the asylum. It is a deal, too, which encourages the rest in their pursuit of even more cheap foreign imports because buying British is simply not cost effective. The deal threw up two other thoughts. One was the front of Sir Alex Ferguson in attacking the 'Kamikaze spending' of Premier League owners with bulging bank accounts. A bit rich that from a manager who has signed a few dubious cheques himself, most notably for £28.1m for Juan Sebastian Veron back in 2001. The other were the words of Ozil, who turned down the chance to play at Old Trafford to sign for Jose Mourinho at the Bernabeu. "I wanted to work with the best coach in the world and that is Jose Mourinho," said Ozil. "I spoke to Mourinho and he convinced me to come here. This is the best club in the world." Considering Mourinho has landed a footballing magician for £12.4m and City's Roberto Mancini has paid more than twice that for Mr Average, Ozil might just be right.