Aston Villa will hold preliminary talks with James Milner and his agent before the World Cup to establish whether the England international wants to stay with the club. Villa intend to use the meeting to outline their plans as they seek to persuade the midfielder to agree a new contract and resist a lucrative move to Manchester City. Milner is keen to meet Villa to discuss broader issues, including the club's direction and their ability to bring in players that would enable them to compete with the Premier League's leading teams, before making a decision.
With free time at a premium because of Milner's commitments with England, the meeting will take place on either 31 May or 1 June, after the friendlies against Mexico and Japan and before Fabio Capello's squad fly to South Africa, on 2 June, for the World Cup finals. Paul Faulkner, Villa's chief executive, will meet Milner and his agent, although it is unclear whether Randy Lerner, the club's chairman, and Martin O'Neill, the manager, will attend.
Although Villa have spoken of their intention to offer Milner a contract to replace his existing deal, which has two years to run, the club have yet to put any figures in front of the player. Whether that changes when the parties get together remains to be seen, with Villa understood to view the meeting as an opportunity to gauge Milner's mood rather than a chance to get him to put pen to paper. It appears that at best Villa hope to get a verbal agreement from Milner.
That scenario looks highly unlikely, however, with Milner expected to decide he has a better chance of fulfilling his ambitions by following his former Villa team-mate Gareth Barry to Eastlands. City have yet to make a second bid, after their opening offer of £20m was rejected on Wednesday, but their determination to sign Milner is such that it is a matter of when and not if they will test Villa's resistance again.
Villa are determined to take a firm stance over the issue, as they did when Liverpool unsuccessfully pursued Barry two years ago, but the combination of City's financial muscle and Milner's head being turned means that they could be facing a losing battle this time.
