Frankly, I think you are prepared to sell us a bit short. We don't have too many assets with which we can screw money out of the CL clubs if that is what Lerner says we need to do. We must surely ask for more than £24m? And Carrick + £8m would leave us distinctly down on the deal in my view.I understand what you're saying, but I think that we could cause more harm than good by putting a big fee on him. We were asking for £18m for Barry 2 years ago when he was already an England regular, can we really ask for more than £24m for Milner who there are still possible question marks about even being in the world cup squad? (albeit small ones).
As for the Carrick part of my post, I think he would be a terrific player for us, he has an eye for a defence splitting pass that I think Gabby would thrive on. He's gone off the boil a little bit this season, but MON's main strength is man-management and look at how he has revived Richard Dunne's career.