James Milner Leaves England Camp To Enter Talks With Liverpool?

Manchester City struggling to fit all their superstars into a squad of just 25, it's expected manager Roberto Mancini will allow a fair few high-earning players to leave the club today on Transfer Deadline Day. We've already heard of Craig Bellamy and Shaun Wright-Phillips who are likely to leave for Queens Park Rangers and now comes an intriguing tweet from Stewart Downing at the England training ground;

"James Milner has left the England camp. Don't ask me why"

Now is Downing saying 'don't ask me why' because he simply doesn't know - OR - does he actually know but can't tell anyone. There's rumours being battered around that Downing's club Liverpool might be interested in making a last minute move for James Milner as Kenny Dalglish continues his incredible 'buy British' spending spree. And if the interest is genuine, the likelihood is it would have to be a permanent deal because City are extremely unlikely to allow such a top player leave to a top 6 Premier League rival which would be counter productive. It's ok letting fringe players leave to a side who are looking to survive but with Liverpool wanting to hit the top four and beyond, it just ain't gonna happen. Milner moved to Manchester City a year ago in a £26 million move including Stephen Ireland going the other way to Aston Villa... so it's hard to imagine Liverpool putting in a £30 million offer to buy the player whose stock won't have lost much value in 12 months. Very, very interesting and we will monitor the situation as it develops. But Milner to Liverpool is one of today's rumours we can't quite buy yet.