Never let a player leave to join your rivals

You may have thought Manchester City would have assessed the situation with Frank Lampard and taken this as a given.

Milner has made it clear that money is not the primary motivator behind his decision to delay signing a new deal with the Premier League champions and wants to be guaranteed playing time.

Obviously that is a hard assurance for Manuel Pellegrini to make but there is no way he cannot offer some comfort and persuasion to Milner and make him feel his role at the club is important.