by Paul Williams

James Milner is not a signing to win you the league title, says Ronnie O’Sullivan

Ronnie O’Sullivan, the greatest snooker player in the history of the game, is a Gooner.

He is also currently co-hosting the Midweek Matchzone show on Phoenix FM, broadcast in Brentwood and Billericay. On Thursday night’s show, Ronnie – known to snooker fans across the globe as “The Rocket” – laughed off the idea that Arsenal had missed out on the former Manchester City man.

He said,

“You’re not gonna win the league with Milner, let’s have it right. You need people like Yaya Touré.”

It seems odd that it is a man from another sport, albeit a true giant of his particular discipline, providing the reality check to deluded Scousers, but perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.

A year after Arsenal beat Liverpool to the signing of Alexis Sanchez (baby!), Phil Thompson is clearly still smarting. The former Liverpool defender said on Thursday,

“It looks as though we’ve beaten Arsenal to his signature and that’s a massive positive for the club.”

Whilst I have no doubt James Milner may provide Liverpool with a bridge out of the Steven Gerrard era, that’s largely because Liverpool don’t seem to have much of a midfield. Which may be why Liverpool finished 6th last season.

However, I doubt Arsenal, with the likes of Rosicky and Wilshere largely sidelined this season due to the form of Cazorla, Alexis, Ramsey and Özil, would have much of a use for the former Manchester City utility man.

If Arsenal are looking to win the Premier League next season, and we all hope they are, they need to be looking at players with a lot more quality than James Milner. You want to improve on 6th? He might just be your guy.

Interestingly, the Essex legend went on to say that he felt Arsenal, aside from Alexis were lacking in killer instinct and needed to spend £40-50m on a midfielder to have a chance of winning the league. Another £40m midfielder, Ronnie?

Yes, it seems that Ronnie subscribes to the popular view that Arsenal are “pretty on the eye”, but lacking a bit when the going gets tough. Farbeit for me to quibble with one of my favourite sportsmen, but it’s almost as if he’s never heard of Francis Coquelin.

In fairness to “The Rocket”, his assertion that the Arsenal “are not a title winning team” when compared to the likes of Chelsea and the two Manchester clubs can’t be disproved from the evidence of the last decade.

Let’s hope for a change next season.