Milner pressing club for answers on contract

Jun 13 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

JAMES Milner’s Newcastle United future should be decided when Kevin Keegan returns from holiday as the Magpies weigh up their options over the 22-year-old.

The winger’s agent is pushing to have talks on a new contract when Keegan is back in the country in a fortnight. Although there is no urgency for the matter to be resolved, it is likely to accelerate the difficult decision United have to make.

In an ideal world, the Magpies would probably like to keep a player who has been one of their most consistent performers in recent seasons. But at a time when the club are looking to cut their wage bill, the demand from the Yorkshireman’s camp for more money complicates – or perhaps simplifies – the issue.

With Liverpool, Middlesbrough and Aston Villa all registering an interest and Everton thought to be monitoring the situation, Newcastle should not find it difficult to cash in on the England Under-21 international (pictured left) should they choose to. If Milner wants to stay on Tyneside, his agent’s actions will do him few favours but if he would prefer to move, they ought to have the desired effect. He is 11 months into a four-year contract at St James’s Park so, in theory, Newcastle could allow the situation to drift but in the current climate it seems highly unlikely they will do so.

The former Leeds United player’s problem is that, although he has been a solid member of the Newcastle squad in recent years, he is yet to make a real impact under Keegan. Milner made eight appearances under Keegan last season at the time when Newcastle’s form was at its poorest. United lost six and drew the other two. He broke his foot in a 3-0 defeat at Liverpool – the final game before results improved – and did not feature again all season.

To make matters worse for him, Newcastle’s wins were achieved playing with a winger-less 4-3-1-2 formation. It remains to be seen if Keegan will stick with that shape next season but the temptation must be there.

Liverpool seem to be the most attractive option for the player if he decides to cut his ties but the Merseysiders appear to view the deal as an opportunity to offload unwanted squad members. Jermaine Pennant is the latest name to be mentioned after a host of largely unknown youngsters were reportedly offered in their initial bid. However, it seems unlikely Pennant would represent an improvement on Milner, either in terms of his abilities as a winger or in reducing the wage bill. But with so many other clubs in the running, they should have few difficulties extracting the terms they want, believed to be in the region of £7m or £8m. Milner played 27 Premier League games on loan at Villa in 2005-06 and nearly signed permanently a few months later, only to be recalled when Mark Viduka’s proposed move from Middlesbrough fell through at the 11th hour.

Keegan’s room for manoeuvre has already been improved by the removal of David Rozehnal, Stephen Carr, Peter Ramage, James Troisi and Emre from the squad.

Meanwhile, Graham Poll has claimed he would have abandoned Ruud Gullit’s last game as Newcastle manager – if only one of the players had asked. The retired referee was in charge of the infamous August 1999 Tyne-Wear derby when the Dutchman selected novice Paul Robinson and left skipper Alan Shearer and Duncan Ferguson on the bench. Within days of Sunderland’s 2-1 victory, Gullit was gone.

The match was played in torrential rain at St James’s Park and Poll has now revealed: “I would have abandoned it if any of the players had asked me to. They didn’t.”