‘Don’t judge sale of Milner just yet’

Aug 30 2008 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

Kevin Keegan argued he could not condone the sale of James Milner on Tuesday night but Newcastle United’s manager was singing from a completely different hymn sheet yesterday. Chief sports writer Luke Edwards reports.

HE did not have to stand on the steps at St James’s Park to explain his decision to an angry mob, but Kevin Keegan knows the decision to allow James Milner to join Aston Villa yesterday is his most controversial transfer deal since Andy Cole joined Manchester United 13 years ago.

On Tuesday night, after Milner had scored against Coventry City in the Carling Cup, Keegan responded to renewed speculation surrounding the midfielder’s future by declaring the 22-year-old was the last player he wanted to lose.

Three days later and having tipped the former Leeds United prospect to break into Fabio Capello’s full England squad this season, Keegan insisted yesterday he made the decision to sell the player because it would benefit the squad in the long term.

As far as the conspiracy theorists are concerned, Keegan had been ordered to toe the party line by owner Mike Ashley and the rest of the Newcastle board who sanctioned the move.

But there was a buoyancy and a bounce about Newcastle’s manager ahead of the trip to Arsenal today which suggested he believes he is going to replace Milner with better players in a number of positions.

If Keegan’s confidence is right and the club are able to unveil three or four world-class signings before Monday night, then the loss of the hard-working Milner will be accepted with the good grace that comes with a good piece of business.

If he is wrong and no new players arrive – or at least not the required number – the loss of Milner will not only be acutely felt in terms of the first-team squad, it will spark fury on the terraces.

“In the ideal world he’s a player I wouldn’t want to lose, but I want to make it clear it was my decision to sell him,” said Keegan, who also described his meeting with Ashley on Wednesday as “excellent”.

“We got an offer that I felt matched his value. I think he’s got the move he wanted. What has happened is right for everybody, but I can understand why some people will be disappointed.

“The fans shouldn’t be worried. I’m certainly not – and, if I was, I would tell them.

“I did want to keep James Milner and what I said after the Coventry game was right.

“But there comes a point where a deal is right to do.

“If you look in the past at my managerial record, I’ve not been afraid to sell players as well as buy them, Andy Cole will come to mind.”

Keegan has a point. While Milner has always been a willing worker and nobody could ever question his attitude or application, he has failed to make the anticipated progress since he moved from Leeds for £3.5m four years ago. In many respects, the winger was a promising England Under-21 international when he arrived and he leaves as little more than that for a fee which is almost three times what the Magpies paid.

However, if the thoughts behind the sale do make sense, the timing does not, unless Newcastle are going to unveil another two midfielders of a better pedigree than Milner in the next 72 hours.

“You could argue about the clock on the wall,” admitted Keegan. “With the deadline three days away, it makes it a bit more tricky – and I wouldn’t disagree with you on that.

“But nevertheless I’m pretty confident we can overcome his loss in the next three days, in different ways.

“It might not just be one player, it might be two. It’s a win-win, James has got a fantastic move to a club that he knows.

“And we’ve got some more money in the pot should we choose to use it in this window or the next.

“It’s there for us. It’s not a sale we had to do, but at the end of the day we said ‘Yes, we should do it now’. It’ll be judged over a period of time, won’t it? It’ll be judged on lots of things, which we will have some control over, some we won’t – who we get in, what we will do with the money in the next window, if we don’t get people in. People will judge it on how James does at Villa and so on.

“The timing is the hardest part to take, but that’s football. Everyone thinks they’re going to do their business six weeks before the transfer deadline and the reality is that, here we are, three days before and you know that the movement in the next three days will be twice as much.”

Quite where Newcastle turn now in their frantic bid to strengthen the squad before Monday’s deadline remains to be seen, but it must be hoped the specialist recruitment team of Dennis Wise and Tony Jimenez have got something special up their sleeves.

United’s supporters – and manager – have been extremely patient since Ashley took over last summer and it is time for that patience to be rewarded. More people will be questioning the direction the club is moving, despite the encouraging start to the season.

Keegan added: “The owner is 100% committed to this club. I would think there is a very good chance of getting three or four players in, but Mike Ashley can only give us the ammunition – that is the finance.

“We have to go and find the players and they have to be right players. So far we haven’t seen a massive influx of players, but I don’t think any fans will argue that the ones we’ve fetched in they see as quality and as the right sort of players for Newcastle United. We want more of those excellent signings before Monday night.

“The secret is to pick the right ones, it’s to make sure that if you are going to let a good player go, you replace him with another quality player who maybe can take you in a slightly different direction as a team.”