Departure:
Milner goes
Aston Villa confirmed on their official website that they have completed the transfer of James Milner after he passed his medical at their Bodymoor Heath training ground on Friday morning.
A fee of £12m is being mentioned, but we understand that figure is the total payable with various add-ons - and an undisclosed percentage will be due to former club Leeds United due to a sell-on clause.
It remains to be seen whether the owner will take his place in the away end tomorrow. Put it this way - that wasn't the "wow" signing we anticipated....
The current top brass certainly seem to be sticking to their declared policy of developing young talent and selling them on - with Milner's value having doubled since we paid £5m to bring him from Leeds in 2004.
Where that policy falls down though is when one looks at the size of the squad that remains - with a mixture of the discredited (Barton, Smith Duff, Ameobi) and the novice (of the 38 players now at SJP with squad numbers, no less than 16 have never played Premier League football).
It's a case of third time lucky for Villa with the 22 year -old, after he was shipped out to them on a season-long loan deal in August 2005 as Nolberto Solano came the other way, while Michael Owen joined from Real Madrid.
He then returned to SJP after having played 33 games in all competitions, scoring three times, to find that Roeder had replace Souness.
Recalled to the Newcastle side for our opening Intertoto Cup game in Norway, Milner had made five appearances when he stepped off the field for United at Villa Park in late August 2006.
Within hours though he was back in the Midlands, arriving at the Villa training ground after a transfer was agreed - only to then be recalled to Tyneside after our attempts to sign Viduka from the smoggies collapsed.
Milner's 100th start in a Newcastle shirt came on Tuesday at Coventry, after which it was revealed by the club that he had submitted a transfer requested some days before - barely a year after signing an improved contract.
It seemed clear that while he had no desire to leave Tyneside, Milner's move came out of frustration that he'd failed to achieve parity with his contemporaries at SJP - and had recently fallen further behind in the wage stakes.
The success of the public and private campaign to get Steven Taylor an improved contract seems to have been the trigger for this discontent and eventual departure.
It's just over a month since Milner's fellow England U21 international was awarded a new £35K a week three-year deal, after Mike Ashley's intervention.
That was seen partly as a reward for services rendered to date and also as an investment in the club's future by securing talent that had begun to develop here.
The argument appears to have been that Milner matched Taylor in those respects, but signed a contract in 2007 that was equal only to that which Taylor was already on - and the hoped-for parity has not been forthcoming.
There's also a realisation that Milner's departure would see him replaced by an unknown quantity, with no track record at this club - or maybe even in this league, country or continent - but who would command the level of wages Milner had sought.
Under those circumstances, the question is being asked of Newcastle, why take the risk and end up with another Emre or Luque etc. etc.
Having played his proverbials off for two hours on Tuesday night, there was no doubting Milner's on-field commitment - especially as the transfer request had been made by that point, although not disclosed publicly.
After all, many other players would have conjured up an injury in order to avoid playing and being cup-tied.
Frustrations about his variable shooting and distribution remained, but even when his touch deserted him, he never hid and his work rate remained undiminished - little wonder then that Keegan liked him so much.
In our eyes Milner's genuine graft and honesty provided an antidote to the feeling that we've signed mercenaries, thugs and conmen in recent years.
And having breathed a sigh of relief when the likes of Dyer, Jenas and Kluivert took their baggage and egos elsewhere, we feel the opposite about a man who to us was the very essence of anti-bling.
No Hello Magazine appearances, no pimp my ride or cribs -type nonsense, no car crashes, no night club antics, no grappling in the street. A game of darts appeared to be his major vice....
To see a trio of gutless wonders who've done sweet FA for this club in the shape of Duff, Barton and Smith remain here on mega money while Milner goes sticks in our throat.
And we've not even started on the £100K+ horserace owner and his future.
If a football club is to go forward, then players that leave the team have to be replaced by an improved player in that position - note that we don't consider Duff to be in that category.
Our loyalty to individual Newcastle players ceased a long time ago - our line remains that anyone can go if they're not happy.
£10m+ may be considered good business for Milner - but only if that money is used to improve the team. We remain to be convinced whether that can be achieved in any timescale - let alone the days we have remaining.
On that basis to allow Milner to leave seems illogical and says much about the current state of affairs at SJP, including the manager's diminished influence this time around. It's not like it was in the brochure.
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