James Milner delighted to be out of the Newcastle turmoil

Sep 7 2008 By Lisa Smith

New Aston Villa signing James Milner has revealed his relief at being away from the controversy which is threatening to tear apart his former club on Tyneside.

The 22-year-old midfielder says, while he has great sympathy for the plight of outgoing manager Kevin Keegan at Newcastle United, he is not going to dwell on the thought that it was his £12 million transfer to Villa which is said to have sparked the breakdown in relations between Keegan and Magpies’ owner Mike Ashley.

Milner, speaking after his goal for England Under-21s on Friday night which helped guide Stuart Pearce’s youngsters to the play-off finals for next summer’s European Under-21 Championships in Sweden, said: “It all seems to be fun and games up at Newcastle and there is no doubt it is a real setback for the club.”

Milner, signed by Villa boss Martin O’Neill before last week’s summer transfer deadline, said: “It just shows what is going on behind the scenes and I can understand why the fans are disappointed that the manager has gone but I am delighted to be where I am now, with Aston Villa.

“That chapter has gone now for me with Newcastle. I am a Villa player now and I am delighted and just looking forward to getting stuck in.

“I have only trained once with Villa so far and played for a few minutes in one game (against Liverpool) and my stuff is all still in Newcastle, so it doesn’t really feel like I have moved yet. But I will be back up to Newcastle to get a few things and then back down to get stuck in with Villa this season.”

Milner, whose first-half penalty for England against Portugal at Wembley complemented by a second-half goal by Villa team-mate Gabriel Agboblahor, added: “The problems in Newcastle were probably highlighted by what happened with me.

“Kevin Keegan is a fantastic bloke and I enjoyed working with him very much. He is a great manager but now he has gone and I think he obviously felt that was the right thing to do. I can’t blame him. “

Milner relished his role in the Under 21s’ 2-0 victory and admitted he had been working on his penalties in training.

He said: “Our job was to get through the group – that was step one and now we have got to get through the play-offs which is step two.

“It was nice to get a goal at Wembley and I worked on the penalties the other day so that paid off.

“The manager (Stuart Pearce) told us before the game to make sure we scored first in the first half and to make sure we got the first goal of the second half which we did as well.”

Milner is now the Under-21s’ most capped player with 38 appearances and has found the net 11 times.

He hopes he can continue to impress during his Barclays Premier League appearances at Villa to catch the eye of England senior manager Fabio Capello.

He said: “It is not down to me whether I get a senior call-up – that is up to the manager but what is up to me is putting in the performances week in, week out in the Premier League.

“Hopefully I can keep improving and hopefully, with the players I will have around me every week at Villa, I will keep learning so that I can get to be as good as I possibly can.

“Ultimately it is down to the England manager but I am the one who has to put in the performances to help the manager make that decision.”