In the corridors at the Ricoh Arena, trouble was brewing. Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United had just survived a late comeback from Coventry City to win a League Cup tie after extra-time.
James Milner, who had handed in a transfer request, was named man of the match. It was late August 2008, days before the window closed, and Aston Villa were circling.
Villa were desperate to reunite with the England Under-21 international, who had spent a season on loan at the club three years earlier, but Keegan was holding strong.
Eventually, the pressure told. Days later, Milner was unveiled in the Midlands and it was announced that Newcastle had pocketed £12million for the player. Publicly, Keegan, who had spent the entire saga insisting he wanted Milner to remain at St James’ Park, claimed the decision to let him leave was his.
“He’s a player, in an ideal world, you would not want to lose,” Keegan told Sky Sports News at the time. “But I just want to make it absolutely clear that at the end of the day, it was my decision to sell him. We got an offer that I feel was his value.”
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