Discover the Ridiculous Reason James Milner Was Sold to Aston Villa by Newcastle United in 2008
"?Former Newcastle United coach Terry McDermott has finally answered the question on everybody's mind - why his club sold James Milner to Aston Villa in August 2008.
Milner was a promising talent at St. James' Park, having first cut his teeth in the Premier League for Leeds United. Newcastle fans were surprised to see him exit the club during that year's summer transfer window.
Revealed: The REAL reason Newcastle begrudgingly sold James Milner to Aston Villa https://t.co/IH7zwxJNDX pic.twitter.com/W9vkbMGLTP
"We were actually at the club when we sold him, myself and Kevin Keegan," McDermott told the "?Birmingham Mail. "We sold him for 15 million quid."
"The story goes - and this is a true story - we didn't want him to leave but we needed to get other players in because we'd had a bid of 15 million quid."
Which other players were available, you may ask?
"Kevin said 'if we sell him for 15 million quid, how are we going to replace him?' They said 'we've already got one - Schweinsteiger'. He's at Man United now but seven or eight years ago he was a superstar and they said we could get him."
"The idea of accepting the bid of 15 million for Milner, which was a lot of money then, and then we're looking to get Schweinsteiger, so it's a no brainer."
"Disrespectful" #MUFC would be better off with Bastian Schweinsteiger, says Ilkay Gundogan: https://t.co/9n5BKcd6of pic.twitter.com/yHsvJDiFZL
That is the same Bastian Schweinsteiger who is now a World Cup winner, and one of Germany's best ever players - yet Keegan reckoned he could bring him to a Newcastle side which had moved well passed its heyday by 2008.
The answer to enquiries about the German midfielder were unsurprisingly terse.
"But after he's signed for Villa - the day after - we're trying to sign Schweinsteiger and the answer was 'absolutely no chance, it will cost you £50 million if you wanted to buy Schweinsteiger'."
"So we had no one to replace him. But he was irreplaceable anyway because he could play anywhere."
In a statement which essentially translates to 'James Milner was irreplaceable but we tried to replace him', McDermott might be competing with his old boss Keegan's 'I'll never play at Wembley again unless I play at Wembley again' comment.
Lunacy all around.
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