Villa’s Milner D-Day? (D = Doug?)

Despite Glenn Roeder saying Newcastle United are in no rush to decide the future of James Milner the players agent, Mick McGuire, says that Milner will hold talks with Villa today (Friday).

As we reported earlier in the week, Roeder said ‘James Milner has had a very good season at Villa and has impressed David O’Leary. But I will be sitting down with the chairman at the end of the week to discuss the whole squad. That will include discussing James’ future as well. We don’t have to rush into making a decision on James and until I’ve met with the chairman, nothing will be decided.’ Today is the day he meets Freddie and today is meant to be the day that the agent talks with Villa.

Something doesn’t quite add up there?! The agent can’t talk to Villa until Newcastle give him permission, if Roeder hasn’t made up his mind, then he won’t have given permission.

Aston Villa boss David O´Leary wants everyone to know that Milner wants to play for him and has repeated it several times! O´Leary said: ‘The only assurance James asked was ´how long am I going to be at Villa, how long is my contract?´ His agent also rang me and asked the same question.’

However a report by Tim Nash in the Express and Star suggests that Doug Ellis might ruin any chances we have of signing Milner because he wants O’Leary to raise the money from player sales FIRST.

O’Leary had been led to believe that the £1.5million from the sale of Nolberto Solano was available to spend and that he would be able to bring in Milner without further squad cutting. He should know Doug better than that now though?

According to the report Paris St Germain, Sporting Lisbon and Benfica are all after Eric Djemba-Djemba for a fee in the region of £750 000. Another cool loss for Villa.

Mathieu Berson is also likely to be sold with Auxerre being the most likely destination although the £1million move could be scuppred after manager Jacques Santini left.

The plain truth is, although Villa will sell almost any player, no firm offers have yet been made.