Newcastle sold James Milner to try and sign Bastian Schweinsteiger – but failed miserably.
Liverpool’s James Milner celebrates scoring
Former Newcastle United coach Terry McDermott has told the Birmingham Mail that the Magpies sold James Milner to Aston Villa in the hope of landing Bastian Schweinsteiger from Bayern Munich.
Milner, 29, has been one of Liverpool’s key players this season, turning in impressive performance under Jurgen Klopp despite switching from playing in midfield to starting at left back.
Liverpool’s James Milner
As Milner receives plaudits for his displays this season, one of his former coaches has revealed why he was sold back in August 2008.
Having broken through at Leeds United, Milner moved on to Newcastle United in 2004, and made almost 150 appearances for the Magpies before he was sold to Aston Villa four years later.
Milner became a star at Villa Park, earning a move to Manchester City in 2010 – but former Newcastle coach Terry McDermott has opened up on the transfer that took him from Tyneside to Villa Park.
Liverpool’s James Milner celebrates scoring
McDermott has told the Birmingham Mail that he and then-manager Kevin Keegan didn’t want to let Milner go, as even though the deal was worth £15m, they didn’t know who was going to replace him.
Newcastle then told Keegan and McDermott that Bastian Schweinsteiger – then of Bayern Munich, now of Manchester United – was heading to St. James’ Park as Milner’s replacement, meaning they were willing to accept a deal for Milner.
However, according to McDermott’s account of events, the day after Milner joined Villa, Newcastle were told they had no chance of signing Schweinsteiger from Bayern, leaving the Magpies short in midfield in a transfer disaster.
Manchester United’s Bastian Schweinsteiger
“We were actually at the club when we sold him, myself and Kevin Keegan,” said McDermott. “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. 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 it’s a no brainer.”
“But after he 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,” he added.
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