Aston Villa News 24/7Writer: Site Staff 
Date:Friday August 29 2008
Time: 1:34PM
UK time is: 11:25:43
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Milner Completes Move To Villa
Aston Villa have confirmed the return of England Under-21 international James Milner to Villa Park.
Milner, who spent a season on loan to Villa during David O'Leary's reign and very nearly signed a couple of seasons ago when Martin O'Neill took the helm has finally signed a permanent deal for the claret and blues.
As we reported earlier, the 22-year-old completed a medical at Bodymoor Heath this morning and has since signed a four year deal.
Milner told the official site: 'A lot has happened at this club since I was last here and I'm obviously delighted to be back. I was so close a couple of years ago but now I'm back. We've got a new training ground and a lot of new faces - on the staff and in the playing squad. This is a club on the way up and things have got better and better every season since I was last here. It's an exciting time to be here. This is a great place to be now. There's lots of young English talent. The top-four are the top-four and Aston Villa are getting better and better. We should be challenging now and as we look to improve we will be challenging. We're in the UEFA Cup this season and hopefully we'll do well in that. The next step then is obviously the Champions League. That's what we're working towards.'
He also says that Martin O'Neill was a massive draw from him and admits he was ready to sign two years ago because of the Villa boss.
Milner came within minutes of joining Villa in Martin O'Neill's first summer at the club before being recalled by then Newcastle boss Glenn Roeder.
Adding, 'I'm obviously a lot more experienced than when I was last here but I'm still young and still learning. This is a superb place to be with the players, the manager and the coaching staff we have here. With the set-up that we have here now, if I can't become a better player with Aston Villa, I'm not going to develop anywhere.'
Great signing I reckon and so do another 68% who voted in our last poll which asked what you thought the Milner signing (yet to be done then) would be:
A great signing (68%)
A good signing (20%)
Would rather Shaun Wright-Phillips (9%)
An average signing (2%)
A poor signing (1%)
Unsure (0%)
So there you go, another good step to Villa pushing the top four.
NEXT!!!!!!!!!!!!!?
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Your Comments
Get in!!!!!! great signing.how times have changed as we continue buying teams best players as in milner,cueller,friedel,young etc etc. think arsenal and liverpool will definately be looking over their shoulders now. just goes to show never ever doubt MON. now to beat them scouse *****s on sunday now to round it all off. UTV
Belfast Villain
Absolutely chuffed to bits with getting Milner - he's a player I've wanted us to get hold of every transfer window since the Barcodes recalled him from signing for us. Easily my first choice for our RW, and he should hopefully go straight in to the side for Sunday - no excuse at all for putting NRC there now...UTV!!!!!!!
Mayo_12
Not a bad signing but you've reportedly paid £10M!!! Surely that's way too much even with today's inflated prices? I'd have thought about £6M
Blade1889
A good honest signing, bargain at 10million.
DO'L
Supply and demand bladeboy. If we had offered £6m then Milner would still be a barcode. Thing is, should he perform well in Europe then he is likely to get England recognition at senior level. Considering his age, that will probably raise his value to double what we paid. Even a £10m it is a sound football and business move.
voiceoftheholte
an old WWF reference. MON is like the mountie " he always gets his man" get in there now go stuff liverpoo on sunday.
1982benny
Was MON in Monaco when Milner put pen to paper? Would this mean that MOn has been out of the country for all our signings but Davies?
Tez86
Put it this way: If Milner's worth £10M, Barry's worth £30M!
Blade1889
Two creative wingers who can score as well, looking forward to Sunday now with a bit more optimism.
chris the villan
I think £10million for Milner will prove to be a snip. He's still only 22, but has more top flight experience than 70% of other teams' signings that have come from the continent (Spurs, anyone?), and in my opinion has more than enough potential to be a match for Ashley Young on the opposite flank. Big John shouldn't have many excuses for not bagging the goals now - he shouldn't be short of supply at least! Top notch signing, and he's only going to get batter.
Mayo_12
I wanted him at Goodisonnn! *STAMPS FEET!* blehh! good player, you're putting together a nice squad there!
toffeetower
ps, beat Liverpool! Easy! :P
toffeetower
We will beat them Toffeetower but make sure you lads beat them as well then we are laughing!!!
Tez86
Cheers toffee tower. Fingers crossed we will beat the poo on Sunday!
Villa4Europe
Great signing!! Up The Villa
UTV
also worth saying i was totally gutted when we didn;t get him 2 years ago. he was our best player the year we had him on loan and he was only 19
UTV
All we need now are two balls, one for each wing
Gordonsleftboot
I think we need FEAR to get a Toon perspective interview type thingy on this signing, to see if hes both honest, good and a bunch of lads.
DO'L
Very happy. This news has just turned what for me has been a crap day into a good one.
Adam Deuce
Who said a poor signing????? Any winger would be an improvement over having Nige on the right!!! Milner is class, and should be excellent. Saturdays team: Friedel, L.Young, Cuellar, Laursen, Shorey. Milner, Petrov, Barry, A.Young. Gabby, Big John. - possibly Milner to the left and Ashley to the right...
NorthcliffeBandit
The only downside to this is that he may have been infected by the filth known as 'Bowyer', 'Smith', and worst of all 'Dacourt'. Mentioning them makes me feel dirty...uuuughhh. Pray to McGrath that that isn't the case. Otherwise excellent news!!
NorthcliffeBandit
Villa and Everton 3rd and 4th hehe! :D
toffeetower
Great signing, we were crying out for some balance and threat apart from Young so hats off to all. I get that as between £45m and £50m on players this summer now. Is there another team in Europe, let alone England that has spent as much??
Erdington_Villa
toffeetower wouldn't that be simply wonderful! but how about 1st and 2nd?
NorthcliffeBandit
Man City 40mil, Sunderland 30mil, Spurs 40mil+, Villa around 45mil. These are only rough guestimations as i know the reported figures for the undisclosed fees for Villa better than i can guess the undisclosed fees for the other teams. But still, it shows a fair bit of ambition; ambition that wasn't clear at the beginning of the transfer window.
AstonMartinOneill
I'm so made up...nearly all of my request have come in with the main exception being Bent...still time tho...maybe Benni McCarthy? Man City are gonna crumble this season regardless of Jo and SitonbenchWP arriving....docked points by EPL when Frank is convicted and they'll be selling like mad.....Sunderland will be new Blackburn and survive easily until their mercenaries move on and Spurs will challenge with us unless Ramos doesn't get a handle on the EPL style...me feels he's buying too many foreigners and making the same mistake as JOL. Year 3 of our 5 year plan is looking ace.
koolbill
honestly, milner is worth the whole 10m and then some. but being honest, again - i like to tell it like it is - should villa fans care about the cost? we have a new awesome, minted chairman and when he came in, it was as if we sold eric djemba-djemba for £600 million quid.
ric112
Milner is an excellent signing. Really happy with that. We now are a pretty good 1st 11 with good balance. We now need to finish 5 or 6th in the EPL and have good UEFA and FA cup runs. That'll be progress in my eyes considering we probably over achieved last season - may be due to the lack of a cup run! 5th with a good 6-9 point difference to 6th would be nice. I still think we need another striker. Personally I'd like us to get a 30y old experienced quality player with european experience - Eidur Gudjohnsen anyone. He'd help bring Gabby and Delfouneso on
AVFC_WSM
Great signing. Once again, we've been thwarted in our attempts. Wish he'd come to Goodison but I think as soon as he became available, Villa was always going to be his first choice. Now do us all a favour and beat the RS this weekend!!
Toffee Joe
Welcome home James WE HAVE MISSED YOU
50 years a villan
Is he definitely registered in time to play on Sunday? We are due a win against these barstewards and this could be the lift we need.
Cropley
Tip top signing. Who was the 1% i demand to know his name so i can laugh at you when he proves you wrong. Bring in Laursen & we will defo get 4th
TuBBz
Well said, 50 years! I'm really quite emotional about this one - two years of waiting will do that, I suppose...
Athens Villa
Congrats! always been a fan of the kid and it'll be interesting to see he and A.Young alternating sides and causing all sorts of trouble. Shame for our old boy routledge though, he had a good game last night but probably won't get a look in now
Dave the Yid
I am thrilled i have been wanting him back here since his loan,Yet again randy backs o`neill 100%,Yet again o`neill gets a young quality english player,GET IN THERE!!!!!!
lerneravfc
Kevin Keegan talking about James Milner:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/7587996.stm
He sounded reasonable, fair and sympathetic - gone up in my estimation. Note to the fat waiter: THIS is how you conduct yourself in the transfer market.
Athens Villa
Revenge soon for liverpool cheat to victory early last season - that little *****er gerrard hurling himself to ground when petrov didn't bloody touch him. The red scouse are cheating baztards all the time! eg. Carragher hauling lescott over in the box twice last year!
I really hope we tan em
NorthcliffeBandit
YES! COME ON YOU LIIIIIIIONS!
PiperUK
"Shame for our old boy routledge though ... probably won't get a look in now" - yes he will, Dave, we will need all the players we have, and that is the whole point of having good quality squad players. I personally hope he (and all of our great squad) can prove the doubters wrong.
BobTheBuilder
Cheers bob, saved me the trouble of a similar reply. Cheers also to Dave - twill be interesting to see who does better this season
NorthcliffeBandit
Best player at Newcastle and the England U21s and a bargain at 22. Guess Liverpool couldn't afford another player as everyone saw how sh11te their wings were the other day.Only Friedel, Laursen and Carew (possibly Petrov)aren't English in our first team now. Well pleased.
Villan444
Some guy was slagging him off in the Brum Mail Your shout column today, i'd love to get his address and give him a slap. Obviously hasnt seen him play in last 2 years. Creates a whole load of new options given that he can play either wing, will take pressure of Young aswell in terms of an outlet. Cant wait for sunday now!!!!
MOGVILLA
Great news I think we have been very 1 dimensional with everything going through Young this will give opposing defences a lot more to think about now , I hope our defence gels quickly then we can wrack up the points Happy days
scoops
Excellent.. Been camping in the woods for 3 days and come back to Barry staying and Milner signing... Looking forward to Sunday - UTV!!!!
Instrumental
I'd love it if we beat them!!! With SG out there is a good chance but we'll need to defend an order of magnitude better against Torres otherwise we'll be 3 down at HT.
AVFC_WSM
Superb piece of business by MON. Certainly solves our wide right problem, a young man fully established as a genuine top quality premiership player, with his best years very definitely ahead of him.
glensider
£10million is a bargain Blade1889, where are you coming from? If you want to compete, be successful, you pay the money and bring quality in, If you want to be a losing club, down in the minor leagues, you keep your money in your pocket and drift into oblivion.
glensider
Fantastic signing, one thing that you will get from Jim is 100% commitment, and his ability to run all day.Great engine and he will help maintain the tempo of the side.Get Siddy fit and him and Barry in the middle, along with the balance in the side, we will be a handful.Still think we need another striker, and I think Doyle will be the man!!...never been a better chance to spank the scousers, and the fat waiter is gonna get both barrell's from the holte.UTV
OneloveVilla
Great signing - welcome back James ! Now get out there and help us stuff Red Scouse !
ExpatVillaShirt
come on you villa boys!!! great signing!
revival4us
i remember hearing some people question how much we paid for AYoung... watch this space
revival4us
Great signing - that lad will go far. I like the way Villa have done their deals; no fuss and no getting your captain to try and 'tap up' his mates. After 'needing' Barry, SG has gone very quiet. I wonder if MON had NRC at right-back against FH with a view to having Milner on the wing?
SuperTommyJohnson
loving it. we are improving so much.
ric112
When we're an attacking team form both sides of the pitch and knocking them in like crazy his price will seem a snip. This is a great day.
gwyllum18
Cant think for one minute that Kevin Keegan is overly happy with this sale. A move sanctioned by the board and Dennis Wise I wonder?
glensider
Agreed chaps. Taking into account what James Milner will give us, whatever fee we've paid out has to be worth it. Good business by MON and RL.
glensider
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