Villa star James Milner’s transfer saga took a fresh twist today after potential makeweight Stephen Ireland emerged as a target for Sunderland.

The claret and blues are keen on the 23-year-old midfielder, who is surplus to requirements at Manchester City and could be a part of any deal which would take Milner to Eastlands.

But the Black Cats’ emerging interest could jeopardise any deal for Milner, with manager Steve Bruce hoping to steal a march by opening formal discussions with City officials later this week.

Milner’s future remains up in the air despite talks with Martin O’Neill on his return to training at Bodymoor yesterday, which Villa have described as “amicable.”

The England star and Villa manager held clear-the-air talks after Milner took exception to O’Neill’s claim last week that he told him – before the World Cup – he wanted to leave.

City have so far offered £20million for the midfielder and are only prepared to go to £24million, but Villa are determined to hold out for £30m.

Milner will not be involved in tonight’s friendly at Walsall, sparing him from a potential showdown with the Villa boo-boys, similar to that faced by Gareth Barry at the Banks’s Stadium two years ago.

But the 24-year-old will be part of the Villa squad which jets out to Portugal tomorrow for this weekend’s Guadiana Cup.

A club statement read: “James Milner trained with the rest of the Villa squad (yesterday) at Bodymoor Heath.

“He and the manager, along with the chief executive Paul Faulkner and the player’s representative Matthew Buck, had an amicable conversation.

“While James will not play against Walsall he will fly with the squad to Portugal on Wednesday ahead of the Guadiana Cup, in which Villa will compete with Benfica and Feyenoord this weekend.”

Tottenham appear to be out of the race to sign Milner, with Spurs boss Harry Redknapp playing down speculation linking his club with the England star and Ashley Young.

Asked about the possibility of signing the duo, Redknapp said: “Milner’s way out of our depth while we’ve not made any enquiries for Ashley Young at all.

“I wouldn’t think Villa would want to sell Ashley.”