Villa's Milner bid is blocked
Villa major shareholder Randy Lerner was prepared to push through the transfers of Stilian Petrov and James Milner despite Doug Ellis allegedly blocking the deals. New boss Martin O'Neill spent his kitty from outgoing chairman Ellis with the £6.5m initial fee for Celtic midfielder Petrov.
Villa then agreed a £4m fee for Newcastle winger Milner and the deal was set to go through before the Magpies pulled the plug yesterday afternoon after failing to sign Middlesbrough striker Mark Viduka.
At the start of the week, Lerner was still short of the 75 per cent he needs to constitute a takeover, and Ellis reportedly insisted there was not enough cash in the bank to finance the transfers.
Ellis suggested Lerner put up his own money after apparently arguing that if the takeover didn't go through, the club would be left insolvent.
Lerner's advisors rejected that idea because he wasn't in possession of the 75 per cent.
But with Lerner very close to buying up all the shares, the club's bankers sanctioned the deal only for it to collapse.
O'Neill and Milner today revealed their joint disappointment at the collapse of the player's transfer to Villa.
"We're very disappointed but there's nothing we can do about it," said O'Neill.
"There were no late hitches - as far as we were concerned, the fee, personal terms and everything had been agreed.
"So it came as a shock to us all when Newcastle recalled him in the middle of the afternoon.
"It was entirely their perogative because he's their player and we did everything we could to try and resurrect the deal but it was not to be."
Milner's agent Mick McGuire said today: "James is disappointed because he was told the deal was done and so his heart was set on going to Villa."
Having agreed everything with Newcastle, O'Neill was happy with his week's work at signing Petrov and Milner.But he was left frustrated last night knowing the extra money could have been used to strengthen another area of the team.