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A former Newcastle coach has revealed the real reason the club sold James Milner to Aston Villa.

The player was begrudgingly allowed to leave St James' Park in August 2008.

Ex-Toon coach Terry McDermott has now lifted the lid on the move to Villa Park , which he and boss Kevin Keegan were reluctant about, the Birmingham Mail reported .

He revealed the Magpies allowed Milner to leave because they thought they could sign Bastian Schweinsteiger for the same money.

But their hopes of landing the German star were scuppered when they were quoted more than THREE times the cost.

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(Image: Birmingham Post and Mail)

Milner went on to become a popular figure at Villa for the next two seasons under Martin O'Neill before a big money move to Manchester City in 2010.

It is believed Villa snapped up the versatile midfielder for £12 million, although McDermott has suggested the fee was more like £15 million.

"We were actually at the club when we sold him, myself and Kevin Keegan," he recalled.

"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.

(Image: Birmingham Post and Mail)

"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.

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

"But after he's 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."