James Milner: Aston Villa will cope without Gareth Barry

Jun 11 2009 by Lisa Smith, Birmingham Mail

JAMES Milner admits the loss of Villa skipper Gareth Barry to Manchester City is bitterly disappointing but insists the team still has enough top-class players to make a real challenge for Champions League football next season.

The England Under-21 winger, in Fabio Capello’s senior squad for the 6-0 hammering of Andorra in a World Cup Qualifier at Wembley last night, said he had every confidence manager Martin O’Neill would bring in some world-class replacements.

Milner, who flies out with Stuart Pearce’s England Young Lions tomorrow for the European Under-21 Championship finals in Sweden, said: “After last summer maybe a move was on the cards for Gareth and there were things being said in the press three-quarters of the way through the year about how we needed Champions League football for him to consider staying.

“But it’s out of our hands now. It’s disappointing for me he has gone because you want to play with the best players and he is definitely one of them as he has proven over the last two seasons.