James Milner's Departure Leaves Toon Fans Sweating

The inevitable has happened. James Milner's departure for £10 million to Aston Villa was confirmed on Thursday. And now, after the turbulent and often ridiculous events of the past 48 hours, Newcastle United go in to the final weekend of the transfer window having lost one of their most influential players with no obvious replacement on the horizon.

Kevin Keegan's squad was already threadbare without this latest departure, but now the importance of adding at least three quality players before Monday has become ever more pressing. It's impossible to see where those signings are going to come from and how involved Keegan will be in recruiting the players he wants.

The bizarre nature of United's power balance is in danger of wrecking what has been an ultimately positive start to the season.

It seems crazy to think that the manager has nothing to do with player recruitment, but that is definitely the case at Newcastle these days, with Dennis Wise and Tony Jimenez, the men with the task of adding numbers to a team missing an entire front line due to injury.

Wise and Jimenez themselves have come in for plenty of criticism in recent weeks after the lack of transfer activity over the summer, as well as Michael Owen's contract negotiations taking a back burner.

To be fair to them both, the few signings that they have brought in have fared well in the opening games of the season. Guittierez is an exciting prospect, with his attacking flair and willingness to help out in defence, Danny Guthrie has looked steady in the centre of midfield and is still young and learning at this level, while Collocinni oozes the sort of class that the toon army have been crying out for in the centre of defence.

But now, with three days of frantic transfer activity left, the recruitment specialists will really need to earn their vastly over-inflated wages to save Newcastle's season. That may sound a bit dramatic, but if no more players come in before Sept. 1, then, with such a small squad and a mounting injury list, it'll be hard to see anything but another season of struggle in the offing.

As for Keegan, it's impossible to know what is going through his mind at this difficult time, but one thing he must do is stay and see it through, not for the sake of the hierarchy but for the sanity of the fans. They have seen their messiah leave once before, and that was at a time when Newcastle were the second best team in the country.

It's feasible that now, in a time where he seems to have less and less control of his beloved Magpies, he may turn his back once more.

If that were to happen, Newcastle's renewed optimism, after Mike Ashley's takeover and Keegan's return, could be quickly removed with the club seemingly back to square one.

In this fickle world of football, it would only take a couple of days and two or three more top-class signings for the positivity levels to increase on Tyneside, but with time quickly running out, the Newcastle faithful will have a worrying wait to see who, if anyone, they manage to get.