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Kevin Keegan has asked Newcastle United supporters to reserve their judgment after James Milner’s £12 million move to Aston Villa. Such is the threadbare nature of Keegan’s squad that the manager will name Joey Barton as a substitute today for the first time since his release from prison, but he remains optimistic that the mood on Tyneside will have lifted by the end of the transfer window.

The merits of losing Milner, even for such an inflated fee, a record for Villa, are debatable — the England Under-21 international fits the player profile that Newcastle have been attempting to sign this summer — but Keegan insisted that the final decision was his. He had previously said that Milner was the “last player Newcastle United want to sell”.

While Milner initiated proceedings by submitting a transfer request, his frustration was prompted by the refusal of Dennis Wise, the club’s executive director, to discuss a pay rise. At a meeting between Keegan, Wise and Mike Ashley, the club’s owner, this week, it was decided to postpone contract talks with Michael Owen, the England forward, and Steve Harper, the goalkeeper, until after Monday’s transfer deadline.

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Owen’s deal has one season to run and according to reports, the England striker has been offered a one-year contract worth £85,000 a week, which would represent an annual pay cut of £1.5 million. Keegan said yesterday that no player is “untouchable”.

In a recent attempt to persuade Newcastle’s corporate supporters to renew their ties with the club, Ashley is said to have promised at least one “wow signing”. Javier Saviola, the Real Madrid and Argentina forward, Arda Turan, the Turkey midfield player, and Luka Modric, the Croatia playmaker who subsequently joined Tottenham Hotspur, have been targeted this summer and names to have been linked with the club range from Florent Malouda, of Chelsea, to the more outlandish such as Thierry Henry, of Barcelona.

“Sometimes you just get to a point where you sit down and say, ‘Yeah, it’s the right time to do this deal,’ ” Keegan said. “You could argue that the clock on the wall, with the deadline three days away, makes it a bit more tricky, but I am pretty confident that we can overcome \ loss.

“It’s a win-win. James has got a fantastic move to a club that he knows, because he’s been on loan there, and we’ve got some more money in the pot. So in the short term it looks: ‘Wow, why have they done that?’ But over a period of time it might be: ‘That’s why.’ We have got to get three or four players in and I am confident we will do that. But I’ll be judged on Monday at 12 o’clock.

“Although I am really disappointed to lose James, we can make a plus out of this. We can maybe slightly go in a different direction.”

For now, that entails a recall for Barton, who has an FA disciplinary hearing into his training-ground assault on Ousmane Dabo, his former Manchester City team-mate, on Friday. Newcastle will be without the injured Damien Duff, Gérémi, Mark Viduka, Alan Smith, Andy Carroll, Obafemi Martins, Claudio Caçapa and Habib Beye when they visit Arsenal this afternoon.

Nile Ranger, a 17-year-old forward, may be involved. “The fans shouldn’t be worried,” Keegan said. “I’m certainly not and if I was worried I would tell them.”

Milner, 22, who had also attracted a bid from Everton, accused his former club of double standards. “I enjoyed every minute at Newcastle and of working with the manager,” he said. “But I knew offers had come in over the summer that the club had turned down. Their valuation of me wasn’t reflected in the deal I was on. A new contract was never discussed.”