Sporting the colours of the club they had grown up supporting, the Leeds United and Everton prodigies seemed destined to enjoy glittering careers at domestic and international level.

The pair had been tipped to reach the top from a very young age so when both scored wonder goals in the Premier League at the tender age of just 16 – Milner against Chelsea at Elland Road in the final few days of 2002, and Rooney when champions Arsenal were beaten at Goodison Park a couple of months earlier – a bright future seemed assured.

The reality, however, was rather different with Rooney soon becoming one of the world's brightest stars after tasting considerable success with Manchester United.

By contrast, his Leeds-born contemporary has suffered the ignominy of relegation before spending the next four years contracted to a club where stability is anything but the buzzword and who have a reputation as perennial under-achievers.

It has been a similar story in international football with Milner having to be content with becoming the most capped Under-21 player in history, while Rooney – even allowing for his recent dip in form for the Three Lions – established as one of the senior team's key players.

This status quo could, though, be about to change with Milner this week seeming destined for Aston Villa and a chance to finally realise the potential that once led Harry Kewell to predict: "He is a kid with a great future. When I first saw him in training, he took the ball past three or four defenders with ease and I realised what a good player he was."

Kewell's praise came in the wake of Milner, still 16 at the time and a team-mate, having scored in back-to-back games against Sunderland and Chelsea during the Christmas period of 2002.

The second of those strikes against the Blues at Elland Road, where he left Marcel Desailly flat on his back courtesy of a sublime first touch before curling an unstoppable shot past Ed De Goey, had really made the country sit up and take note.

Unfortunately, a club that were heading for financial disaster could not provide the stability needed for a precocious talent to blossom. His subsequent move to Newcastle hardly improved matters with the man who paid £3.5m for his services, Bobby Robson, being the first of five to occupy the St James' Park hotseat during the past four years.

He also suffered the frustration of Glenn Roeder, who days earlier had told the midfielder he had no future at the club, pulling the plug on a permanent move to Villa in the wake of Newcastle's first attempt to sign Mark Viduka failing. And the reward for being hauled back from the Midlands just as he was about to put pen to paper? Being left out of the next game.

This constant chopping and changing has undoubtedly affected the midfielder's development during his formative years.

But that could all now change with an impending move to a club who should, hopefully, provide the platform for the immensely likeable and down-to-earth Milner to taste the sort of success that his long-time contemporary Rooney has already enjoyed.