Milner made a club record £12m switch from Newcastle United at the start of last season and was one of Villa's most consistent performers.

The Villans qualified for the Europa League by finishing sixth in the Barclays Premier League and Milner hopes both he and the club can improve even more for 2009/10.

"Has the move helped me to progress? Massively," said the England U21 international. "It's not easy when there's always talk of your manager getting sacked and turmoil at the club and off-the-field problems.

"It doesn't help you get on with your football so obviously it was a good move for me.

"The club is set up very, very well, the owner, the manager, things like that. And we had a good season.

"We ran out of steam a little bit at the end but we'll be raring to go this season and I'm lucky to be playing with quality players, and working with quality staff who have a lot of knowledge.

"There are massive opportunities here. I try to learn from every game and work hard in training and improve as a player. I just want to improve all the time."

Milner's impressive campaign reached a disappointing conclusion though as he was unable to prevent England suffering a 4-0 defeat to Germany in the final of the European Under-21 Championships in Sweden.