The secret to James Milner’s longevity as he stands on brink of Premier League history | OneFootball

It was the first day of Jurgen Klopp’s last pre-season as Liverpool manager, and his players were charged with doing laps of pitches on their Kirkby training ground. At the end, Klopp, with a huge grin, said: “And the James Milner award goes to…” Mohamed Salah was the exhausted recipient but only, probably, by default, because Milner had left. He had won Liverpool’s lactate test every year he was at Anfield, even into his mid-thirties. Liverpool had shown the footage in 2019; Joe Gomez, 11 years Milner’s junior, was his last rival, but inexorably, the running machine dropped him, the defender falling ever further behind.

As Milner stands one game away from equalling Gareth Barry’s record of 653 Premier League appearances, it is because he has kept on running for longer than anyone else. Since 2002, he has played top-flight football for 24 seasons, at 16 and at 40 and every age in between. His first-team bow was closer to the 1970s than to today. When he debuted, he had sat on the Leeds bench along with Nigel Martyn, who was born in 1966. He has been a Brighton teammate of Harry Howell, born in 2008, after Milner had made 226 senior appearances. He has played for managers born in 1933 and 1993, in Bobby Robson and Fabian Hurzeler.

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James Milner, seen here aged 16 and 40, is both the second-youngest and second-oldest goalscorer in Premier League history (Getty)

Milner has straddled eras or, perhaps more accurately, kept running through them. The rest of the football world has changed but one man has remained the same. Precociously mature, forever grounded, always teetotal, Milner was the oldest 16-year-old in the business. Now his fitness levels may make him the youngest 40-year-old.

He is almost three years older than the next oldest to take the field in the Premier League this season, in Seamus Coleman. But then his current manager, Hurzeler, was only nine when Terry Venables brought Milner on against the West Ham of David James, Nigel Winterburn and Paolo Di Canio to play the first of those 653 games. Venables, by the way, is one of four England managers Milner has played for at club level, along with Robson, Kevin Keegan and Sam Allardyce.

There have been 22 in all. Most valued him, some marvelled at him – Klopp, who said years ago that Milner would play until he was 40, more than most – and one famously underestimated him. Graeme Souness once declared that “you won’t win the league with James Milners”. Manchester City did, and Liverpool. Liverpool won the Champions League with him, too.

And the chances are that most managers would have preferred multiple James Milners to just the one. His remarkable versatility is a reason why. Milner has played every outfield position except centre-back. During a City injury crisis in 2014, Milner stood in as a striker, used his formidable fitness to drag defenders out of position and allowed his teammates to be prolific. A year and a half later, Klopp reinvented him as a left-back for a season.

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Milner brought creativity as well as work ethic to Manchester City’s first two Premier League title-winning sides before becoming Mr Reliable for Liverpool (Getty)

Each was a sign of a player who, perhaps without a defining characteristic beyond his running, could nevertheless do virtually everything to a high level. Manuel Pellegrini benched Milner too often but called him “England’s most complete player”. It made him the ultimate odd-job man, never hiding his preference for a central-midfield role, spending much of the first half of his career on either flank and some of the second half deputising as a full-back on either side. When Liverpool beat Barcelona 4-0 in 2019, a result so seminal even the normally stoical Milner was in tears at the end, he played the second 45 minutes as a stand-in left-back against Lionel Messi.

The Argentinian called Milner a “donkey” during the game, perhaps not realising he spoke Spanish. It is not the only time he has been undervalued. His ordinariness can be deceptive, given how extraordinary his career has been. He has been sent off by his former PE teacher, Jon Moss, in the Premier League. He has been nutmegged by Messi, but got the better of him.

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Milner and Messi locked horns during the 2019 Champions League semi-finals... (Getty)

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... but Milner had the last laugh as Liverpool went through and he became a European champion (Getty)

He got a Champions League assist record: nine in a season in 2017-18. Milner has rarely been called a flair player – as a paragon of Yorkshire common sense, flair might feel a frippery – but the quality of his crossing still makes him creative. He can seem the least stylish or spectacular of the footballers with the 10 most assists in Premier League history but, aided by longevity, he is on the leaderboard. His penalty-taking was characteristically matter-of-fact but very effective. Klopp tended to send him up first in a shootout, seeing a guarantee of a goal in Milner.

Now, Milner is first in another respect. Thousands of footballers have appeared in the Premier League, but none have made more appearances. He has emulated Barry, a teammate for Aston Villa, City and England, another great constant, another whose dull public persona perhaps blinded too many to his talents for too long. Barry’s record seemed safe when a knee injury last season left Milner wondering if he would be able to walk properly again.

Instead, he has kept on going, to 653 and presumably beyond. The more prestigious James Milner award, with apologies to Liverpool players who knacker themselves with their pre-season running, may be for anyone who can break Milner’s record. Because, with no current player within 190 appearances of him, it won’t happen for at least five years. And probably not for rather longer.

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Milner stood above the rest with his performances in Liverpool’s pre-season fitness tests, as he makes Premier League history, it is because he has kept on running for longer than anyone else (Getty)