Career Stories Feature #1: James Milner
He went from a wonderkid at Leeds United, to 3 times Premier League winner (and counting): The 'boring' James Phillip Milner has made my first of these 'Career Stories' features.
A series of mini-bios of football icons and legends that have some association with Midlands football clubs.
#1: James Milner
Milner was thought of as a 'first-class' student at his school in Leeds, passed with 11 GCSEs, and performed exceptionally well in Physical Education. Allegedly, Milner was an incredible cricketer, and 100m sprinter, and excelled at cross country. Football, however, was his chosen profession, and he went on to become a European and Global champion with Liverpool. Here is a chronological account of his career, club by club.
Leeds United
He joined Leeds United academy at the age of 10 years old and made his senior debut in November 2002 at the age of 16. This at the time made him the second-youngest player to bag a Premier League appearance.
Just a couple of weeks later he scored his first league goal adversely becoming the youngest player to score in the league, a record he held until 2005 when James Vaughan of Everton eventually succeded his feat.
He was loaned out to Swindon Town for a short while in the 2003-2004 season to gain more first-team experience but was recalled after just 6 appearances and found his way back into the squad for Leeds.
Newcastle United
Leeds had just been relegated and were forced to offload many of their best players due to financial difficulties,
Milner, along with many other big-name players had seen their time for the Yorkshire club come to a bitter end. Milner was bought by Newcastle United for the 2004-2005 season, a time when the Toon's had some other star-studded players on their roster.
He was deployed on the right side of midfield for Newcastle, which he had to adjust to after playing primarily on the left for his former club.
After Bobby Robson was replaced by Graeme Souness as club coach, Milner's chances at a regular starting place had become limited, he went on loan to Aston Villa and impressed, the following season he returned to Newcastle and played regularly for them in the 2006-2007 campaign despite suffering poor form early on.
At the end of that season, he was rumored to join Liverpool but completed a permanent deal to rejoin Aston Villa.
Aston Villa
The Villains were so keen to get Milner on their books after his impressive loan spell, they forked out £12 Million for him in August 2008. Including his time as a loanee, Milner played exactly 100 Premier League games for Villa and scored 12 goals. He was transferred to Manchester City in August 2010.
During the latter stages of his Villa days, Milner was used in the center of midfield, and his level of versatility was becoming more apparent, evident in what we see him as today as one of those players who could potentially be used anywhere on the pitch, as for Liverpool, we've seen him being used as a full back as well as a central midfielder.
Overall, throughout his career, Milner has been used as a defensive midfielder, an attacking midfielder, a winger and a full back, and is regarded as a tenacious engine, with a high amount of work rate, causing opposition team problems in keeping possession.
He has been dubbed by many fans as a 'boring' player and criticized by many England supporters, particularly for his performance with England at major tournaments but has always been held in high regard by Aston Villa faithful's for his creativity and his ability on the ball. It is also worth mentioning that he is currently in 8th place for the highest Premier League assists of all time by an individual player.
Some of his highlights for Aston Villa was scoring a goal in the 2010 League Cup final and scoring a beautiful long-range free-kick goal against Everton on the 7th February 2009 as they came back from a 2 goal deficit to draw 3-3.
Manchester City
At the time of this transfer in 2010, Manchester City had new ambitions as they were taken over by oil-rich Saudis.
Milner, for the first time in his career, had set his hopes on challenging for the league as well as playing in the Champions League, which he did of course by the time he left the club to join Liverpool in 2015.
Milner was part of the team that won the club its first major trophy in decades following their 2011 triumph after beating Stoke City in the FA Cup final as well as their first league title the season after, their first for 44 years. They also went on to win the league again and also the League Cup in 2014 with Milner being a prominent member of the squad.
One of his highlights at Manchester City was scoring a two-goal brace against Bayern Munich in a Champions League group stage match in the 2013-2014 season, Munich were considered at the time to be the best football team in Europe, and were currently champions. Man City won the game 3-2 thanks to Milner's brace.
Liverpool
Milner was 29 when he signed as a free agent for the Merseysiders. Some fans were cynical about bringing him in, knowing that for many years he had been criticized for his form, and the age he was, many thought that he was way past his best. It's amazing how most of us were wrong!
In 2018, as Liverpool beat AS Roma in the Champions League semi-final, he was called up after the game for random drug testing, not really a surprise when taking into account how much distance he covered during the game, of course, he passed the test whilst everyone watched on in amazement at how the veteran midfielder's physical attributes somehow just got better with age, covering every blade of grass in Rome.
He was 32 at the time and received a lot of positive feedback from pundits and fellow professionals, including Gary Lineker.
A post-match interview following the game exposed his fondness for Ribena, after stating that it would be his drink of choice following their semi-final victory celebrations. This, as humorous as it was, didn't do any favors to his reputation as 'boring' then not only as a player but in his personal life too! However, in some tongue-in-cheek interviews, particularly behind the scenes, Milner has had the last laugh on this matter and has been a great sport, joking at himself on his passion for the fruity soft drink!
Milner has improved with every season he has played. At the time of his signing, Brendan Rodgers was struggling, and the Liverpool side that almost won the league in the 2013-2014 season were just a shadow of their former selves, with Luis Suarez departing being a huge factor.
Liverpool were even struggling for a top 4 place. Klopp, who joined in just a matter of weeks, transformed the side with Liverpool winning their first league title in 30 years in 2020. Milner has played in a total of 147 league games for Liverpool, scoring 19 goals and has been a big part of their recent success, not just domestically but in Europe too.
Career Achievements *
Newcastle United
Aston Villa
Football League Cup runner-up: 2009–10
Manchester City
Premier League: 2011–12, 2013–14FA Cup: 2010–11; runner-up: 2012–13
Football League Cup: 2013–14
Liverpool
Premier League: 2019–20
UEFA Champions League: 2018–19; runner-up: 2017–18
Football League Cup runner-up: 2015–16
UEFA Europa League runner-up: 2015–16
England U21
UEFA European Under-21 Championship runner-up: 2009
Individual
* This article has been edited since its original publish date in 2020. Two years on in July 2022, Millie is still going strong and performing exceptionally well, has recently signed a new contract for the reds, and has even turned up to pre-season with reports circulating that he is fitter than any one of his other teammates. Machine!
He has since won the League Cup and FA Cup in 2022 and has added a Champions League Runners-up medal to his list of accolades.
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