My Sporting Life is The i Paper’s look behind the curtain at what drives sports stars to greatness. James Milner is the Premier League’s record appearance-holder, winning three titles and one Champions League across spells with Manchester City and Liverpool. He also won 61 England caps, featuring at two World Cups and two European Championships. At 40, he is still playing for Brighton & Hove Albion.
I couldn’t lift my foot for six months
Last year was the closest I came [to retirement], in terms of not being able to lift my foot for six months. At my age and the injury I had, but that sort of drove me on really to be able to come back from something like that at my age. That’s probably carried me through my career in terms of ‘I’ll show you, you don’t rate me, I’ll prove you wrong’. It’s going to end at some point. Football changes very quickly.
How I stay fit at 40
We’re very fortunate how we get looked after, sports science-wise and physios. After training I’d do extras every single day into my early 30s, then you get to a certain age and you have to adapt a bit. Your training gets adapted in terms of the amount of distance you’re covering, because I’ve always been one of the players who does the most distance. Then there’s that scientific side, getting treatment, doing your extra gym stuff, making sure your body’s getting the extra work in the gym to protect yourself from injuries – ice baths, recovery, eating the right things, making sure you’re getting your fluids, sleep.
It’s not really having a day off in terms of being a footballer. You can have days off in your rest days, but in terms of thinking what you’re doing, when’s the next meal, when’s my next game? There are hard times when you’re on holiday with the family and you’ve got to leave around the pool to go and do a session.
The Premier League won’t stay like this for long
This period right now is more set pieces and a certain style, but football goes through fashions and three or four years it’ll change again. Teams might go back to playing one small striker one big striker, it might be five at the back. Because we look at other teams and who’s been successful, teams will start doing that and this is the phase we’re in for this season. It doesn’t mean that it’s going to be the same next year. If you look back through football, it’s always had those changes and formations and things teams are doing. That’s this season, I don’t think it’ll go on in that certain way.
I can’t decide if I want to be a manager
It gives you a buzz to go out and coach, but then on the other side, the pressure and the amount of leeway you get as a manager, you can be doing really well with new contracts and then you’re sacked six weeks later because you can’t win a game. It’s pretty relentless and ruthless. I think my opinion on coaching changes every day. One day I’ll think it’ll be a great idea and others not.
I’m old enough to be the Brighton players’ dad
There’s quite a few players here old enough to be my son. I suppose in my world, I’m pretty old. It’s important for me to try and understand them. We have a lot of players from different parts of the world, different personalities. As you get older, you become more patient if someone’s not doing something they should be – it’s not just ‘give them a rollicking’. It’s ‘what’s the reason?’ Does he not understand? Is he missing back home? Are we not being clear enough how we show him?
My one regret
I got relegated with Leeds. It’s your hometown club, and I only get a chance to play for two seasons. The year before I made my debut we’d got to the Champions League semi-final. Maybe if I could have been born a year earlier, I’d have been involved in that. Maybe I wasn’t good enough – [Arsenal’s] Max [Dowman] playing at 15, I was 15 and a half at that point so maybe I should have been better at that age to get involved in the Champions League. But being relegated with Leeds is a big regret.
I wouldn’t still be playing if I hadn’t retired from England duty
It was definitely the right moment to step away [in 2016]. I went to a major tournament and was playing well with my club and didn’t play too much in the tournament. Sam [Allardyce] took over, I’d played with Sam, he didn’t say ‘we don’t want you’, or anything like that. It was an open honest conversation. It just felt like the right time to do it. Then Gareth [Southgate] took over and after that, asked me to come back but by that point I’d already committed. I had no regrets.
I wouldn’t be playing now if I hadn’t done that. Also for the England team, in terms of taking up a squad spot and being a good traveller when younger players can come in and take that spot. I’ve never really missed it since that moment, so that’s a nice thing for me that I was in control of that. It was a major honour playing for England and going to World Cups and Euros, but since that I had a successful time in my club career and still going now, so I think it was the right thing to do.
The advice Jurgen Klopp gave me
Jurgen always said to me, whatever you do next, I think you need a break after you finish. I feel like the intensity I’ve been at for such a long time, that’s something that’s important to have a break, see the family a bit more than I have. Jurgen, as an all-round manager, as a man, he could give you a rocket, or around him you were a bit nervous, but also I could go up and have a joke and a laugh with him.
The ‘Boring James Milner’ Twitter account was good fun
I quite like the boring tag, to be honest. It means people don’t know a lot about me. I wasn’t on social media at the time. and it was just obviously a bit of craic, then when I started doing social media I thought it was good fun to jump on the bandwagon.
James Milner has been working with Specsavers’ Best Worst Team campaign, bringing grassroots football back to the forefront of the game.
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