Clean-living Milner set to run and run
AMONG the countless pieces of advice that were offered to James Milner when he was a teenager at Leeds, one continues to stand out.
Nigel Martyn, the veteran goalkeeper, often used to quip that he was old enough to be the then 16-year- old’s father, but in the serious moments he made sure his message got across to Milner, whose career was just beginning.
‘Enjoy it,’ Martyn would stress. ‘It is going to fly.’
the implication was clear. Martyn planted a seed in Milner’s mind, imploring him to take all the necessary steps to prolong his life in football, to make the right decisions on the pitch and not doing anything to jeopardise his wellbeing off it.
to see Milner tearing around the Etihad on tuesday, a vital cog in a Liverpool team who are counting down the days until the Champions League semifinals, it was clear to see the enthusiasm that was apparent when he was an Elland Road prodigy remains undiminished.
Just as importantly, though, the engine shows no signs of slowing down either. Milner, at 32, is the second oldest member of Jurgen Klopp’s squad but he is producing numbers — 50 miles covered in the Champions League — that would be more readily associated with someone significantly younger. so how does he do it? It all goes backck to the conversation with Martyn. Do the right thing, liveve life properly.y. Football mightt be Milner’s passion but it is also his job and it is no exaggeration to say that every minute of every day hee is thinking aboutut how to keep whathat he refers to as ‘ the edge’.
Milner will bee the first member of Liverpool’s squad to report at Melwood for work and, invariably, he will be the last to leave. No corner is cut during his preparations for a session, be it in conditioning exercises, getting a massage or working with the physios. standards are important to him. An idea of how much a stickler he is for routine can be gauged from his pre-match regime. If it is at Anfield the squad can stay at home, but Milner, without fail, will check into a city centre hotel at 7pm the nightnig before to ensurensure he gets the best night’s sleep popossible. He is inf in game mode from that ppoint. this is why he is blessed with stamina — Milner ininvariably wwins ‘the Beep testest’ in pre-season, sonseason, a running exercexercise that gets progressprogressively faster — and that is reflected in the fact he currently has the club’s highest average this season for distance covered per game (8.13miles). His diet is also exemplary. this is no hedonistic lifestyle. Milner is teetotal and told Sportsmail in February 2016 that his only taste of alcohol was ‘trying my old man’s strongbow as a kid!’
It is why he is parodied on twitter as ‘Boring James Milner’. Ask those who work with him, though, whether he is as grey as that account would have you believe and you are instantly corrected. Milner has a dry sense of humour and last month launched his own official twitter account with a picture of himself doing the ironing!
And another surprising aspect to him is that he learned spanish and now speaks it fluently
Milner is the professional’s professional. He would have been ideal in England’s World Cup squad but will not reverse the decision made in August 2016 to quit international football. that, of course, will benefit Klopp and Milner has returned to Liverpool’s engine room, after an experiment at left back last season, to show his best form for the club.
Continue in this vein and there will be no reason why the two years he has remaining on his contract will not be extended.