THE UNLIKELY LADS
One celebrated with Ribena, the other Fanta ... they’re Liverpool’s soft drink superstars ‘Mr Boring’ enjoying last laugh on Liverpool’s march to glory Selfless skipper is a leader of men — on and off the pitch
OF COURSE, there has always been more to James Milner than the spoof Twitter account in his name, which has regaled its 600,000 followers with updates of him ironing, tidying his cupboards and discovering he had one sock inside out on England duty and deciding he should tell Gary Cahill.
At Manchester City, Milner learned Spanish because he wanted to know what some of the dressing-room humour was all about. He was self-assured enough to dress in 1920s golf apparel to promote a Tiger Woods PGA Tour game at a Cheshire course — and saw the funny side of that.
But it was after Liverpool’s sublime night in Rome that the 32-year-old had the last laugh — outspoofing the @boringmilner Twitter account when, in response to the question of whether some bottles of Italian red might now be in order, the teetotaller replied: ‘Maybe for a few of the boys, and I might stretch myself out for some Ribena or something.’
And then there was his own tweet — nothing remotely like that stream of banality from megastars who hire people to do their social media for them. ‘Anyone got any tips for getting a Champions League logo off a face?’ he said of his own goal in Stadio Olimpico.
Milner has spent a professional lifetime fending off accusations of being a monochrome embodiment of English football’s impoverishment, yet now finds himself nailed on for a place in the Kiev final.
He’s chalked up a record-equalling eight Champions League assists for a season, with the supply line between him and Roberto Firmino — eight completed passes — the most effective on the field in Rome. No Liverpool midfielder or defender completed more passes.
There is an edifying sense of the quiet man winning through in all of this. Milner has played for five of Britain’s biggest clubs in a 16-year career and not one has had an indifferent day’s work from him.
Yet he’s been the safe choice, the conservative pick — with all the pejorative connotations that carries — ever since he replaced Wayne Rooney as the youngest Premier League goalscorer, converting Jason Wilcox’s cross for Leeds at Sunderland at the age of 16 years, 357 days in 2002.
Rooney had a big 18th birthday bash, with an appearance by Atomic Kitten, around that time and Milner was asked if there would be something similar. ‘No, we’ve got a few big games coming up, so it’ll be just a quiet meal with family and friends,’ he said.
His clubs have paid scant attention to the caricature.
When Manchester City moved to bring him from Aston Villa in 2010, urged to do so by their scouts Barry Hunter and Dave Fallows, they didn’t really see him as a ‘nine out of 10 player’, one source told
Sportsmail. ‘But we knew he would be seven-and-a-half every match, never be injured, be a great character in the dressing room. He would be to us what Gerrard or Carragher was to Liverpool.’
The story of a community event involving Milner and Mario Balotelli reveals plenty. Balotelli had to wait half an hour for his public appearance, which everyone knew would be a nightmare.
Milner saw to it that the Italian sat in on an interview and was given an iPad to play the Angry Birds game to keep him occupied. ‘ Managers don’t want to be babysitters,’ said a source close to the management team at that time. ‘ They want players to do that for them.’
It was a measure of how football means more to him than the sport’s trappings that he left City for Liverpool in 2015 after manager Manuel Pellegrini had kept him out of the side.
City were so desperate not to lose him, especially to Liverpool, that they offered him £160,000 a week. But Milner’s mind was set. By then, Hunter and Fallows had moved to Liverpool. The club knew what they were getting.
It was in keeping with all that has gone before that Milner missed the best of the celebrations on Wednesday because he was pulled in for a random drugs test.
‘Looked like great scenes in the dressing room. I heard them from the drug testing room,’ he posted on Instagram.
It’s been a long time coming, but he’s found his voice and his place.
ALONG the corridor that leads towards Jurgen Klopp’s office at Melwood, there is a sequence of significant pictures. It’s not unusual for images of club legends to be on display at the training ground but this particular gallery is different: the men who adorn these walls are those who set the standards. These walls are dedicated to Liverpool captains.
All the greats are there: Steven Gerrard (473 games as skipper), Emlyn Hughes (337), Alan Hansen (195), Graeme Souness and Phil Thompson (both 147). Perched alongside them at the end of the passageway is Jordan Henderson, who has now led Liverpool on 104 occasions.
His critics will wonder how he has reached that figure. Being Liverpool captain should command instant respect — particularly so after leading the club to an eighth European Cup final — but there is still a proportion of fans who regard him as a pale imitation of those who went before.
‘He’s got something in his game that certain fans don’t see,’ explained Ronnie Whelan, who has his own spot on the corridor after wearing the armband 83 times. ‘I know what it’s like, as in my early days I had a lot of stick come my way. But if I was fit, I played. It’s the same with Jordan.’
Shortly after Klopp arrived at Liverpool in October 2015, Henderson met his new manager. He was aware the German would have had his own views on the captaincy and was prepared to accept whatever decision Klopp made. A change, however, was never on the cards.
In the two and a half years that have followed, Henderson has become a hugely important figure for Liverpool. He plays in the same way as Whelan, doing the thankless tasks with supreme efficiency and never shirking a battle.
His influence off the field is arguably even more important.
Henderson is the main reason the dressing room has been harmonious all season. He glues the squad together, ensuring there are no cliques or division. Nobody is left isolated. Virgil van Dijk and Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain, for instance, credit him for helping them settle in so quickly.
Henderson has never forgotten how Gerrard and Jamie Carragher helped him when he arrived as a novice with a £16million price tag from Sunderland in 2011 and he has utilised that experience. Another story revolves around Mohamed Salah and the PFA Player of the Year awards.
The timing of the ceremony — a Sunday night, 48 hours before the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against Roma — meant Klopp would not allow the squad to travel to London en masse.
Salah was disappointed, but he sought out Klopp and insisted Henderson travel to London with him. The Egyptian’s closest friends are Sadio Mane and Dejan Lovren but respect for his captain meant there was only one man he wanted alongside him.
It’s moments such as these that resonate with Klopp (right). Henderson, who celebrated Liverpool’s progress to Kiev with a bottle of orange Fanta, is the conduit between the manager’s office and the dressing room and the bond between the pair has arguably never been stronger. Klopp has complete trust in the 27-year-old and the same is true of Gareth Southgate. England’s head coach advocates a leadership group in his squad and it is why he has rotated the captaincy.
But, as we creep closer to Russia, he will have watched Henderson’s influence with interest.
Harry Kane might be England’s one genuine world- class player but Henderson is precisely the kind of figure to keep harmony in the squad and ensure things run smoothly. This is a man devoid of ego, whose sole focus is relentless improvement.
‘He suffers sometimes because he is not Steven Gerrard, but it’s unfair to make that comparison because they are different players,’ said Whelan.
‘But they do compare in attitude, in putting the team first. And when you captain Liverpool, it’s not about screaming and shouting. You are surrounded by good players, so you get the message across of, “Do as I do — I will lead, you follow”. ‘That is what I’ve seen from Jordan. He isn’t captain because he is Klopp’s favourite. He’s captain because he’s the right man for the job.’ He was the right man in Rome and he will be the right man in Kiev on May 26. And should he become the fifth Liverpool skipper to lift a European Cup, his place on the captains’ corridor will be there
forever more.