Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MILNER: I WILL GO OUT WITH A BANG ...NOT A WHIMPER
Kop star insists he will only quit when he loses his fiery will to win
JAMES MILNER has revealed that the day he loses the will to win is the day he’ll hang up his boots.
But the Premier League legend claims that the desire in him to keep on winning is stronger than ever – as it is throughout a Liverpool team he said is hurting like hell.
Milner has made the fifthhighest number of appearances in Premier League history (558), and not even the Kop’s struggles this season have quenched his incredible thirst for more.
Gareth Barry, Ryan Giggs, Frank Lampard and David James are the only men to have made more top-flight appearances than former England star Milner, and he is the only one still playing.
He said the last thing he wants is for his career to fizzle out – instead he wants to win more trophies before he retires, starting with this season’s Champions League.
“It’s just will to win, and the drive to be the best you can every day,” he said, when asked how he maintains his level at the age of 35. “I think when you lose that you need to retire pretty quickly.”
Not that he is considering doing that just yet – especially as his leadership is required to steer Liverpool out of troubled waters in the Premier League.
They have just nine games left to force their way back into the top four but there is also the prospect of another Champions League triumph, with Real Madrid next up in the quarter-final next week.
For Milner, ending his career with silverware is high on the priority list. “You always want to finish your
career strongly, you don’t want to just sort of melt into the background,” he said.
“In every interview I do my age is brought up. I still feel fine in myself, so why not push for as long as you can?
“You’re a long time retired, so I want to keep going and keep pushing myself. At Liverpool the demand is to win trophies.
“I think when you’ve got a team as good as we have, and a manager as good as we have, and a set-up as good as we have, you have to really be in the hunt for winning trophies. That’s the demand.”
There are even greater demands at the moment, with Liverpool, 25 points adrift of leaders Manchester City, trying to battle through an injury-ravaged season.
Fans have been shocked by their dramatic dip in form after winning the title at a canter last season and Milner insisted that the players are hurting just as much. “People don’t see the dressing room after a game, they don’t see the training ground when we lose. The players are as disappointed as all the fans,” he said.
“We know how many people want us to do well. The support we have around the world is incredible, so we’re desperate to do well for them. It hurts because you feel like you’ve let people down. But we’re working as hard as ever.”
Milner is adamant this “incredible” group of players will turn things around.
“Every team has those little dips,” he added.
“Nothing ever goes up and up and up.
“The level we’ve been at in recent seasons has been ridiculous really, in terms of the amount of wins we’ve had and the relentlessness. But it’s how you deal with the dips that counts. We have to deal with this as fast as possible and come out of it strong.
“And we’re doing that. It’ll come, there’s no doubt about that because the desire is still there, the work-rate is still there and the ability is still there.”