Milner’s daily reminder at Melwood will be a pleasure as the number beside the European Cup roll of honour will now say ‘6’

FOR James Milner, the daily routine at Liverpool’s training ground created a mantra: Change history.

Every single day, he passed the Champions Wall at the Melwood complex detailing the trophies this legendary club has won.

And every single day before this weekend, the numbers posted up there have remained unchanged.

Just after 18 league titles, is the European Cup.

And for Milner, rewriting the number five that stands next to an image of the biggest trophy of them all, is the greatest satisfaction of the greatest night in Madrid.

“To be able to put something on the board... every day we go into Melwood and see that number five on the board,” he explained.

“They will need to get someone in to change it to a number six and that’s massive. We’re making our own history.

“It will be nice going to Melwood seeing number six there.

“Liverpool has a great history and when I signed for the club I was desperate to add trophies. This club expects to win trophies and has an amazing history but we want to create our own history.

“We have started that and put a trophy on the board.”

The former Manchester City midfielder has often spoken of how hard it is for a team to land that first trophy – and how big an impact it can have when finally they make that breakthrough. And the first one under Jurgen Klopp is the most prestigious of them all, which Milner believes will change everything at Anfield.

“When I was at City and we won the first FA Cup, that was massive for us and that gave us the belief and the winning mentality that we can do it,” he said.

“Hopefully this will be the same. We will enjoy it for as long as we can but we will come back for preseason and go again. Last year, getting to the final, we got to another one this year which shows the heart, the balls this team has to go and do that again, especially what happened in the semis.

“It doesn’t mean you’re going to win it but I think those experiences and disappointments we’ve gone through, it’s helped us become the team we are and deal with ups and downs and weather the storm like we did tonight.”

It has been a journey for Milner, and one he is sure is not over yet.

There has been talk of him moving on, but he has been offered a 12-month extension on the remaining year of his current contract, and he seems likely to accept.

When asked if he will be back for more trophies, he said: “I would like to think so personally, unless you know something I don’t.

“It’s felt like a journey since I’ve been here and we’ve had a few close scrapes, so to get over the line is amazing and we’re going to enjoy this one.

“But we all know it blows over very quickly and it’s in the past and you have to go again.

“That’s what we aim to do.”