MY FIRST memory of watching James Milner play was at Withdean Stadium when he was on loan to Swindon Town from Leeds United.
Even then, as a seventeen-year-old, he had something about him – but I certainly didn’t imagine I would be watching him playing in the Premier League and Europe for Brighton 20 years later!
That League One game on 6 September 2003 finished 2-2. Sam Parkin scored twice for Town and Albion’s goals came from Gary Hart and a penalty from on-loan Darius Henderson.
The Albion matchday programme subsequently recorded: “Kerry Mayo had a fine match, mainly subduing the impressive teenager James Milner.” (although, as the picture suggests, he wasn’t afraid to launch himself into a tackle).
Swindon’s manager Andy King had persuaded his old Everton teammate, Peter Reid (in charge of Leeds at the time) to loan Milner to the Robins for a month. In just six matches, the young winger scored twice.
“The boy is a terrific talent and everyone has been able to see the skills he has and I have no doubt he will go on to perform in the Premiership,” King told Sky Sports.
Milner already had two goals to his name for his parent club having scored twice in the Premier League in 2002-03 while still only 16.
On Boxing Day 2002, ten days short of his 17th birthday, he became the youngest player to score in the elite division, with a goal in a 2–1 win at Sunderland (the record had been set a couple of months earlier by Wayne Rooney for Everton and was subsequently taken by James Vaughan, also for the Toffees).
Milner had gone on as a 36th-minute sub for Alan Smith, a player he had admired when a boy growing up in Leeds. Terry Venables, Leeds manager at the time, said: “It’s not just a case of him simply coming through and helping out because every day he is getting better and better.”
Milner scored again three days later after going on as a 31st minute sub for Harry Kewell as Leeds beat Chelsea 2-0 at Elland Road.
“Picking up Mark Viduka’s pass in first-half injury time, Milner beat his man before thumping a right-foot shot low into the net with Blues keeper Ed de Goey powerless to stop him,” said the BBC report of the match.
“I am very pleased with him,” said Venables. “He is growing in this group and he has taken advantage of every day’s training to show what he can do.
“He has two good feet, he is courageous and everyone likes him a lot. He also is not only a nice, solid, good, well-mannered boy, he is a very talented player.
“It’s early days for the boy. At the moment he has not achieved anything and he is the first to admit that.
“But I think a lot of people are confident about his development. We have just got to take it easy.”
Wind on the clock more than two decades and Albion are now enjoying the benefit of Milner’s vast experience gained winning trophies galore for two of the country’s top clubs and playing for his country.
Born in Wortley, Leeds, on 4 January 1986, Milner broke through with Leeds United before joining Newcastle United at 18 and having loan and permanent spells at Aston Villa.
Milner went on to make more than 200 league and cup appearances for Manchester City and more than 300 for Liverpool as well as earning 61 full England caps and a record 46 at under 21 level.
Against Wolves on 22 January 2024, 38-year-old Milner overtook Ryan Giggs to go second outright on the Premier League’s all-time appearance list when he played in his 633rd top-flight match, 20 short of record holder Gareth Barry.
“I’ve had some luck,” Milner told TNT Sports. “I’ve worked hard and you have to enjoy it to put the work in every day. I’ve hopefully got a few more games in me.”
Milner’s free transfer move to Liverpool from Manchester City in the summer of 2015 proved an inspiration that brought him even more medals than he had won with the Sky Blues.
Over eight seasons, he made 332 appearances, scored 26 goals and lifted seven trophies along the way.
“He’s a role model,” said manager Jürgen Klopp. “Nothing we have achieved in the last few years would have happened without James Milner, it’s as easy as that.
“Whether he was on the pitch or not, he’s set standards in a way not a lot of people can set standards, and it educated all of us.”
In a heartfelt tribute to the player, Klopp added: “From the first moment for me, he was a super-important player reference point.
“When you have a meeting and you look at Millie’s eyes and he’s not shaking his head, you know you’re on the right way. Nothing would have happened here without Millie because he kept it always going.
“From the player who was super-angry when he didn’t play, to the player when he did play, the way he pushed the whole dressing room before a game is absolutely second to none.”
For his part, Milner enjoyed a good relationship with Klopp, apart from once during a half-time flashpoint when the manager lost it, as Milner revealed to The High Performance Podcast.
“We had one moment where he was sharing his thoughts and I was sharing mine and I remember him smashing his hands on down the table and shouting, ‘Will you shut the f**k up!’ But Jurgen was brilliant, we had a great relationship and we were great off the pitch.”
It was Klopp’s predecessor, Brendan Rodgers, who persuaded Milner to make the journey along the M62, and he said at the time he signed him: “He had won the Premier League, he had won cups. His whole ambition was to win the Champions League and he felt that he would have a better opportunity to win it at Liverpool.”
Rodgers revealed that when Liverpool were trying to persuade him to sign, his wife Charlotte spent time chatting to Mrs Milner while he spent time with her husband!
“His actual football talent has probably gone under the radar because he’s played around some outstanding talents, but this is a guy who works tirelessly at his game,” said Rodgers.
“He’s in here at 7.45am making sure he’s prepared for his training, getting all of his food supplements and getting everything correct before training – he’s in two-and-a-half hours before he trains and then does his work, gives his maximum.
“He prepares himself like an elite player should. He’s also got big character and a big mentality.”
Rodgers was effusive in his praise of the new signing even before a ball had been kicked in anger after he scored the winner in a 2-1 pre-season victory over Brisbane Roar. Playing in the central role he preferred, he also provided a pass for Adam Lallana’s 27th-minute equaliser.
“James Milner is a class act,” he told reporters. “We had to work very hard to get him in but I think we’ll see over the course of the season how important he is for us.
“He’s a wonderful personality and a top class footballer. When you see him play in his favourite position, you see all these qualities come out.”
Rodgers departed Anfield not long after Milner’s arrival but the player grew in stature under Klopp and, although it wasn’t his favourite position, he spent much of 2016-17, filling in at left-back.
That season he made 40 appearances – 36 in the Premier League – as Liverpool qualified for the Champions League. They made it all the way to the final, only to lose to Real Madrid in Kyiv. But they made amends the following season and returned from Madrid with Liverpool’s sixth European Cup.
Milner went on as a second-half substitute in the Estadio Metropolitano in the 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur. “It will be nice going to Melwood seeing No.6 there,” he said. “Liverpool has a great history and when I signed for the club, I was desperate to add trophies as this club expects to win trophies and it has an amazing history – but we want to create our own history.”
Not only did they add the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, Milner made 22 appearances as Liverpool clinched the Premier League title in 2019-20 with 99 points.
In 2021-22, Milner scored the first in Liverpool’s 11-10 penalty shoot-out win in Liverpool’s Carabao Cup defeat of Chelsea at Wembley, having gone on as an 80th minute sub, and he repeated the feat (as a 74th-minute sub) when the teams were also goalless at the end of the Emirates FA Cup final three months later. Liverpool won that 6-5 on penalties.
In his final season at Anfield, Milner featured 43 times and moved up to third spot on the Premier League’s all-time appearances list.
“I’m Leeds through and through and always have been and always will be – but I never probably thought that another club would get into me as much as Liverpool has,” said Milner.
The player he followed from Anfield to the Amex, Lallana, told the BBC exactly what Milner brings to a squad, especially in setting an example to younger players.
“He helps the management team in so many ways with the experience he’s built up,” said Lallana. “He knows what it takes to win. He knows what sacrifices need to be made.
“I’m not sure how he got the boring James Milner label, but he couldn’t be further away from that. He’s one of the loudest in the dressing room for sure. Full of life. Full of banter. But he’s definitely old school.”
Lallana added: “Those basics are always there and they’ll never change. I think that’s what’s made him who he is and given him his success. Those values that he’ll always live by. He taught me how to be a better professional and a better role model.”
It all began at Westbrook Lane Primary School in Horsforth and the secondary Horsforth School. He played local amateur football with Rawdon whose coach Graeme Coulson had first noticed Milner as a nine-year-old.
“I first came across him when I was refereeing a junior match involving Westbrook under nines at Horsforth,” Coulson told the Craven Herald and Pioneer. “He was so outstanding then that I asked some of the Horsforth parents who he was.
“I noted his name and it was one not to be forgotten. He was an outstanding talent scoring lots of goals but he was also very strong.”
Horsforth School spokeswoman Fran Morris said: “He was a first class student and he did really well at his GCSEs (he got eleven).
“He was very sporty at school and he won the PE prize which was handed out just before we broke up.
“He was the most wonderful young man and he was very popular, so we wish him all the best in his career. I am very sure he will do well and we are all proud of him at the school.”
Let alone his football ability, the young Milner also played cricket for Yorkshire Schools and excelled as an athlete: he was Leeds Schools’ cross-country champion for three successive years and district 100 metres champion for successive years.
Milner was a season ticket holder at Elland Road along with his parents Peter and Lesley before becoming a ball boy. He joined the Leeds United Academy after being spotted playing for Westbrook in Horsforth.
The sporty youngster was forced to decide between cricket and football, explaining in one interview: “I played for Yorkshire at the ages of 10 and 11 as a wicketkeeper-batsman. It was something I enjoyed but you get to a stage where you have to make a choice.
“I stopped playing cricket at 16 when I moved full time to the Leeds United Academy. They couldn’t take the risk of me getting injured, having my foot broken by a yorker or something like that.
“A couple of months later I made my Leeds debut. I still can’t take the risk for the same reason, but as soon as I retire from football, I’ll look forward to taking up cricket again.”
He completed his formal education at sports college Boston Spa School, which works in partnership with Leeds United, and, as soon as he left school, he was taken on as a trainee.
As he worked his way through United’s youth ranks, he also played for England at under-15 and under-17 levels.
In parallel lines 