sport news James Milner condemns 'ridiculous' schedule and calls for break every other ... trends now
View
comments
James Milner definitely concurs with legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly that the league is a marathon not a sprint – but one that is now burning out the top players.
At the age of 37 and moving on from Liverpool for a new challenge, almost certainly with Brighton, Milner is indefatigable, almost a freak of nature considering he made his Premier League debut for Leeds United at the age of 16 years and 309 days.
But in his footballing dotage he doesn’t have the extra demands of the international game to contend with unlike many of his team-mates. He believes a relentless global schedule is impacting on the top stars through exhaustion and a succession of injuries.
As he prepared for his final appearance in a Liverpool shirt, against Southampton today, he maintained: ‘Football is so full-on. It’s all the year round now. You look at athletes and they are trying to compete for the Olympics or the European Championships which comes around every four or two years.
'It’s impossible to be always at your peak no matter what and it’s how you deal with the times when your physical levels are not quite there. You are just a bit out of form or certain players are out of form.
James Milner has hit out at the 'ridiculous' schedule faced by leading footballers
The 37-year-old was given a guard of honour after his final Liverpool game at Anfield
‘The team that does that best ultimately wins the title or trophies and is successful. At Liverpool we haven’t dealt with those situations as well as we would have liked this season but last season we were so close and probably ran out of a bit of steam when we were so close to winning everything.
‘That’s football and sometimes that gets overlooked in terms of how it’s all the year round now. For the international boys it’s ridiculous. There are international tournaments in the summer so they are playing games then instead of having time off. That’s the hardest part of it all.’
Inevitably, he adds, something has to give when the big players are flogged almost to a standstill.
‘Yes I do think the workload is unfair on the leading players,’ he said. ‘Every other year
