Kelly Somers: Well, James… good to see you. I always start these interviews by going back to the very beginning. What would a young James Milner have made of what you have achieved – becoming the Premier League all-time record appearance holder?
James Milner: Yeah, I think it’s hard to say. I suppose when you’re that age, you’re just trying to get in the first team, first and foremost… get in and around there and stay in there, and then: ‘What’s the next thing?’ It’s always ‘what’s the next achievement?’ and ‘never rest on your laurels’ sort of thing really. So, yeah, I definitely wouldn’t be thinking too far ahead – never mind 20-odd years ahead and thinking I’d still be playing.
Kelly: Has it all been quite surreal because there’s been so much understandable hype around it… you getting to the record… when you were going to break it and the fact that you have. Has it been quite weird?
Milner: For me, yeah, I’ve obviously been asked about it a lot…
Kelly: Sorry to add to that list of people asking…
James: No, no… it is obviously a nice thing in terms of people acknowledging that it’s a big number. It’s a lot of games, but I’ve just been concentrating on doing my job for Brighton really, and if I hit the number then great. It wasn’t something that I’m like: ‘Ah, I need to do this’. Everyone else asked lots of questions about it and I think the narrative around it then is like, that’s the only reason why I’m still playing, sort of thing. If you spoke to me, or anyone who knows me, I just want to contribute to my team and keep pushing and helping the club here.
There’s been some really nice tributes and stuff like that. Messages I’ve had obviously, which is… I don’t want to downplay those and sort of seem like it doesn’t matter or anything because obviously it’s so nice and some of the things people have said is fantastic… but, for me, individual stuff is something maybe you look at when you’ve finished. For me, it’s always about the team and just doing your job, and hopefully I can keep doing that.
Kelly: What is your first football memory then?
James: First football memory would be Leeds United winning the First Division title [in 1991-92] and my dad picking me up in the lounge and throwing me round and saying: ‘Enjoy it – it might never happen again in your lifetime.’ I would have been five at that point.
Kelly: Oh really? So, at that point you knew it was Leeds for life?
James: Yeah, that was the first memory and then we started going to games and stuff after that. I had a season ticket and, yeah, it went from there.
Kelly: What about kicking a ball? Were you kicking it then? Were you showing an interest?
James: Yeah, I mean maybe. I can’t remember much of it. I remember playing my first ever game for the local team. It was Westbrook Juniors and we lost 16-2 and it was like full-size pitch, full-size goals. You’ve got to bounce back from that score!
Kelly: I love that that’s stuck with you – the actual scoreline… exactly how many you conceded.
James: Yeah, it has. I played a season there and then that team stopped and then the next team I played for was under-12s – I think I was nine. And then I got scouted for Leeds.
Kelly: Which I imagine was the dream, wasn’t it… from your dad lifting you up?
James: Yeah, it was weird really because until that point as a kid, I’d never really thought about being a footballer. Obviously, you love football and I was playing football, but it never crossed my mind that I could actually do it myself. Yeah, for whatever reason… I mean, you’re nine years old and you’re just being a kid really. So, that was the first time and then going and putting the Leeds training kit on and having a trial and… obviously that was special as a Leeds fan and that was the dream then.
Kelly: Can you remember your first training session at Leeds?
James: I remember my first training session with the reserves. David Batty was one side of me and someone else was on the other and I was like, ‘Oh my God’… like, it’s Batts… legend! And getting over that and then pretty quick, I got sent over to the first team.
I don’t know if someone got sent in or if they needed a number and it was like: ‘Go try him with the first team.’ You don’t have time to think about it when you get involved. I just remember the speed of it. It was like, ‘wow, this is ridiculous’.
I remember, like, ‘welcome to the first team, kid’ sort of thing. You get tested, you get shouted at if you give the ball away. I remember breaking my nose actually in training. I got a pretty strong tackle from one of the younger players in the first team. I was 16, he was maybe 20. I got kicked in the face on the floor and broke my nose and… that was one of the early days.
You’ve got to toughen up and get on with it, but you know, the senior boys were great… [Danny] Mills and Gary Kelly and Mark Viduka. Alan Smith was, you know, the one I looked up to. He was the guy who’d come through the academy and scored with his first touch at Anfield and done what we all wanted to do.
Leeds’ academy had been so great over the years, you know… Harry Kewell and [Jonathan] Woodgate, Paul Robinson, Alan Smith… the list goes on.
Looking back now, at 16, having just done my GCSEs and being with the first team, it’s like, ‘phew’ but at the time, you’re just focused and trying to prove that you belong there.
Kelly: 2002 was quite a big year for you wasn’t it really, with everything? Was it first Premier League goal, Premier League appearance… and you were so young.
James: Yeah, I look back now and you think how young you were. Three, four months before, I’d been doing my GCSEs and my mates were still in sixth form and coming to watch at Elland Road.
Kelly: Can you remember your first goal?
James: Yeah. I think I’d come on early for Harry Kewell maybe. Jason Wilcox whipped it over and I got it at the front post. And then we played two days later at Elland Road – 26th, 28th we played – and, you know, came on early again – someone else got injured – and was lucky enough to score again.
