A few months ago, Liverpool had already shown interest in James Milner, placing themselves once again on the pole-position to sign him at the end of this season, when his contract with Man. City was due to expire. As it stands, James Milner, 29, seems to be the first signing of Liverpool FC this summer, and the English international midfielder will join the club free of charge. The move will be completed, on July 1, when the transfer window opens and his contract with Manchester City formally expires. It will be very interesting to see how Liverpool fans will react to the new signing since Milner rejected a move to Anfield, a few years ago.
To be more precise, Milner was a Liverpool target five years ago too and the midfielder chose Manchester City instead. Now, he is not convinced he will have a place in the starting eleven at the Etidad and declined a better offer, to extend his contract, from the citizens. The Premier League runners-up offered him about £165kpw and Liverpool only put a £120kpw on the table but the prospect of more regular first-team football at Anfield, seems to have swayed him.
Milner has never been a goal scoring machine and his best record at the Etihad was five goals in 32 appereances, in Premier League. Over his five-year career with Man City he scored a total of 18 goals and he is a regular with the England squad, where he ticked 53 caps, scoring only a goal.
As Manuel Pellegrini said, Milner will be a big loss for his team, being a very important man in the squad and a very polyvalent one. ''Milner is a phenomenon. He's an intelligent guy, with great mentality, one of those players that when you leave him out you're left with this feeling of injustice. It hurts because he should always play but sometines you need a technical player with other characteristics'', he told The Guardian.
Milner is a very polyvalent player and he could be the solution to replace Steven Gerrard, the captain ending his Liverpool career after 17 years red, in the middle of the pitch. More than that, he could also play on the wings, with Sterling very close to leaving Anfield Road this summer.
