James Milner condemns ‘ridiculous’ schedule and calls for break every other summer

James Milner definitely agrees with legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly that the competition is a marathon, not a sprint – but one that is now burning out the top players.

At 37 years old and departing Liverpool for a new challenge, almost certainly with Brighton, Milner is tireless, almost a quirk of nature as he made his Premier League debut for Leeds United at the age of 16 years and 309 days.

But in his footballing endowment, unlike many of his teammates, he doesn’t have the extra demands of the international game to deal with. He believes a relentless global schedule is beating the top stars through exhaustion and a succession of injuries.

As he prepared for his last appearance in a Liverpool shirt, today against Southampton, he claimed: ‘Football is so full. It is now all year round. You watch athletes and they try to compete for the Olympic Games or the European Championships that take place every four or two years.

“It’s impossible to always be at your peak no matter what, and it’s how you deal with the times when your physical level isn’t quite there. You are just a bit out of shape or certain players are out of shape.

“The team that does that best will eventually win the title or trophies and be successful. At Liverpool we haven’t handled those situations as well as we would have liked this season, but last season we were so close and probably fell a little short on strength when we were so close to winning everything.

“That’s football and sometimes that gets overlooked in terms of what it’s like all year round right now. For the international guys it’s ridiculous. There are international tournaments in the summer, so they play games instead of having time off. That’s the hardest thing of all.’

Inevitably, he adds, something has to give way when the big players are almost brought to a standstill.

“Yes, I think the workload is unfair to the leading players,” he said. “There should be no international tournament every two years and players should definitely get the whole summer off. How long can this go on? The intensity and number of games…

“That’s something I’d definitely do – take every other summer off – and then you can go as full as you want all season long, but give them a break, where else will it go?”

So where does Milner go after his successful spell on Merseyside? He was unwilling to confirm anything, but what is certain is that he will remain in the Premier League, giving him a chance to better his great friend Gareth Barry’s 653 appearances, the most in the league’s history .

Milner is in third place with 618 just behind Ryan Giggs with 632. “I honestly didn’t think about that,” he added. “Records and things like that I think you look at when you’re done playing. As you play, you just go to the next and then to the next.

“People keep saying it now, so it will be in my head. Now that it’s fairly close, yes, it would be nice to get. I know Gaz very well and he was an incredible player and professional.’

Having won virtually every major honour, it seems unbelievable that Milner is hungry to go into a different environment again next season, and coaching and management could be an option in the future.

He said: ‘One day you think I would enjoy going into management and another day you see a manager sign a new contract and six weeks later they get sacked and you think the golf course might be a better option is!

“I’ve been lucky enough to play under some incredible managers – some bad ones too, so you can learn from them too.”

That will be put on hold for now as Milner remains an active player.

“I’m still very driven to do what I can and play as much as possible and contribute to a club and win trophies.

“The drive is still there, even though I’m happy with what I’ve done. I could always do more.’