Manchester City’s James Milner considers move abroad

James Milner is considering leaving Manchester City in the summer to play abroad, with the midfielder holding initial talks with Milan, Roma and Internazionale, plus two clubs in Spain.
Milner’s contract expires in the close season and at 29 he knows this is his last chance of a major move. He earns around £90,000 a-week on the five-year contract he agreed when moving to City in 2010 from Aston Villa but there would be a sizeable signing-on fee should Milner decide to depart.

Although the midfielder has won two Premier League titles, one FA Cup and one League Cup at City, he would like to start more regularly under Manuel Pellegrini.
Now in his fifth season at the club, Milner has made 139 appearances in the Premier League of which 84 have been starts. This season he has been started 13 times, less than half of the 28 matches, and has featured 34 times in all competitions.
Pellegrini has repeatedly said there is a firm wish for Milner to sign a contract but there is a sense at the Etihad Stadium the player may fancy a fresh challenge.
Speaking at the end of last month, Pellegrini said: “All the people at the club who decide if James stays or goes want him to stay. There are two parts to a contract and James must decide what he wants to do with his future.”
Milner, who is a regular in Roy Hodgson’s England squad, is also frustrated at not being played in his favoured central midfield position at City, the role he drew praise for when playing at Villa and which convinced Roberto Mancini, Pellegrini’s predecessor, to sign him in a deal worth around £26m. Milner is mainly used as an auxiliary winger or forward by Pellegrini.
City are Milner’s fourth permanent club. He has played for Villa, Newcastle and Leeds United, where he made his professional debut as a 16-year-old. He also appeared for Swindon Town, where he played on loan for a month 12 years ago.

Birthday dream final alive for Steven Gerrard the peripheral visionary

This 700th appearance of Steven Gerrard’s glittering career was the latest evidence of how Brendan Rodgers is building a Liverpool for that fast-approaching day when the captain is no longer at the club. The juncture arrives at the close of this season and while Gerrard is not yet Yesterday’s Man, he becomes ever more peripheral.
A sign of these times was how his presence in this XI as a holding midfielder could be seen as a throwback move by Rodgers, who since a 3-0 defeat at Manchester United on 14 December has preferred Jordan Henderson, the vice-captain, and Lucas Leiva as his central pistons: a selection that has been the catalyst for Liverpool’s best form of the campaign, losing only once in 13 outings after this late, late victory over Bolton Wanderers.
It may seem harsh to bill the Gerrard-Joe Allen combination Rodgers sent out here – and which had minimal effect during a sluggish first half against Neil Lennon’s side – as a second-string duo, especially given the 34-year-old’s fair claim at being the best to ever pull on the famous red shirt. Yet this is what Gerrard and Allen are, the latter having last played in the initial fourth-round encounter with Bolton on 24 January and previously featuring in the league in that dismal defeat to United.
Going into this replay, Rodgers’ side had strung a fine run of form together that featured only one loss – in the Capital One Cup semi-final second leg at Chelsea – since the Old Trafford reverse. That Sunday in Manchester was the last time defeat in the Premier League has been tasted – a seven-match unbeaten sequence in the competition – as Rodgers’s men have gradually clicked into the kind of form that took them close to last season’s Premier League title.
What has emerged is the de facto shape of Liverpool in the post-Gerrard era that starts next season. In this fresh 3-4-2-1 system Lucas and Henderson are the midfield generals, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge – if he can stay healthy – the prime attacking forces, Philippe Coutinho the chief-supplier of trickery, with Emre Can, Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho in defence, in front of a rejuvenated Simon Mignolet, the goalkeeper.
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While Skrtel was at fault for Eidur Gudjohnsen’s 59th-minute penalty that gave Bolton the lead – the defender brought down Zach Clough – a key move as Rodgers formulated his blueprint was to shift Gerrard from the holding role to a freer detail.
The pace of change engineered since by Rodgers is such that it was telling how his manager rested both Henderson, who was on the bench, and Lucas, who did not even make the match-day 18. While Sturridge’s place sitting down alongside Henderson was due to Rodgers wanting to ease his star striker back following a long injury layoff, the vice-captain and his new midfield partner were being saved for Saturday’s late-afternoon visit to Everton for the Merseyside derby.
Gerrard’s ever-receding status meant it is reasonable to ponder if his starting spot against Bolton means he may not be in the XI for the 224th edition of the Liverpool-Everton squabble.
Given Gerrard’s enduring class and how Goodison Park has proved a happy hunting ground during his 17 years at the club this would still be as much of a shock as his being left out for the Champions League game at Real Madrid this term.
Yet by the time Gudjohnsen put Bolton ahead Henderson had replaced Adam Lallana and it was Gerrard’s place he initially took in midfield as the senior man went out wide.
Only Allen’s departure restored Gerrard centrally and though there had been flashes of the old style – one first-half pass served instantly into Sterling set the striker clear – the greater evidence was of how he is more muted these days, proving ineffective as Liverpool tried to avert being knocked out.
Instead it was left to Sterling and Coutinho, two vibrant symbols of Liverpool’s brave new world, to do what Gerrard could not: score the late equaliser and even later winner respectively, and which ensured Liverpool went through and can still win the FA Cup.

LA-bound Steven Gerrard would have signed new Liverpool deal last summer

Steven Gerrard has admitted he would have signed a contract extension at Liverpool had it been offered to him last summer and is expected to agree an 18-month deal with LA Galaxy in the next 48 hours.
Liverpool did not open talks with Gerrard over a new deal until November and by then the captain had established in discussions with the manager, Brendan Rodgers, that he would no longer be an automatic selection if he stayed beyond this season. Unwilling to become a squad player, the 34-year-old announced last week that he would leave when his deal expires in the summer.
Confirmation that Los Angeles is to be his next destination appears to be imminent. He is expected to be given a basic salary of £4m per year by the Major League Soccer club – about £76,000 per week, with image rights inflating that figure. That equates to around half of what he is earning at Anfield.
“If a contract had been put in front of me in pre-season I would have signed it,” Gerrard told the Liverpool Echo. “I’d just retired from England to concentrate all my efforts on Liverpool. I didn’t want my club games to be tailored. My injury record had been fantastic for the past two and a half years and I had a great season from a personal point of view last season. It’s all ifs, buts and hindsight now. That period between the summer and the end of November gave me thinking time.
“There’s no blame and I’m not angry about it. There are other people in the squad and the club had other things to worry about. Liverpool Football Club have been unbelievable for me since I was eight years old. This club has helped me fulfil my dreams over and over again.”
Although Gerrard insists his decision to part company with Liverpool has been “very amicable”, the admission that he would have signed an extension had one been on the table in the summer raises fresh questions over Fenway Sports Group’s handling of the situation.
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Rodgers stated in pre-season that a new deal for Liverpool’s captain of the past 11 years was “a formality”, only to concede later in the campaign, when no offer was forthcoming, that Gerrard had a “life decision” to make. The Liverpool manager categorically denied that money was a factor in Gerrard’s reluctance to commit and his anticipated basic salary at LA Galaxy supports that view. The midfielder confirmed that the prospect of having his game time cut, outlined to him by Rodgers in November, was a key factor in his decision not to renew.
“I’ve got to be honest,” Gerrard said. “That chat with Brendan came earlier than I was expecting. It was tough but I understood.” He added: “When it gets to the stage where you don’t know if you’re going to be starting or not it becomes different. I’ve never wanted to be a squad player. If I was missing games now, I’d be sitting out even more next season. I knew it would get worse and worse as time went on.”
Rodgers’ decision to omit Gerrard from Liverpool’s starting lineup at Real Madrid in the Champions League would have been a serious setback to the man who lifted the club’s fifth European Cup in 2005. The former England captain has also come in for severe criticism during Liverpool’s difficult campaign yet has showed his enduring importance to the club several times this season, including in the FA Cup win at AFC Wimbledon on Monday.
“It’s got nothing to do with how results have been,” Gerrard said of his decision to leave. “That’s not the type I am. If things aren’t going so well, I’d rather stay and help to put things right. I think I’ve shown that over the years.
“It simply came down to the fact that the idea of becoming a squad player didn’t excite me or motivate me.”

Liverpool crash out of Champions League after meek show against Basel

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Basel’s players celebrate upon the final whistle at Anfield leaving Liverpool’s players and fans feeling dejected. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images
At least in that frenzied late assault, after Steven Gerrard had equalised and the team in red gave absolutely everything to add another occasion to their all-time list of great comebacks, we saw a few glimpses of the old Liverpool spirit. Yet the damage had already been done and for the majority of this match it had been mystifying to see them play with so little drive and momentum when anything but a win meant dropping into the clunky Thursday-night-Sunday-afternoon cycle of Europa League football.
It was a pulsating finale and Liverpool’s late attempt at escapology was certainly commendable given they had to contend with Lazar Markovic, a half-time substitute, being sent off barely a quarter of an hour after coming on. Their 10 men threatened the most improbable ending but the awkward truth is it had been another night to expose the scale of Liverpool deterioration before Gerrard’s 81st-minute free-kick arced into the top corner.
Liverpool might have nicked it in those impassioned final moments but a match is judged over 90 minutes, not 10, and at times it felt as though Brendan Rodgers’s players had temporarily forgotten what is expected of them on the big European nights, under the floodlights, in front of their own crowd. Instead, they had been politely ushering themselves to the door. Of all the disappointments, that was probably the most perplexing.
It is just a shame for Liverpool that they left it so late before finding any real belief and found it beyond them when it was even numbers.
They had set out knowing only a win would suffice and yet the sense of urgency that might have been anticipated during the opening exchanges never materialised. The crowd were strangely subdued and as Basel sized up their opponents, then elegantly took control, it was strange to be at Anfield for one of these important fixtures and find a team doing so little to turn up the volume.
Basel had a boisterous following but they also had the knowledge they had beaten English opposition, including Chelsea twice last season, on their previous four encounters. They quickly showed their tactic would not be conservatism and fully deserved the half-time lead courtesy of Fabian Frei’s firecracker of a shot after 25 minutes.
Liverpool in those moments had looked what they now are: a Europa League side. More than anything, they seemed stripped of confidence. In one revealing moment out by the touchline, Jordan Henderson, Joe Allen and Lucas Leiva all left a dropping ball to one another and the nearest opponent, Taulant Xhaka, was completely unchallenged with his header.
When Raheem Sterling had Liverpool’s first opportunity his diminished assurance was plain in the way he declined the chance and tried a pass that was never on. Liverpool were teetering, ragged, dispirited and barely recognisable from the side that had bewitched Anfield last season.
What happened in the second half was unorthodox in many ways. Markovic had replaced the peripheral Rickie Lambert during the interval and in his brief time on the pitch he did at least inject a touch more drive into Liverpool’s attack. Then, as the game ticked past the hour, he and Behrang Safari went for the same ball. Markovic was slightly ahead of his opponent and the Liverpool player did swing back his right hand. Yet it was the merest of touches, barely a flick of fingertips against Safari’s nose, and almost certainly meant as a hand-off rather than something more violent. Safari was probably the game’s outstanding performer but his reaction was exaggerated in the extreme and undoubtedly helped to convince the Dutch referee, Bjorn Kuipers, it merited a red card. Liverpool were entitled to be aggrieved and Rodgers’s anger went as far as saying it should have been Safari who was sent off.

 View the best images from Anfield in our gallery. Photograph: Carl Recine/Action Images
José Enrique had also been replaced at half-time and the double substitution was a measure of how alarmed Rodgers must have been about Basel’s superiority. “We just weren’t good enough,” he said. “We weren’t anywhere near where we wanted to be, not even close.”
Yet the paradox was that Liverpool, a man down, improved considerably when everything seemed lost. Sterling, now operating in the centre-forward role, started to flicker with menace. Gerrard reminded everyone of his qualities, lifting the crowd with a thunderous challenge on the impressive Xhaka, then running clear and was denied only by a fine save from Tomas Vaclik, diving at his feet.
Gerrard’s equaliser came shortly afterwards and it was a dramatic ending as the ball ricocheted around the Basel penalty area and the crowd roared for someone to apply a decisive touch. Overall, though, Basel used the ball with greater expertise and, as Rodgers acknowledged, looked the more rounded team.
The move for Frei’s goal was a case in point, featuring a crisp exchange of passes, a clever one-two with Luca Zuffi just outside the penalty area and then a 20-yard shot, left-footed and with the minimum of back lift, to pick out the spot just inside Simon Mignolet’s left-hand post.
The Swiss league leaders had several other chances in the first half, whereas Vaclik barely had a scrap of mud on his kit during the same period. Liverpool, with five points out of six games, left it too late and will be jealous onlookers when the Champions League resumes in February.

Liverpool concede late Ludogorets equaliser but still need win to progress

Rickie Lambert, right, scores Liverpool’s opening goal against Ludogorets. Photograph: Michael Steele/Getty Images

Brendan Rodgers spun on his smart black shoes and roared an expletive at the Liverpool bench as a morale-boosting result, respite and three points vanished in the blink of Georgi Terziev’s 88th-minute equaliser for Ludogorets. A Champions League campaign intended to showcase Liverpool’s return among the European elite has produced only torment and there was more in Sofia, but also hope. Qualification remains in their hands. A manager in Rodgers’ position could not have asked for more.
The Liverpool manager did not get the scrappy win he would have accepted before kick-off due to his team’s latest failure to defend a set piece, Terziev heading home a corner from Júnior Caiçara and sparking a chaotic finale that threatened grave consequences for the visitors. He did, however, get the show of character required with Liverpool coming from behind courtesy of goals from Rickie Lambert and Jordan Henderson, and the chance to reach the last 16 with a victory over Basel at Anfield in two weeks’ time.

Liverpool would have needed to beat the Swiss team, who missed their difficult chance to progress with a home defeat by Real Madrid, had they held on to their lead in the Bulgarian capital. A frustrating draw may have altered the mood but not the equation in Group B. Three points at Anfield and progress is assured, though Liverpool need this performance against Ludogorets to mark a turning point in their trying campaign.

This was a tentative step forward compared with the misery of recent weeks but a step forward nonetheless. Raheem Sterling starred on the left, Joe Allen and Lucas Leiva overcame a difficult start to offer the midfield balance that has been absent of late, Martin Skrtel stood firm in central defence, Javier Manquillo was resolute at right-back and, pushed forward at the age of 34 for 90 minutes, Steven Gerrard’s talents were better deployed.
A first win in five matches would have sweetened the night considerably but the outcome did not trouble Rodgers greatly considering the start Liverpool and their goalkeeper, Simon Mignolet, had made against the champions of Bulgaria. So much for the rarified air of the Champions League. The opening exchanges would not have looked out of place in a Sunday league game as both sides traded gifts and showed why they were fighting for survival in Group B.
First up with a calamity was Mignolet, the butt of an ancient joke about Dracula and crosses from Bruce Grobbelaar before the game and subject to further ridicule after presenting a ludicrous goal to Ludogorets in the third minute. The Belgium goalkeeper has endured a torrid campaign and he revealed Liverpool’s lack of confidence with an awful attempt to deal with a long-range shot from Marcelinho.
Ludogorets’ holding midfielder Fabio Espinho instigated their first foray forward with a surging run and crossfield pass that Kolo Touré, once again replacing the £20m Dejan Lovren for a Champions League tie, inadvertently turned into Marcelinho’s path. The shot was straight at Mignolet even after taking a bobble en route but the keeper fumbled and Dani Abalo gratefully converted the loose ball from close range.
To a man, Liverpool stared at Mignolet in disbelief. They had started brightly, with Sterling and Glen Johnson prominent down the left, and here they were complicating life for themselves yet again. The visitors’ saving grace was that their opponents self-imploded too. Only five minutes later Lucas launched a hopeful punt into the Ludogorets’ penalty area that no one took responsibility for. Lambert missed the first header but was given a second bite when Yordan Minev inexplicably stood back and allowed the ball to bounce up in his six-yard box. Lambert sent a slow, looping header in off the far post for his second goal in two games.
Liverpool then enjoyed comfortable periods of possession without troubling Vladislav Stoyanov in the Bulgarian side’s goal. Ludogorets, by contrast, looked threatening whenever they ventured forward due to the alarming amount of space behind Liverpool’s defensive midfield pair of Lucas and Allen plus the full-backs, Johnson and Manquillo, retained despite their respective trials at Crystal Palace on Sunday. All four, however, improved to give Liverpool a degree of control as the game wore on.
Liverpool’s defence was creaking badly in the first half with the exception of Skrtel but a rare incisive counterattack gave Rodgers’ men the foothold they sought. Lambert released Sterling into a three-against-two break, the England winger delivered an inch-perfect cross to the far post and Henderson arrived with perfect timing to send a fine finish beyond Stoyanov.
Sterling was enjoying an excellent game. The 19-year-old was a constant outlet, stretching the Ludogorets defence at will despite some rough treatment and making several important interceptions deep inside his own half. It was Sterling’s left-wing run and cross that gave Lambert an opportunity to extend Liverpool’s advantage but his diving header was blocked on the six-yard line and Henderson skied the loose ball over. His blushes were spared, however, by the referee’s whistle for a push by Henderson on the home goalkeeper.
Ludogorets rarely tested Mignolet in the closing stages but, after Liverpool survived a handball appeal against Allen, Terziev scored from the resulting corner. Rodgers’ outburst aside, it changed nothing. His team may have lost direction this season but Liverpool have an unerring ability to find their way out of a Champions League hole.