James Milner
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
But that was the mindset then, you want to win everything you do and I still want to be the best at everything I can do.
Love my time at Villa, amazing.
We were so close to winning a trophy, losing in the League Cup Final, FA Cup Semi-Final as well.
Close to getting top four and just maybe ran out of steam at the end of that year with a long European campaign and I was playing really well.
I think I hadn't won anything yet in my career and I think obviously with what was going on at Manchester City, it was the right time to go and try and achieve something.
They hadn't won anything yet at that point, so it was a chance to go and join a club who hadn't had success for a long time and be part of starting something.
It was tough to leave Villa.
I loved playing for Martin O'Neill, what he gave for me and the confidence he gave me.
I had probably my best individual season under him of my career really, so I loved playing under him.
and we had a good team there and Aston Villa is an incredible football club, great place to play football, the fans are always amazing.
You know, I still love playing on the ground now.
So it wasn't easy to leave, but again, it was probably the single-mindedness of thinking I've got more chance of winning trophies if they go to City and even though they're signing a lot of players, you back yourself to go there and make an impact on the play.
Yeah, it was incredible.
Obviously, the FA Cup the first year was the first one that we won together and that set the tone there and that belief that you can go on and win things.
You know, it was a topsy-turvy season, the season we won the league.
I think we started incredibly and then dropped off and then had a scenario where if we won the last, however many, six games, I think it was, we'd win the title after beating United.
And, you know, I think if you did a film about the football team and you said that was the ending, you'd say, nonsense, that's never going to happen.
So the fact it happens and you still see it in the incredible commentary now and that moment, you know, the hairs still go up on the back of your neck.
It was...
an incredible moment from a cup final going like that is one thing, but a whole year's work where the best team always wins the league, 38 games, and you think you've blown it in the last moment to go from being that low to that high in such a short space of time.