James Milner may have garnered a nickname for being ‘boring’ but the 36-year-old was in no mood to see a raft of mobile phones being used in Liverpool’s dressing room after winning the FA Cup final on Saturday.
Jurgen Klopp’s side emerged victorious following a 6-5 penalty shootout win over Chelsea, helping them seal their second domestic trophy this season.
Liverpool are aiming for a famous quadruple but Milner is wary of players getting too comfortable with winning titles.
Many of Liverpool’s players marked winning the FA Cup by going onto their mobile phones
Midfielder James Milner was unimpressed and wants his team-mates to live in the moment
‘You never know when it’s going to be your last,’ Milner told the Mirror, as quoted by the Anfield Watch.
‘You go into the dressing room after the game and all of the lads are straight on their phones. I’m saying: ‘You’ve won the FA Cup – get off your phone!’
‘Yeah, you get 40 or 50 messages but you get on the bus and you can deal with that.’
Liverpool are looking to pull of the most special of seasons, with three games separating them from completing a Premier League title and Champions League glory.
Goalkeeper Adrian (right) seen holding his phone as players celebrated their FA Cup success
Milner’s former team Manchester City hold the edge in the title race, while Real Madrid will prove tough opposition in Paris in the Champions League final later this month.
Victory at Wembley was Milner’s second FA Cup triumph, arriving 11 years after he first won the trophy.
A three-time Premier League winner, two-time FA Cup winner and Champions League winner, Milner wanted his team-mates to know in the dressing room afterwards just how ‘lucky’ they are as professional footballers.
‘You are lucky to be a footballer, lucky to play in any final and to win ten medals, if you’ve said that to me at the start of my career then I’d have been pretty happy!’ he added.
Milner, a two-time FA Cup winner, was keen to stress no player knows if it is there last trophy
Milner is in the twilight of his career but remains one of the key pieces in Liverpool’s dressing room that continues to keep standards high.
After a recent league win away at Newcastle, Klopp was effusive in his praise of ‘role model’ Milner.
‘He’s a role model. I have told him, I can tell the whole world – nothing we have achieved in the last few years would have happened without James Milner, it’s as easy as that,’ the German boss said.
‘Whether he was on the pitch or not, he’s set standards in a way not a lot of people can set standards, and it educated all of us.’