What 24 Years of Consistency Actually Looks Like | James Milner

**Jake** (0:02)
Hi, everyone. Welcome along to another episode of High Performance. I'm here alongside Damian. How are you?

**Damian** (0:06)
I'm very good, Jake. You?

**Jake** (0:08)
I mean, just look at how many people are in the room. Is there five of us in here, or four?
Oh, is there five? There's five of us in this little tiny studio recording this Wednesday episode of High Performance. There aren't many of us, but I think we should start with a round of applause. What do you think?

**Damian** (0:22)
Absolutely, yeah.

**Jake** (0:23)
A round of applause. Oh, yeah, there's five. It's so dark at the far end. I can only see four people in here.
That round of applause was for a man who never dropped his standards, James Milner, 24 years at the top, 658 Premier League appearances, the all-time record, got the Champions League, got three Premier League titles. Look, we throw the word legend around easily these days, Damian, but for a man who was a former guest on our show, and we're going to delve into his episode and pick out a couple of lessons from him, legend almost doesn't feel like enough for James Milner.

**Damian** (0:56)
Well, you know, there's that lovely saying, isn't there, that if you're good, you'll get it, but if you're consistent, you'll keep it. And I think when you've set records like what you've just shared with him, it's the consistency, the non-sexy stuff, the stuff that happens in the shadows that defines why he is or why he deserves that title of being a legend. We speak so often about consistency on these episodes, people that are at the sharp end, revere consistency, and he's a man that's just role modeled it.

**Jake** (1:25)
Well, should we get straight in to hearing from him?

**Damian** (1:27)
Let's definitely do that.

**Jake** (1:29)
So James Milner joined us. It's probably a couple of years ago, isn't it? Will, how long do you reckon?
Over two years. Over two years since he joined us. And I remember all of us saying at the time, what if he announces his retirement on the episode? Do you remember?

**Damian** (1:41)
Yeah, yeah.

**Jake** (1:41)
Like, here we are more than two years later, and finally he gets around to deciding that...

**Damian** (1:46)
But you know what I remember about that? He turned up an hour early, because lateness isn't a standard that he accepts. You know, he sat in the green room, he chatted to... Do you remember we had Phil in there, one of our listeners that came in that day.
He sat with Phil, he was engaged in his story as well as answering questions that Phil was exploring with him. This was a bloke that just role modeled it. Even in things like that when nobody was watching, he was still living up to the standards that had become the hallmark of his career.

**Jake** (2:17)
And obviously we're not going to name them, but there are sometimes guests who come in and give us an amazing episode of High Performance. And when they walk away, we both look at each other and think, don't really like them very much. Because what you see behind the scenes, what you see in the quiet moments with some of the production team or with someone that drove them in or the person that made them a coffee is very different to the things that they tell us on our episodes. And James Milner does not fall into that category. He absolutely, you're totally right, role model all the things he spoke to us about. But I want to start this conversation by rewinding right back to when he was a young kid cleaning boots coming through at the Leeds Academy.
When his dad told him he wasn't going to make it. Should we hear from him first and then we'll talk about it? Here he is, James Milner, talking about the early days when he was at Leeds.

**James Milner** (3:03)
My dad was very good at knowing how to get the best out of me. So he always used to say, you're not going to make it, you don't work hard enough and little things like that. And he knew that I had the personality that, all right, I'm going to prove you wrong. And he knew that he wasn't being horrible, how he said it or anything like that. But he knew that I'd be like, all right, I'll show you. And I think that's probably where it started.

**Jake** (3:24)
Now, this is very interesting. It reminds me a bit of Robin Van Persie when he said to his son, you want to be a loser, be a loser. And he kind of laid down the gauntlet to his boy.