Jim White is baffled by Liverpool’s decision to not reward James Milner with a new contract.
The 33-year-old is in the final year of his existing deal at Anfield and he has recently said, as quoted by the Daily Mail, that the club has refused to offer new terms.
Sky Sports and talkSPORT host White cannot get his head around why Milner, a player with masses of experience in the game, would not be rewarded with a new contract by the Reds, claiming that a two-year extension should be on the table.
“To my amazement, James Milner has revealed there is uncertainty around his Liverpool future. Incredibly he’s entered the final 12 months of his current deal and talks are yet to get underway over a new one,” White said, as shown by talkSPORT’s official Twitter account on Tuesday.
“How on earth can that be? He’s 33, he’s super fit and this is James Milner who’s played over 700 career games, 177 of those for Liverpool.”
White added: “As long as he remains fit, surely a two-year deal, beyond this season, has to be on offer to James Milner.
“I can’t for the life of me understand why it’s not.”
OPINION
Fenway Sports Group have never been fans of players over 30. Since they became Liverpool owners in 2010, the Reds have only paid transfer fees for two players over the age of 30 – Rickie Lambert and Ragnar Klavan – so it is clearly not a rule that Jurgen Klopp has made up at Anfield. FSG are businessmen, they are not football men. They see that Milner is an ageing footballer who they will never make any money off, so if his contract was set to expire this summer, the chances are that he wouldn’t have been offered new terms. It’s not the way to run a football club though. As White points out in part of his rant about Liverpool’s decision, top teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid have won Champions League titles with an abundance of players over the age of 30. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are in their 30s now – would FSG let them go for free next year? Of course not. Milner isn’t Messi or Ronaldo, obviously, but he is so important for Liverpool.
