James Milner recently became the player to make the most appearances in the Premier League, surpassing Gareth Barry. That record is a perfect tribute to the marathon career the 40-year-old has had, which started at Leeds United back in 2002.
He spent the peak years of his career at two of England’s biggest clubs. Milner won five trophies with Manchester City and then seven more with Liverpool. But it could have turned out very differently for him.
It appears that Chelsea were also in the race to sign Milner at one point in time. But he ended up choosing Manchester City instead.
According to The Chelsea Chronicle, Miler said while talking on Rest is Football:
“Yeah. I mean, for sure. I think at that point I had a chance of going to Chelsea, maybe. I think.”
Why did Milner pick Manchester City over Chelsea?
These days, most players would probably pick a move to Manchester City over Chelsea. They have been one of the most successful clubs in world football for a decade and a half. On the other hand, the Stamford Bridge outfit have been struggling badly since the BlueCo takeover.
But that was not the case when Milner made the move to Manchester City back in 2010. The Citizens were on the rise but Chelsea had won three out of the previous six Premier League titles and were consistently competing in the latter rounds of the Champions League.
So, why did Milner choose Manchester City over Chelsea back in 2010? Did he predict what the future held for the Citizens? He said:
“Because of what you just said. I feel like Chelsea had been successful and won trophies and Man City hadn’t for a very long time. I thought, you know, it’d be great to start that and be part of that and win trophies there and um yeah, there that was the main decision really and went there and was fortunate enough to be part of, you know, the first one, the FA Cup was huge.”
What would things have looked like for Milner if he had ended up at Stamford Bridge?
It is important to consider the entire context of the move. Back in 2010, breaking into the Chelsea team would have been pretty difficult for Milner. Back then, he was playing mostly in midfield. The Blues were coming off a historic 09/10 campaign though and had some incredible quality in the middle of the park already.
Chelsea had the likes of Frank Lampard, Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel and Ramires. So, Milner might have struggled to get consistent gametime at the club. Manchester City was the better move for him for more reasons than one and it definitely worked out well for him.
Of course, it is fun to look back and wonder how differently things would have turned out if he had signed for Chelsea. But it is most likely that it would not have made a significant difference to the club’s fortunes.
