Midfielder, James Milner has joined Brighton & Hove Albion on a free transfer from Liverpool.
Milner’s move to Brighton comes after he spent eight years at Liverpool where he scored 26 goals and provided 45 assists in 332 appearances, during which he helped the Reds to seven trophies;
- Premier League
- FA Cup
- Carabao Cup
- FA Community Shield
- Champions League
- UEFA Super Cup
- FIFA Club World Cup
Brighton manager, Roberto De Zerbi is “very glad” to sign Milner who he believes will be “an excellent addition” with his experience, in order to elevate the Seagulls “to an even higher level.”
Technical Director, David Weir meanwhile is “delighted” to sign a “hugely successful” player in Milner who has won trophies at Newcastle plus Manchester City as well as with Liverpool across his “decorated career.”
Liverpool meanwhile issued the following statement on Milner’s move to their Premier League rivals who joins them in this season’s UEFA Europa League: “Everyone at Liverpool FC thanks James for all his contributions over the past eight years and wishes him well for the future.”
“characters are building everywhere,”
Milner will be reunited with his ex Liverpool teammate, Adam Lallana who is delighted with the Seagulls’ latest signing.
“I look at our dressing room now and characters are building everywhere,” commented Lallana on the current state of the first-team squad.
Lallana proceeded to iterate that Milner can help the team improve as a whole as he continued: “James has been in the Premier League for a long time, he defines the word professionalism and if we can use the strengths of players like him and others of that ilk and help the group overall it’s only going to help.
“And he’s older than me so he can have the headlines about being the oldest player in the group!”
The ex Southampton midfielder even acknowledged the wealth of experienced players within the squad like Lewis Dunk and Danny Welbeck for example, as he believes that their extensive experience “helps the dressing room.”
On exactly how Milner will add to that collection of experience, Lallana added: “We help provide the environment for the hidden gems to express themselves, that’s the model and James will help us with that.
“If you’ve got a team with 8-9 good senior lads like we have that’s pivotal to success. I look at the Southampton team when they won back to back promotions and to the Liverpool team I played in, there was always a core of leaders.”
With Europa League football to come this season, Lallana has warned that Brighton must continue to develop, as he said: “We need to keep building, we will be playing 2-3 times a week and that is difficult, not just the physical side of playing on Thursday and Sunday but also the mental side.
“The Premier League can become less glamorous, and we can’t have that happening to us. For us to progress as a football club we need to be relentless.”
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