Sun sets on ‘peak Barclays’ with retirement of James Milner

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James Milner, 40, has retired after 24 years in the Premier League. When Milner made his debut in November 2002, he was the second youngest player to have ever played in the league. He ends his career as the third-oldest outfield player to have played in the league. His 658 Premier League appearances are a record, as are the 218 he made as a substitute. In his first game against Leeds United, he lined up against a player who was born in 1963. Milner has been characterised as boring – a parody social media account with nearly 600,000 followers is devoted to this idea – but his dependability and straightforwardness have made him an asset to football for nearly a quarter of a century. Milner’s retirement leaves Cristiano Ronaldo as the final relic of “peak Barclays” – the venerated early 2000s period of Premier League football.