Walking into Brighton’s Elite Football Performance Centre, I was swiftly approached by a member of the club’s communications team. “Have you got the frames?” he asked this bemused writer, who only had his phone, laptop and notepad with him. It turns out he was after a different Will; not from The Independent, but from Guinness World Records. We were both here for James Milner.

For Milner, his record-breaking 654th Premier League appearance was just another game. “Massive victory on the road, delighted for the boys and travelling fans, thanks for the support,” read his very ordinary Instagram post, with the comments limited, after Brighton’s hard-fought win at Brentford. No self-congratulations, no fuss. It was very run-of-the-Milner.

The 40-year-old had his priorities straight. “I’ve always just tried to get on with my job and keep my head down really,” Milner said, ironically surrounded by journalists – and the aforementioned GWR dignitary, adorned in the trademark blue blazer and tie – who had all congregated on the south coast to discuss his remarkable milestone. “I know obviously there’s been a lot of talk around this sort of thing, but for me, I just want to do my job and [was] especially pleased to get the win, that was so important for us at the weekend. So to contribute to that, that’s always number one.”

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Of course, Milner meant no disrespect and emphasised he was incredibly grateful for the tidal wave of congratulations that had come his way. “I’ve had so many amazing messages, you want to thank people and there’s nice posts like the clubs have done,” he stressed. But it was Gareth Barry, the man whose record Milner had surpassed, who seemed to really get the “no biggie” vibe.

“He sent me a message after the game and then it was his birthday yesterday, so I sent him a message saying happy birthday,” Milner said. “He just said congrats, and he said he’s going away and golfing somewhere, so that sounded good to me.”

You don’t get many football bingo cards more filled out than Milner’s (and that’s not a quip at his age).

Across a Premier League career that has spanned 23 years, 109 days and counting, the Englishman has won every trophy under the sun, including three Premier League titles and one Champions League during his glory-laden stints with Manchester City and Liverpool. He even has an Intertoto Cup to his name with Newcastle.

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He’s been deployed in every outfield position possible. “I’d say I needed goalkeeper to play every single one,” he joked.

Milner collected three framed world records on the day of our visit: one for most Premier League appearances (654), another for longest time between first and last Premier League goal (22 years and 248 days), and a third for most consecutive Premier League seasons of any player (24). He’ll get a fourth in 217 days, at the time of writing, if he surpasses Teddy Sheringham as the oldest outfield player in Premier League history. But while that box remains one of the few unmarked, so does another: retirement.

“I think things change very quickly in football, and I think when you get to my age, things change very quickly as well,” Milner admitted when asked if he will be around long enough to become the top flight’s eldest ever statesman.

“When I look at where I was last year, not being able to lift my foot for six months, to where I am this year, it’s easier to turn around and say, ‘Yes, I’d love to do another year.’

“I’m pretty open at this moment in time – whether I will or whether I won’t, I’m not sure. We haven’t had any conversations, so obviously the club have to be interested as well. It’s all right me saying I want to play another year if the club don’t want you.”

Whether it’s sooner or later, and whether it’s his decision to make or Brighton’s, Milner is under no illusions: “I know the end’s getting closer.” The veteran, however, asserts that he doesn’t “fear” retirement, even if the question of “when’s the right time?” does play on his mind. “I feel like I still can do it now, but do you go to the point where you can’t? Is that too long?”

As such, Milner is in the thick of considering his life after football, all while keeping a piece of advice from former boss Jurgen Klopp in the back of his mind. “Jurgen always said, whenever you finish, you need to have a rest and a break straight away,” he reflected. “I think that’s pretty appealing at this moment in time.”

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The workhorse deserves his break, but knowing his character, it will only last so long.

“I think most people say you miss the structure and what you’re training for every day. You’re going in the gym and it’s hard, it’s for a reason, it’s for the next game and things like that,” Milner said with a sense of pre-emptive nostalgia, before reassuring that his world-class engine will not be detuned in retirement.

“When you haven’t got that, I think I’d probably look towards doing marathons or something like that to give me something to go for again.”

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Milner will leave football with arguably the most fabled work ethic in the English game. At Liverpool, the yearly pre-season lactate test under Klopp – which tasked players with doing laps of their training ground – came with an award named after him, having won it at a canter for every season he was at Anfield, even into his mid-thirties.

He boasts longevity that with the modern fixture schedule will be nigh-on impossible to replicate, fuelled by a drive to prove his doubters wrong – something his dad used to play on.

“He knew what I was like and he used to say, ‘you don’t work hard enough, you’re not gonna make it’,” Milner remembered. “He knew what he was doing and it [his drive] probably comes from that, to be fair.

“He’d never say it in a horrible way or anything like that, but he knew what I was like, and he’d be like, ‘you’ve got no chance of scoring the goal from there’, and then like two shots later it’s in the top corner. He knew how to get the best of me.”

Silencing the sceptics is part of the reason Milner is still going today. “Some things don’t change,” he laughs.

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It’s that burning desire to push himself that has him now pondering a career in management. Milner has been earning his coaching badges but knows the hellfire that the job can pose.

“There are some times I think it’d be great and I’d love to put my stamp on a team, and I think I could do this and that,” he says. “But it’s such a hard gig, isn’t it? It’s so hard. Even the amount of press you’ve got to do to be honest – press conference before the game, after the game, like eight times a week.

“It’s one that the competitive guy in you thinks, ‘yeah, I wouldn’t mind giving that a go and taking on’. I know it’s difficult but… and I feel like I’ve got a fantastic knowledge of people I’ve worked under, from back to your Terry Venables and your Sir Bobby Robsons, and then you go through to the current manager now.

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“I’ve got a great array of different managers from different countries and different personalities to lean back on, so in one way I think it’d be a big shame to lose all that knowledge and experience I’ve built up, to not be able to use that.”

There are no guarantees on next steps from Milner, who wants to focus on the present. But incredibly, his career could yet be charged with some footballing firsts.

A win over Borussia Dortmund on Saturday would send Vincent Kompany’s Bayern Munich 11 points clear of their opponents and all but seal back-to-back Bundesliga titles for the Belgian coach.

While the football is his focus, Kompany’s powerful, forthright and eloquent monologue on racism and victim-blaming last week struck a chord beyond the game.

The 39-year-old condemned Benfica coach Jose Mourinho for his suggestion that the alleged racist abuse by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni that compelled Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr. to walk off the pitch was provoked by Vinicius’s celebration of a goal. Kompany then went on to share his own experiences of racist abuse as both player and coach.

“I go to Club Brugge [while coaching Belgian side Anderlecht in 2021]. And I played for the national team; I was the captain for the national team. Me, my staff, we get called brown monkeys and so on. And after I complain, I see how all these politics happen again to kill the story. So, no consequences, no nothing. And I have a voice. What do you think for the people without a voice?”

Kompany’s upbringing in Brussels and his father’s influence

Kompany’s decision to use that voice to speak out has its roots in his parents and upbringing.

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“I come from Brussels, and we speak so many different languages. Just in Brussels alone, you could be speaking French, Dutch, maybe a little bit of Arabic or Lingala from Congo, Italian, Spanish, it’s all mixed,” he told UEFA.com in 2024. “And you find that unless you communicate with people, nobody will do what you want them to do, and that’s a big part of what we learn. I take it with me when I communicate with the group [of players].”

While a multicultural city helped Kompany develop his sense of social justice and awareness of discrimination, such notions also come from his father.

“Where I come from is my dad,” he once said. “His experiences give me strength.”

Pierre Kompany fled what was then the Belgian Congo (now DR Congo) in 1975 as a political refugee after serving 13 months in jail for his involvement in a student protest against the ruling regime. He was elected to the Brussels parliament in 2014 and became the country’s first Black mayor four years later.

Racism a part of Kompany’s childhood

As a young man, Pierre married Vincent’s mother, Jocelyne, a white Belgian who died in 2008, something that shaped his own politics.

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“My dad wasn’t accepted in the family at the beginning,” explained Vincent in a 2019 Guardian interview. “My mother comes from the most rural village you can imagine and when she arrived, in the 70s, with my dad, straight from Africa, it was a shock. It was ignorance. My dad always ended up being accepted because of his personality. It was normal for us to go to youth tournaments and be called monkeys; parents shouting it. That would nearly cause a fist fight with my mother. We were taught to be stronger.”

That family trait of standing up for their rights and beliefs is something that has been a feature of Kompany’s career. After leaving Belgian giants Anderlecht for a two-year spell as a player in Hamburg, he became the on-field leader of a routinely successful Manchester City side, winning four Premier League titles. Kompany gained admirers both within and outside City, before returning to Anderlecht to take his first steps in coaching.

Kompany’s coaching rise with help from his friends

His upbringing is even reflected in his choice of coaching staff. Childhood friend, Rodyse Munienge, is on the staff at Bayern. Floribert N’Galula, who also came through Anderlecht’s academy and played professionally in Belgium, has followed Kompany to Anderlecht, Burnley and is now with him at Bayern Munich.

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Kompany was not Bayern’s first choice for the coaching role in 2024, having overseen Burnley’s relegation from the Premier League but has been a success so far. Bayern have lost just three league games since the start of last season and are on course for a league and cup double with a first Champions League title —  the only thing that appears to offer any Bayern coach more job security —  since 2020 very much a possibility.

After Vinicius and his teammates got the better of Benfica in their Champions League playoff on Wednesday, Real Madrid could meet Bayern at the quarterfinal stage. Among the hype such a fixture would produce would be two men, in Kompany and Vinicius, prepared to make a stand against racism regardless of the personal cost.

Edited by: Jonathan Harding

Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmed starred as England defied a sluggish pitch to lay down a marker for the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup following an unlikely four-wicket win over New Zealand.

Already guaranteed a top-two spot in their Super 8 group following wins over Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Pallekele, England were staring defeat in the face as they required 42 from the last 17 balls.

On a Colombo surface where run-scoring was difficult, man of the moment Jacks and the recalled Rehan, both of whom took two wickets apiece in New Zealand’s 159 for seven, went in full-on attack mode with an astonishing unbroken 44-run stand in 16 deliveries.

The pair each took sixes in a Glenn Phillips over which yielded 21, while New Zealand captain Mitch Santner leaked 16, before Jacks hit the winning runs off Matt Henry to get England home with three balls to spare.

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Gilberto Ramirez has sparred Canelo Alvarez and David Benavidez, both at different stages of his career, and credits one of them for hitting particularly hard.

Unified world cruiserweight champion Ramirez will face Benavidez on May 2, defending his WBO and WBA titles at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.

Since suffering his only professional blemish, a points loss to Dmitry Bivol in 2022, Ramirez has firmly cemented himself as an elite operator at 200lbs.

Consecutive victories over Arsen Goulamirian and Chris Billam-Smith saw him topple two world champions in 2024, before defending his titles via another unanimous decision, this time against Yuniel Dorticos, in June 2025.

Benavidez, meanwhile, secured two-division world title status last year after being upgraded from ‘interim’ to full WBC light-heavyweight, with Bivol having relinquished his belt.

The 29-year-old then made a maiden defence of his crown in November, stopping Anthony Yarde in round seven, which led to him negotiating a cruiserweight clash with Ramirez.

During his time as the WBC ‘interim’ champion at 168lbs, many felt that Canelo, the then-super-middleweight king, was avoiding a mandatory title defence against Benavidez.

But while we can only imagine how a matchup between Alvarez and Benavidez would unfold, Ramirez has kindly offered an insight into his sparring sessions with the both of them.

Speaking with Fight Hub TV, the 34-year-old hinted at the power being more apparent with Canelo than it was with his next opponent.

“[The sparring was] way different because Canelo is short and, at that time, I was [at] 168[lbs]. I was super skinny.

“Then I moved up [in weight] and moved to the US, and I started sparring with David and different guys – bigger guys.

“Canelo – he’s good. He has power; he has a lot of faints; he moves really well. And Benavidez, he presses you all the time; you don’t have time to breathe. You have to just keep going. And [Benavidez] likes to be [on the] inside.”

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Ramirez shared rounds with Canelo during his reign as the WBO super-middleweight champion, while the Benavidez sparring seemingly came following his brief excursion to 175lbs.

If memory serves, the wizards at Hogwarts were hesitant to utter the name of Voldemort. Is there a similar dynamic at play with those around the Vikings and the words Super Bowl?

If so, then nobody told the Vikings’ fill-in GM.

Rob Brzezinski has been an executive in Minnesota for a long time. Several decades, in fact. The assignment has most commonly been to function as a numbers nerd, working the books behind the scenes to make the money work. After the decision to fire Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, the Vikings needed a temporary top decision maker, leading to Brzezinski getting his bump up. He isn’t shy about what he’s chasing.

Vikings’ Fill-In GM Chasing a Super Bowl

Mr. Brzezinski chatted with the team media, kicking things off with an interview with Tatum Everett.

The conversation moves through different topics before Brzezinski is asked about whether Minnesota’s roster is that of a championship team. He was fairly political and evasive before declaring, “Just want to be a small part of delivering that Lombardi to our very, very special fans.”

Note that the Lombardi quip gets shoehorned into the end of the interview. He does so while connecting the feat to fans, perhaps suggesting that this is merely a throw-away comment that plays well with the crowd but isn’t particularly sincere.

Fast forward through the NFL Combine a bit further.

Interviewers Paul Allen and Pete Bercich get to chat with Rob Brzezinski. Check out what he says less than five minutes into the interview: “I just want to be a small part of helping deliver a championship to our fans. They’ve been waiting a really, really long time and it’s going to mean so much to them when it finally does happen. And it will.”

Toward the end of the same interview, Brzezinski reflects on his desire for his legacy with the franchise: “I want to be a small part of delivering a championship to our fans. I just try to envision what that would look like. I can see it.”

“I just want to be a small part of finally delivering that Lombardi,” Brzezinski concludes.

Rob Brzezinski doesn’t lack for ambition. The charming part is that he tethers that massive ambition — winning it all — to a personal humility, commonly describing his part as “just” a tiny portion of the overall effort. A lot of the time, quotes on the page don’t convey tone very well, so do note that his words are that of someone who comes across as being sincere in his passion.

Currently, the Vikings appear pretty far off from winning it all. The 2025 season finished off at 9-8 but was on the brink of fully unravelling due to a 4-8 record toward the end of the year. The outlook was grim before the year ended with a five-game winning streak.

Most concerning has been the QB play. Somehow, the position needs to experience massive improvement. The strategy is going to involve bringing in enhanced competition (as the Vikings’ fill-in GM has acknowledged). A trade is an option. So is a free agent signing. What can’t be missed is that the Vikings actually need a pair of things to occur at quarterback: a higher floor and ceiling. Quite possibly, that means adding two quarterbacks.

Rob Brzezinski will then need to see the roster stay healthier. So, too, will several players need bounce back seasons. Jonathan Greenard being a pass rushing terror, Byron Murphy a turnover machine, and Justin Jefferson a weekly 100-yard receiver is what’s required (alongside plenty of other developments).

Meanwhile, the coaching staff needs to elevate. In particular, Kevin O’Connell needs to commit to running the football.

Rob Brzezinski has plenty of work ahead of him. He has promised to be thorough and to make wise decisions. Do well enough and maybe the dream of a Lombardi is no longer a dream before too long.

NFL free agency begins in less than two weeks.

Senior Editor for Vikings Territory & PurplePTSD . Twitter & Bluesky: @VikingsGazette. Email: k.joudry[at]vikingsterritory[dot]com. Canadian. Jude 1:24-25.

Man Utd U18s have reached the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup, which will be played at Old Trafford next month.

Manchester United Under-18s will play Sunderland at Old Trafford in the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup on Wednesday, March 18, with a kick-off time of 7pm. The U18s’ league fixture against Sunderland which had been scheduled for Saturday, March 13, will be re-arranged.

Darren Fletcher’s side progressed to the quarter-finals thanks to a 4-1 win against Oxford City earlier this month. JJ Gabriel, Albert Mills, Chido Obi and Noah Ajayi were on the scoresheet that night.

Gabriel’s performances have made headlines this season. The youngster is the top goalscorer in the U18 league, despite playing years above his age group, and has netted 16 goals in all competitions.

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The 15-year-old has already trained with the first team on several occasions and has been tipped for a bright future. “JJ is a fantastic talent. I’ve enjoyed working with him immensely, getting to know him,” said Fletcher when he was asked about Gabriel in December.

“He’s a young lad with a massive sort of hype, you know there’s a lot of noise around him and deservedly so because he’s a real talented kid. He works hard. First thing I’d say is he loves football.

“He loves training, he loves playing, he loves having the ball, he loves expressing himself. He makes fantastic decisions. He’s just got an enthusiasm for the game that’s just amazing.

“15-year-old, a bright future ahead of him. I’m super excited by his talent, but the most important thing is that he keeps developing, and he’s in the U18 team, and he’s doing fantastically well, but he’s still got lots to learn.”

Obi has dropped down to play for the U18s in the Youth Cup. The 18-year-old made seven first-team appearances last season, but Fletcher has involved him in the Youth Cup this term. The U18s reached the semi-finals of the Youth Cup last season, losing to eventual winners Aston Villa.

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Out of nowhere, the New York Jets and Tennessee Titans finagled a rare player-for-player trade on Thursday, and the backhanded fallout suggests Jets defensive tackle Harrison Phillips could end up back in Minnesota, at least according to budding fan sentiment.

If Phillips becomes the odd man out, Minnesota would know exactly what it’s getting: sturdy run defense and leadership.

Phillips played for the Vikings for three seasons before former general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah unceremoniously traded him to New York last summer.

Johnson-Sweat Trade Fallout Could Push Phillips Loose

Bring him home, they say.

Jets, Titans Swap Defensive Linemen

It’s a DT to New York and a DE to Tennessee.

NFL.com’s Kevin Patra wrote Thursday, “We have a rare February trade agreement. The New York Jets are trading pass rusher Jermaine Johnson II to the Tennessee Titans in exchange for nose tackle T’Vondre Sweat, NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reported Thursday, per sources informed of the deal. The trade can’t be consummated until the new league year opens on March 11.”

“The trade reunites Johnson with new Titans head coach Robert Saleh, who was in New York when the Jets used a first-round pick on the edge rusher in 2022. Johnson had a roller-coaster four seasons in New York, generating 13.0 total sacks. He earned a Pro Bowl nod under Saleh in 2023, earning 7.5 sacks, but a 2024 injury wiped out all but two tilts, and he never seemed right last season.”

The deal caught Titans fans off guard because Sweat fired up a phenomenal 2025 campaign. Most didn’t think he was for sale.

Harrison Phillips as the Odd Man Out?

If one believes Jets-themed media, the Sweat trade has put Phillips on notice. He could be released in the wake of the deal.

The Jet Press‘s Mike Luciano wrote, “The Jets may cut Harrison Phillips after T’Vondre Sweat acquisition. Bringing in a player like Sweat could mean that some of the other defensive linemen on the team could see their roles change in a significant way.”

“Veteran Harrison Phillips put together a robust season for the Jets, but adding Sweat may push him out of a starting role. Phillips was a quality run stuffer last year, which is exactly what the Jets acquired him from the Minnesota Vikings to do.”

New York would incur no dead cap penalty for dropping Phillips; it would save $7.5 million. His contract’s guaranteed money ran out in 2025.

Luciano continued, “Phillips was an exemplary leader, so much so that it should not surprise anyone if he earns a captain patch, should he remain on the roster. However, Phillips has next to no upside as a pass rusher, and his skills in run defense were ultimately overshadowed by the fact that he was unable to trouble opposing quarterbacks at all.”

“Sweat may not be John Randle as a pass rusher, but he can be disruptive on the interior.”

The Head-Scratcher Adofo-Mensah Trade

The Vikings’ decision to trade Phillips to the Jets last August — along with a 7th-round pick in exchange for two 6th-rounders — immediately puzzled many. Phillips, a team captain and a reliable defensive lineman, was highly respected within the organization.

Although the Vikings finished third in the NFL in EPA per play on defense, Phillips’ run-stopping prowess was noticeably missed at times during the 2025 season. Furthermore, the two additional 6th-round picks acquired in the trade rarely yield impactful players.

During his tenure in Minnesota, Phillips established himself as a tone-setting and dependable defensive tackle. He consistently performed well at a position that had often been a weak point, providing much-needed stability to the interior defensive line.

Off the field, Phillips was deeply involved in the community. Over 51 games with the Vikings, the 29-year-old amassed 207 tackles, 17 quarterback hits, and 6.5 sacks, solidifying his role as a respected voice in the locker room.

He’s one of the good guys.

Would Phillips Want to Return?

Vikings fans rushed to social media regarding the Johnson-Sweat trade, spitballing that Phillips would be cut as a byproduct and that a reunion in Minnesota would make sense. On paper, that idea seems great — making right a trade that didn’t add up in the first place.

But would Phillips really want to rejoin the club that kicked him out less than a year ago? Is it enough to tell him that Adof0-Mensah was fired and all is well?

Just because Phillips may be a free agent soon doesn’t mean he’ll want to reunite with the team that treated him disloyally.

On the other hand, Vikings DT Javon Hargrave is reportedly on the trade block. Perhaps Minnesota will trade Hargrave or release him and simply re-sign Phillips if he’s in the right mood.

Fun fact: the newest Titan, EDGE Jermaine Johnson, went to Eden Prairie High School.