‘Boring’ Milner will be so valuable to England at World Cup 2014

The old adage says that if people are talking about you then you must be doing something right and this certainly applies to Manchester City and England’s Mr Utility, James Milner, who is set to prove his worth at the 2014 World Cup and silence the doubters.

Being made skipper for the night in City’s latest home win against Blackburn in the FA Cup shows the sort of esteem 28-year-old Milner is held in by manager Manuel Pellegrini, despite being asked to come off the bench more often than not in the Premier League.

The Chilean’s trust in Milner’s ability was further highlighted by the fact the former Aston Villa man was asked to play in the centre of midfield in the second half and it’s this versatility which will serve his country so well in Brazil.

Anyone who has a spare lump of gold hanging around in the attic may wish to plonk it on the 1/3 which states Milner will be one of Roy Hodgson’s chosen 23 to board the plane to Rio.

Ironically it’s this reputation for versatility which has contributed to the creation of his imitation Twitter account; ‘Boring James Milner’.

While this is certainly an amusing account, one which the player himself has acknowledged in good humour, his fake social media personality does a great disservice to his vastly underrated footballing ability.

There is a reason that City paid a massive transfer fee of around £25m for the midfielder, because he has all the attributes a player requires at the highest level.

Milner can run with the ball and beat a player with a stepover, has a wide range of passing and is a tenacious tackler.

Anyone who witnessed his goal-scoring performance in City’s landmark win at Bayern Munich should be over the moon he will be part of the England squad for World Cup 2014, even if he is a bit boring.

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