The popular midfielder was an integral part of the Blues’ double trophy haul last season and though he featured in 44 games in all competitions, he admits that he is hoping to play an even bigger role this campaign.
“City a great club to be with and I just want to contribute as much as I can,” said Milner, who will be hoping for a starting place against Olympiacos on Saturday in Minneapolis.
“I played in important games at the end of last season and it was pleasing to help the team win trophies.
“That’s what it’s all about; I want as many minutes as I can. Competition is tough, but when you get out there you have to go and help the team.
I’ve been here four years now so you know what to expect. There’s big money signings every year. You want to play against the top teams and play with the best players in the world
...Milner...
“We definitely have that at City, you test yourself every single day in training. You want to improve, you want to win trophies and think ‘did I become the best player that I can?’
“If you can’t improve playing with these guys in the dressing room you are going to struggle anyway.”
Milner has been with the squad for a week now after arriving in New Jersey along with Joe Hart, Edin Dzeko, Yaya Toure and David Silva.
The World Cup quintet had an extra 16 days off to recover from the tournament in Brazil and have been catching up with their team-mates.
He admits pre-season is tough and is looking forward to reaching peak fitness in time for the new season and played his first 45 minutes of the US Tour against Liverpool on Wednesday evening.
“You just want to get into it and get your running done,” he said. “Pre-season isn’t really a time any player likes, but it was good to get out there and get 45 minutes in.
“There’s not much of a break after a World Cup. You need a rest but on the other hand it doesn’t take you too much time to get back in the swing of things.
“It’s all behind us now and we are focusing on the new season. We know how hard it’s going to be and we know how strong the other teams are and they’ve strengthened again but it’s up to us to go again and try to retain the title.
“It’ll be tight; it was very competitive last year and I’m sure it will be close again. It’s down to us to go out there and show we are the beat, I suppose.”
“I don’t like making predictions but we’ve got a strong team, we’ve improved our squad, it’s stronger. The new guys are settling in and once they do, we’ll be better for it.”
“The hunger is there. We want to go again because we’ve had the taste of winning trophies. At one point last season we were still in all four league trophies and pushing for each one. So we want to be in that situation again where we can be in that situation again and pushing for all of them.”
