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I love the club and I wouldn't want to leave

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I love the club and I wouldn't want to leave."In truth, it is more likely that any exodus would be headed by Viduka and/or Smith "They're both massively important to the side," says Milner "Mark's a fantastic player and Alan loves the club You can see it when he plays I hope that we can keep them They have both been great to me. Yet more asset-stripping of a club who have declined from championship contenders to a state of penury in two years, and who have already lost Rio Ferdinand, Jonathan Woodgate, Lee Bowyer and the two Robbies, Keane and Fowler."It's flattering to hear that clubs might be interested in you," says Milner of the possibility of joining that list "Obviously you are doing something right on the field But I'm happy here. I hope that if I do play well here I will get recognised and play for my country."Still, he must achieve that with the constant knowledge that, on the whim of an opposition manager, the assent of the acting chairman, Trevor Birch, or the demands of Leeds' creditors, he could be sold now the transfer window has been flung open. "You don't get too much time to sit back and think about what's happened to you. Two years ago, I would have bitten your hand off if you had offered me the chance to be where I am now. But you have to make sure you look forward to things and don't just sit back and say 'Oh, I'm here now I have made it' You always want to drive on For me that means a regular place in Leeds' first team.

That was the start of a 14-month senior career during which Milner has witnessed the exodus of first the former England coach and then Reid, has scored a record-breaking goal, has been dispatched on a month's loan at Swindon, and finally has seized the responsibility of aiding Leeds' survival with the kind of performances, such as that at Charlton last month, which have had The Premiership's pundits bestowing Saturday-night television plaudits."Everything happened really quickly last year and it's just kept going," he says. "I was about six and with my dad, who's a season-ticket holder. I remember dad saying, 'Remember this day; it may not happen again'."As it has transpired, that caution was well justified, though as the young Milner progressed through Leeds' schoolboy teams to join the club's academy and to watch Leeds progress, under O'Leary, to a Champions' League semi-final, he surely must have imagined that another title was only a question of time.What the Leeds-born midfielder could not have prophesied was that only months later he would be introduced to first-team football by Terry Venables. Strange to think that Milner's own recollections of Leeds stretch back only to 1992, when Leeds won the League title under Howard Wilkinson."I'm a massive Leeds fan and I've still got a T-shirt celebrating that day," he says. Alan Smith to abandon the stricken vessel for Old Trafford or St James' Park; Paul Robinson bound for the City of Manchester Stadium; Mark Viduka a target for any number of English and foreign clubs. Even James Milner, the subject of the journey, has, at the tender age of 17 when we meet - hecomes of age today - been mentioned in several dispatches as being coveted by Manchester United.When you arrive, your interviewee regards such reports with the insouciance of youth as he talks in the manager's office; one which during the past 18 months has been occupied by four illustrious members of that profession: David O'Leary, Terry Venables, Peter Reid and the current caretaker, Eddie Gray.You remind him that the last-named is an image on one of his prized possessions: a video of the 1972 FA Cup final, when Leeds beat Arsenal - today's third-round opponents at Elland Road - and finished second in the League.

Robert Croft's retirement from international cricket makes the spinners still easier to choose.The one-day squad will detain them long enough only in deciding whether Vikram Solanki and Anthony McGrath should travel They will. Rumours have been circulating about Nasser Hussain's fitness for duty, but they should remain just that. The fringe batsman now is Andrew Strauss (ahead of Ed Smith and Robert Key). But he is in danger of becoming known as an enigma as much as a bowler, and his early departure from Bangladesh merely prompted further speculation. For all his well-meant protestations, the stories of a diffidence bordering on reluctance keep being trotted out.Without any of that trio, England will not seem so effective. Of the others, James Anderson and Andrew Flintoff seem certain to go. Anderson has not managed to sustain his electrifying start - not many could - but he remains a tremendous prospect.

We should not yet be expecting him to lead or carry the attack.Then there are Matthew Hoggard, Richard Johnson and Martin Saggers, all given honourable mentions by Graveney, who knows England will be expected to win despite the long gap. In erring on the side of caution the selectors somehow have to give themselves the best chance of beating the West Indies, who are again in disarray. An attack, say, of Anderson, Johnson, James Kirtley and Flintoff will lack both experience and potency.After that prolonged debate, the selectors should whistle through the rest: six batsmen, two all-rounders, two spinners and two wicketkeepers - if only because, except in the latter department, they are hardly spoiled for choice. His raw pace commands attention.Harmison has the bounce and the pace and was showing signs of breaking through when he last appeared.

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