It is just over three years since Manuel Pellegrini, then manager of Manchester City, expanded the club’s exhaustive private attempts to retain James Milner with a public commendation.



“Find me a more complete English player,” he told The Guardian. “There are players who’re better technically, yes. Quicker players, yes. Players who head better, yes. But show me one who does all the things Milner does well. There isn’t one.”



Milner was in the final months of his contract at City, and though the club was offering a lucrative new deal, he had decided to depart the Etihad, where he felt like a spare part rather than fundamental to the team’s success.



“It’s hard to leave him out,” Pellegrini continued. “Respect, commitment, and performance level: 10/10, fantastic. He is a phenomenon.”



And yet Milner was in City’s starting lineup just 18 times in the league during the...