Source: Team_Talk
Milner up for Under-21 challenge
The Aston Villa player may have only a week's break should Stuart Pearce's side reach the final in Sweden on June 29 before Martin O'Neill's team report back for pre-season training.
O'Neill had voiced concerns towards the end of the current campaign that Milner and some of his team-mates had looked tired after operating with one of the smallest squads in the Premier League.
But Milner is determined to use the Under-21s tournament as a positive experience ahead of the bigger prizes up for grabs in 12 months time via the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.
Milner said: "Do I fear burn-out? I'm sure the manager will look after us. You need a rest. I've got six days before we join up with England. Then, if we reach the final, I've got another week.
"But it's an honour to play for your country and it's great to be going out there to Sweden to play with the best young players in Europe.
"Getting that experience is priceless. If you look at teams winning the World Cup and European Championships, so many of the squad have played in the Under-21s tournaments.
"It's getting that experience and winning mentality that helps. If we can win with the Under-21s, it stands us in good stead in the future as England players.
"Hopefully there will be a chunk of players who have been to a major international tournament and won it and that's massive. If you can then take that into senior tournaments, then you have better chance of winning those."
Milner is confident Villa will learn from their experiences of the past season when a late fade-out denied them a chance of a Champions League spot.
He said: "It is about how you learn from these runs. We know we should have done better but it is about what you take from such poor runs and how you bounce back.
"Hopefully if we are in the same position next year, with 10-12 games to go, hopefully we can see it through and go one or two places better.
"We've got younger players who maybe hadn't been in that position in the league before. We had a great start to the season and we were looking good for that Champions League spot.
"For whatever reason we ran out of steam and didn't get those wins on the board we needed. But then Arsenal and the top four in general have the experience of being up there year in, year out.
"It's what you pick up from being up there and we need to make sure we learn from this season."
