Barry’s game is built around efficiency
At 36, West Brom’s latest addition is proof that simple and safe works just fine, writes Jonathan Liew
‘He reads, he intercepts, he covers, he deters. His work is done’
My favourite Gareth Barry story – in what is admittedly a sparse field – is the trip he made to St Andrews with some of his Manchester City teammates in 2010. After a day on the golf course and some drinks in the evening, Barry and his colleagues end up gatecrashing a student flat party, where they are feted like celebrities. One student starts a chant of “Adam Johnson! Adam Johnson!”, which in hindsight he probably regrets now.
Anyway, at some point Barry is persuaded to make a speech to the packed room. It is 1am, Barry is several soggy sheets to the wind, and he has never been the most natural public speaker. And so he keeps it short and factual. “We’ve come a long way,” he says. “It’s been windy. It’s been raining. We’re in St Andrews. Let’s PARTY!” I keep coming back to that little speech every time Barry’s name pops up, as it did this week, with his transfer from Everton to West Brom. The honest, economical and yet highly effective oratory is, in a strange way, redolent of Barry’s approach to football. And the fact that he can still find gainful top-division employment at the age of 36, despite all the Premier League’s gleaming cash and succulent young flesh, is testament to a dogged and deceptively fervid pursuit of excellence.
What might a Barry Youtube highlights reel consist of? A brain scan pinpointing the exact neuron that lights up when he anticipates an opposition throughball? The fiveyard trot that plugs a gap in between central defender and full-back, forcing the ball wide? The simple short pass into space that will, about 30 seconds and a dozen phases later, lead to a goal?
For the real highlight of Barry’s career is an absence of highlights. There is something strangely fitting about the fact that at the moment of his greatest triumph, Sergio Aguero’s goal that won City the Premier League title in 2012, Barry was sitting on the bench, having quietly and unfussily come off for Edin Dzeko in the 69th minute with City 2-1 down. He may not have been there at the end. But his work was already done. He reads, he intercepts, he covers, he deters. By the time you notice him, it is already too late. His work is already done.
Of course, there is the lack of pace. Perhaps the enduring motif of Barry is that heartbreaking image from the 2010 World Cup, in which Germany score their fourth goal and Barry is trying to chase down Mesut Ozil on his own, with all the desperate futility of a man trying to put out a house fire by blowing on it. But amid the predictable ridicule, consider this: at least he was there. Which is more than you could say for his team-mates. And really, when you look back at Barry’s career, there is something to say for that. Being there.
You may never watch an episode of Gareth Barry: Football’s Greatest. But somehow a scrawny kid from Sussex ended up playing 53 times for England, winning a Premier League title and lasting two decades in it. He’s come a long way. He’s about to sign for West Brom. Let’s party!