GARETH BARRY
West Brom’s veteran midfielder reflects on life in the Championship
GARETH Barry has been around so long that he was playing back when the Premier League could be dominated by English players.
Barry was on the bench, coming on for half the game, when Aston Villa manager John Gregory fielded the last all-English team to play in the Premier League 20 years ago.
It didn’t go well, Villa losing 4-1 at home to Midlands rivals Coventry.
The anniversary of that landmark game was Wednesday, just four days after Barry turned 38 years old.
That didn’t go well either, Barry having a poor game on his birthday in an even poorer defeat as his current club, West Brom, lost a big Championship promotion battle at home to Sheffield United.
Barry still thinks, though, he might have one more year of Premier League football in him. If West Brom can sort out their home form he might achieve it because six draws and four defeats at The Hawthorns are currently holding back an instant Albion promotion push.
Barry’s long career had been spent exclusively in the top flight until this season and after a record 653 Premier League games how’s he finding it below stairs?
“The lads who have played in the Championship before have said what fun it is,” he said.
“It is as much fun challenging up the top of the Championship as scrapping relegation down the bottom of the Premier League. It’s a challenge I took on straight away and I wasn’t disappointed to be playing in the Championship. It is something I looked forward to and I am enjoying.
“I have found it fun, I am enjoying the football and the manager (Darren Moore) and the coaching staff are really good, they understand where I am at in my career. These days I can’t train and play every game but they are looking after me along the way.”
Break
Barry is closing in on having played 30 games this season and that, he says, is because he gets to have a break from training when he needs it. “Thirty games is a big number, what I’d hit when I was younger in the Premier League. To have been involved in nearly that many games this season, I’m happy. “I’m feeling good which is more important than anything.” By the time West Brom get to their final game of the season on Sunday, May 5 and a possible play-off shoot-out at Derby, Barry will have been playing first team football for 21 years and three days.
His debut was for Villa at Sheffield Wednesday, a 3-1 win in 1998. He played 365 games for Villa over 11 years, boy to manhood, and when he went back to Villa Park with West Brom a fortnight ago he got a standing ovation from Villa fans when he was subbed off.
“That was a great feeling,” says Barry. “To come to Villa at 16 years old and spend that amount of time at a club is something you won’t forget.
“You don’t know, I may never play at Villa Park again.”
He certainly won’t unless Villa up their game. They look nothing like a Championship promotion team while West Brom, although relying far too heavily on their away form, could get themselves back up.
Getting promotion 12 months after relegation is something that is deep on Barry’s conscience.
Jake Livermore has already spoken to The FLP about how Albion’s players got together following relegation and promised amongst themselves to stay and make that happen.
Most kept their word, Barry among them, and got ready for a season at the coalface.
“It would be an achievement to take on this challenge when everyone was at the lowest point and to bounce back,” says Barry.
“I am speaking ahead of myself on what could possibly happen, but if it was to happen it would be a fantastic bounce back and be right up there as a great achievement in my career.”
Barry won the Premier League and FA Cup with Manchester City in a career that also made him Everton’s player of the season and brought 53 England caps.
Grazing
He could have looked at a grazing few last seasons at a Premier League club, but instead decided to take up the one-year option he had on his West Brom contract.
Taxi-gate, when Barry and other West Brom players allegedly drove a taxi back after a night out on a Barcelona training trip during Alan Pardew’s ill-fated managerial reign, might have had something to do with it as well.
The atmosphere between players and Pardew was poor as he led them and the club towards relegation.
“There was a big part of me that wanted to stay around and not just run away after relegation,” says Barry. “It is not really in my character.
“I took responsibility as well as a lot of other players who have hung around this season. We were all part of the relegation team.
“I am working hard, as the other lads are, to put it right and try and get us straight back up. It isn’t easy, you only have to look at the other teams who have come down. We need to go right until the end to keep working.”
Barry plays as he talks, calm, precise, no sudden bursts, one paced, alert.
When his brother Marc, 39, died in a car crash in July, those within West Brom say they saw little change in him.
H e spoke about it to the club when they asked and after a week of compassionate leave, he was back playing for West Brom in a new season warm-up game against a young Brentford side.
If his conversation was limited at that tragic time, it’s important to Barry now as he encourages his body to see him through a season far more demanding than he has ever known.
“At my age it means I have another day of recovery after a game from the other lads,” Barry says, revealing how West Brom are nursing the constant aches of Championship football.
“I allow my body to fully recover before going into proper exercise again. Then I’m good to go, really fresh and looking forward to the game.
“It’s about communication and conversations between the relevant people about how the body feels and how long you’ve played.
“They have all the stats about distance covered. It’s about sports science and medical having a conversation with the manager and the manager speaking to me. There’s a lot to be thought of and it is so important.
“If I don’t feel ready to train, or if I want to train, they allow me to do it.”
Barry was among players who chipped in to pay for the coaches to take fans to Friday night’s big game at Leeds.
As someone who is on a long journey himself and getting some help, it seems apt.
I am enjoying football my and coaching the are staff looking after me