Johnny Phillips: West Brom new boy Gareth Barry a man for all seasons
Tony Pulis doesn’t usually single out individuals for praise so early on, but in answering the first question of his post-match interview after Albion defeated Burnley last Saturday, he wanted nobody to be in any doubt about the contribution of Gareth Barry.
“As the game got more difficult there was a fella playing in the middle of the pitch who actually got better.”
Albion had been forced to play the final few minutes with 10 men and Barry, now 36, adapted his game accordingly with some crucial challenges as he regularly cleared the danger from home attacks.
His arrival from Everton last week didn’t fit the profile of the type of player Pulis said he wanted to bring to The Hawthorns in an attempt to lower the age of his squad, but Barry may prove to be the shrewdest acquisition of all. In every single one of his 20 seasons as a professional footballer, he has played in the Premier League.
So what’s the secret for such longevity at the top?
“I think it’s just enjoying the game and loving coming into training, the atmosphere in the dressing room,” says the midfielder. “I think you’ve got to have that drive, that wanting to succeed to put pressure on yourself. There’s so many different things you’ve got to keep an eye on during your career to keep your levels to a certain standard otherwise, the tough league that is, you find yourself dropping out.”
We are sat in the media suite at Albion’s training ground on Thursday lunchtime, recording an interview to be shown later today on Soccer Saturday.
An afternoon training session has given Barry a little longer than usual to battle through the car park known as the M6, from his home in Cheshire.
It would not be too hard to imagine that after all these years it is difficult to find the motivation to turn up for training at a new club, trying to keep up with players with a bit more youth on their side, but Barry doesn’t see it that way.
“I always cherish my debuts. I had my eye on Albion last year because they were challenging Everton at one point for the Europa League spots. Part of my challenge in coming here is trying to help the team maintain that level and improve year by year. People do write older players off and I want to keep proving them wrong.”
Pulis is the latest in a long line of stellar managers he can call ‘gaffer’. All have left their mark but there is one bit of advice that stands out.
“I think every manager has improved me. I always take the advice in because they’ve not just been put there, they know how a player should be playing and they always want certain qualities from a player out on the pitch.
“Martin O’Neill (at Aston Villa) gave me a good one. He always wanted you to train at a high level during the week but he said you’ll be judged out there on a Saturday. No matter what you do in between, you’ll be judged on the pitch. That was a good bit of advice, but I’ve learnt from all my managers and I’m looking forward to learning from Tony.”
Role models are important if a player is to enjoy a successful career and Barry found one early in his career when he joined Villa in 1997.
“Gareth Southgate is definitely the one – for a young player at 17 coming in and not really understanding how football should be played, not just on the pitch but off the pitch, he was a great professional. He was the one I learnt from and looked to for that advice.”
Barry looks back on his years at Villa with great fondness but in the summer of 2008 there was the low of losing the captaincy and being outcast from the first team when he pushed for a transfer away from the club after a series of approaches from Liverpool.
“I think that was the worst time. Just over that one summer I lost my way a bit in terms of the transfer, because although I’d played a lot of games and was very experienced I’d not understood about transfers,” he explains. “It was the first time I was close to leaving the club, so I found that tough. But once I knew where I was going to be and that I’d spend one more year at Villa I got my head round it and was back playing football, not worrying about anything else.”
It is all part of the professional life experience that Barry brings with him. Outside the media suite there is the sound of studs in the corridor. The academy players are gathering balls from the equipment room and heading out on to the pitches. Two decades ago Barry was doing something similar, with his whole professional life ahead of him.
“I do still see myself there,” he adds. “For any young player you can get carried away very quickly being around football, especially with the attention it gets and the money involved. There’s so much to learn you need to keep your focus. Enjoy it, but there’s some big challenges ahead.”
A few minutes later Barry is heading out on to the pitches too, joining his senior team-mates for another training session. The Premier League’s man for all seasons shows no signings of winding down just yet, and Albion are all the better for it.
