West Brom midfielder Gareth Barry wants one more season in football
Veteran midfielder Gareth Barry is eager to keep playing for one more season before retiring from the game.
The 36-year-old, who is the Premier League’s record appearance maker, has only missed two league games since joining the Baggies in the summer for £1million.
He signed a one-year deal in August and is out of contract this June, but he’s keen to keep going beyond that.
“I definitely feel I’ve got another season in me, but beyond that I’m not too sure,” he told TalkSport. “I’m not a great planner, I haven’t got my coaching badges or anything at the moment.
“I’ll just finish my career, have a little break and then see what I want to do, but beyond that I haven’t got any big plans.”
Barry has been in fine form recently, and over the past few weeks has struck up a blossoming partnership in central midfield with Paris Saint-Germain loanee Grzegorz Krychowiak.
He turns 37 in February, and Wednesday night’s match with Manchester City is set to be his 650th in the Premier League, but his fitness levels in the midfield engine room have belied his age.
When he arrived, director of performance Mark Gillett told former boss Tony Pulis that Barry had a heart of a 25-year-old.
He has completed the 90 minutes on 16 occasions this season, and in six of the last seven league games.
He will turn 38 during next season, but the former Aston Villa, Manchester City, and Everton midfielder does not want to regret retiring too early.
“I’m enjoying my football,” added Barry. “I’m as dedicated as ever.
“I’m doing exactly the same things I was doing 10 or 15 years ago – preparing for games in exactly the same way. I just keep on going really.
“The ex-pros that have finished have kept saying to me, keep going and play as long as possible and keep enjoying it because they’ve regretted it when they finished probably sooner than they should have done.”
Barry has played a big part in Albion’s recent upturn in form, and started alongside Krychowiak in the FA Cup victory over Liverpool on Saturday night.
“I haven’t had too many results like that at Anfield in my whole career, so to go there and win against a team like Liverpool was fantastic,” he said.
“We weren’t expecting it, but it was the FA Cup so anything can happen. We went there with confidence and scored three goals, and not many teams can say they have done that.”
Barry was taken off after 71 minutes and is expected to be available for Wednesday’s trip to the Etihad Stadium to face former club City.
