Gareth Barry exits West Brom as training begins

The 39–year-old – the Premier League’s record appearance holder – joined the Baggies from Everton in 2017 and in total made 52 appearances for the club.

Born in Hastings, Barry came through Brighton’s youth set-up before moving to Villa in 1997 where he went on to make his name.

For the past few weeks the midfielder has maintained his fitness by playing cricket for village side Temple Grafton, who are based in Warwickshire.

And though his side were beaten by Redditch based Astwood Bank in the National Village Cup last weekend, Barry took three wickets with the ball.

It is not yet known if he will now retire from football or if he will look to continue his long and prestigious career which saw him win the Premier League and earn 53 caps for England.

As well as Barry, goalkeeper Jonathan Bond and defender Lee Peltier have also become free agents after their deals with Albion expired.

Both players, however, trained with the Baggies yesterday as the squad reported for the first day of pre-season training.

The Express & Star understands Peltier has asked to remain with the club so he can maintain his fitness levels over the next few weeks.

But the defender – who joined from Cardiff in January but didn’t make an appearance – will not be an Albion player next season.

Bond’s future, however, is less clear.

Slaven Bilic has said he is in the market for a keeper to compete with Sam Johnstone for the number one jersey – with Lokomotiva Zagreb’s Ivo Grbic his prime target.

He, though, looks set to join Atletico Madrid.

But with Alex Palmer likely to go out on loan and youngster Josh Griffiths having already joined Cheltenham on a temporary basis, Bond could yet stay at The Hawthorns and fight for a place on the bench.

Bristol City and Swansea are amongst the clubs who have been linked with a move for Bond this summer.