Gareth Barry has expressed his dismay at no longer being the answer to a popular football quiz question, following James Milner’s recent surpassing of his Premier League appearance record.
Milner, a former teammate of Barry at Aston Villa and Manchester City, made his 654th Premier League appearance last month during Brighton’s victory over Brentford.
This landmark moment saw him eclipse the record Barry had held since 2017. What makes Milner’s feat particularly notable is that he achieved it having played a remarkable 13,874 fewer minutes than Barry – an equivalent of over 150 matches.
Despite this significant difference in playing time, Barry has been quick to dismiss any suggestion that it diminishes the validity of Milner’s impressive accomplishment.
“No, there should be no asterisk!” the 45-year-old told the Press Association, speaking at an Aston Villa Foundation event at TOCA Social in Birmingham.
“It was nice for other stats to come out on the back of James passing the appearance record.
“But we had slightly different careers. The game has changed, it’s really become a bit more of a squad game.
“There’s five subs now. James had a great period of time at Liverpool. He wasn’t going to start every game, but he was always involved in the squads and that’s probably where our careers differed slightly.
“He’s an ex-team-mate at two of my clubs, and also England, I know him exceptionally well.
“And he’s got to where he is for one reason: he’s a proper professional, a very underrated player, and literally is squeezing everything out of his body, because he takes everything to the limit.”
Trivia buffs up and down the country will have undoubtedly scribbled Barry’s name down as an answer in a quiz about players making the most Premier League appearances.
Milner may have that title now, but, as the player with the most minutes and most yellow cards, Barry is clinging to the hope that the questions may get changed.
“I remember the Covid days when the quizzes were very popular,” he added.
“That was definitely one where people kept telling me I was coming up in the quizzes.
“But you never know, they might change the question to minutes or yellow cards or something like that.”
