Soccer
Gareth Barry: No asterisk should be next to James Milner’s Premier League record
Gareth Barry is upset he is no longer the answer to a quiz question, but joked that James Milner does not need an asterisk next to his Premier League record.
Barry recently saw his former Aston Villa, Manchester City and England team-mate Milner break his record for the most Premier League appearances, when he featured for the 654th time in the competition during Brighton’s win at Brentford last month.
It was a record the former Villa, City and Everton midfielder had held since 2017, but Milner took it having played a mammoth 13,874 minutes less than Barry – the equivalent of just over 150 games.
However, Barry insists that does not bring the validity of Milner’s achievement into question.
“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.”
:: Gareth Barry is the Angry Ambassador of the new Angry Birds game at TOCA Social which launches in all its UK venues from March 30.
