Old Man Barry!

Gareth Barry knows what it is like to be in the first team at a young age as he made his debut under John Gregory at the age of 17. Having now racked up over 300 appearances the left sided midfielder has the experience to help the new generation of youth players through.

‘When I first came into the Villa side we were winning games. But people like Gareth Southgate, who has been a huge influence on me, told me it wouldn’t always be like that. Now I have to get that message across to our youngsters. We had a blip against Manchester City at home recently. The younger players aren’t used to that. That’s where the experienced players come in.’

‘It is very difficult for a young player because it’s easy enough when results are going well and other players can pull you through. You can get away with it to a certain extent. But suddenly you get a couple of bad results and tiredness suddenly creeps into your head.’

Barry misses the monday night Sky live game with a one match suspension having picked up five yellow cards.