West Brom’s Gareth Barry has revealed that he left Everton during the summer because he felt that his career would fizzle out.
The 36-year-old Barry is on the verge of breaking the record held by Ryan Giggs’ of most appearances in the Premier League.
Ronald Koeman had wanted him to remain at the Toffees, likely as a squad rotation basis but he decided to leave anyways in search of regular football.
Despite now being in his late 30’s, Barry is still hungry as ever to play first team football on a regular basis and he left Everton in order to continue doing so.
The former England international also has no plans to retire just as yet and hopes to carry on playing well into his 40’s.
He said, “I’d been speaking to Ronald Koeman for three weeks before it eventually happened. I thought, ‘Do you really want to end your career playing the odd game, being on the bench or just being in and around the place?’ A lot of players generally finish like that.
“He wasn’t happy with me because he wanted me to stay around and felt I was going to get enough game time. I didn’t want to slowly go down that road of fizzling out which I thought I might have done at Everton.”
