Barry says England defeats do hurt the players

September 5, 2008

Aston Villa midfielder Gareth Barry has refuted suggestions that losing for England doesn’t mean as much to the players as losing at club level.

“Any defeat hurts. There is a lot of pain when you are on the losing side. There is no difference,”

The issue has come up due to recent comments made by Jamie Carragher in his autobiography where he said:

“Whenever I returned home from disappointing England experiences one unshakeable, overriding thought pushed itself to the forefront of my mind, no matter how much the rest of the nation mourned.

“‘At least it wasn’t Liverpool,’ I’d repeat to myself, over and over.

“Defeats wearing an England shirt never hurt me in the same way as losing with my club. I wasn’t caring or indifferent; I simply didn’t put England’s fortunes at the top of my priority list.

“Losing felt like a disappointment rather than a calamity.”

Barry however doesn’t agree with the Liverpool defenders comments saying:

“I am a professional person. I play every game to win and give 100% and there will be no difference at all from losing a game for my club and losing a game for my country,”

“People try to compare the way you play for your club and the way you play for England and, of course, you are not always going to perform to the best of your ability in every game.

“But the players always give 100%. Some of the games don’t always go as well for England as at club level - and vice versa.

“Everyone knows the fans expect the national team to do well, but teams across the world are getting better.

“We have found it tougher and tougher competing with them. But it is a new start now and we are looking to being where we should be, competing in the big tournaments.

“We’ve had a series of friendly internationals but this is where we will be judged.”

“There is always that bit of worry. Any professional is wrong to go out without a little bit of fear,”

“I think the camp is so positive that no-one is thinking about failure at this moment in time and that is very important.”

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