Steven Gerrard blocked Gareth Barry's move to Liverpool in 2009

Add as a preferred source on Google

Bengaluru, September 25: Steven Gerrard in a recent revelation has claimed that he persuaded Rafa Benitez, then Liverpool manager against signing Veteran Gareth Barry as an alternative for Xabi Alonso and asked the manager to do everything to keep the midfielder at the club.

Barry, who has equalled Ryan Giggs' record of 632 Premier League appearances, will outperform the former Manchester United man's count in the event that he plays for West Brom against Arsenal on Monday.

The 36-year-old midfielder has experienced trade at Aston Villa, Manchester City and Everton and he would have most likely played for Liverpool as well, had Gerrard not demoralized Benitez from getting him.

The current Newcastle boss wanted to sign the Englishman as a replacement for Gerrard's midfield partner Xabi Alonso, but Gerrard voted against the move and now admits that he wouldn't have disapproved Barry joining Liverpool if they had kept Alonso.

Gerrard didn't want Barry to be a direct replacement for Alonso as he believed he was not that good enough for Liverpool back then.

"He wanted to move Xabi on and bring in Gareth," Gerrard told BT Sport. "Now, for me that wasn't the right move, although I'm a big fan of Gareth Barry.

"I'd rather have him in to play alongside Xabi because I think they could have worked together.

"I don't think it was the right move from a Liverpool point of view to replace Xabi with Gareth. The fans love Xabi, he's a world-class player, and for me, Rafa should have been doing everything to keep him and not have him move on."

Alonso later moved to Real Madrid in the Summer of 2009 and in the same window, Barry joined Manchester City despite interest from Liverpool and Arsenal.

Barry appeared for more than 100 times for Manchester City, winning a Premier League title and an FA Cup before his move to Everton on loan in 2013 and he's right now at West Brom.