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Cape Town - Gareth Barry will overtake Ryan Giggs by making a record-breaking 634th Premier League appearance, if he plays against Arsenal on Monday night.
But the midfielder could have been playing in an Arsenal shirt after revealing that he twice came close to joining Arsene Wenger’s side.
Barry was on Wenger’s wanted list prior to his move from Aston Villa to Manchester City in 2009, and was again a target for the Gunners before he joined Everton five years later.
“There were a couple of conversations with representatives and Arsene that he was interested," said West Brom's Barry.
"Before I was leaving Villa and when I was leaving Man City to go to Everton there was a bit of interest too.
"But it didn't materialise. I've got massive respect for Arsene Wenger for what he's done for the English game and it would have been good to work under him, but that didn't happen.
"He deserves credit because he was ahead of the game back then. If you speak to people who worked with him in the late 1990s, he was seeing things and doing things that other managers in England weren't."
