There's a way to go on Barry Bannan's Sheffield Wednesday career - next ambition proves it
These days, the 441 is a big old number when it comes to appearances at a single football club.
Much more so a football club rocked up to as a talented but out of contract midfielder whose career had for some time been in danger of falling into flotsam. Barry Bannan arrived at Sheffield Wednesday as a 25-year-old in August 2015.
A fledgling youth career at Aston Villa had seen his diminutive stature and technical ability mentioned in the same sentence as Xavi and Andres Iniesta by legendary figure Gerard Houllier but had run dry on 82 appearances. Crystal Palace didn’t provide a home to rest in and loan stints had come and gone.
Approaching a decade on, the rest is well versed. Wednesday adulation followed via scrapes and successes, relegation and glory. Having recently ticked off the tally of 400 league appearances for the club he has most certainly found a home at, Bannan’s total number rests for now at 441, with 34 goals and 71 assists to boot. It’s no tabloid-nickname guff to suggest he has become the modern Mr Sheffield Wednesday.
The Scot’s contract is up in the summer but his fate seems in no doubt. Though a rare injury arose to nudge his involvement in the last weeks performances across the course of the campaign there seems little sign of the 35-year-old slowing in what are tender footballing years. And talk of next milestone goals suggest there is little doubt in his mind what comes next.
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“500 would be lovely,” he said on an appearance goal that would push him ahead of Kevin Pressman into the club’s four leading appearance holders of all-time. “Once you get over the 400-mark you can’t help but think of the next milestone and 500 would be something I’m going to try my hardest to get.
“It would be a really good achievement and it’s something that I don’t think is beyond me. At the moment with the way I feel, I think I can achieve that. It’s definitely one I’m trying to tick off along the way.”
Cursory maths suggest achieving that feat would take him into the 2026/27 season and beyond a 37th birthday. In a modern football world that takes some of its professionals towards the 40-year mark and while the 20-year, turn of the last century career of Bannan’s fellow Scot Andrew Wilson will take some serious beating, the spirit of a skipper that has spearheaded Posh miracles and survival madness is even daring to peek over the hill at his tally of 546.
“I looked at that and did the maths,” he chuckled. “It will be hard, but if I can get to the 500, who knows? You never know. I could manage a team one day and bring myself on for a few minutes, bring myself off! Hopefully I can get to the 500 first and foremost, but again, who knows?”
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