One afternoon last week I received a viral email from a particularly diligent and hard working colleague at work.  It turned out that on this occasion, rather than rating a number of women from a large accountancy firm, I was to be challenged on my football trivia knowledge.

Although you may not believe me, as it turned out that neither Nick Barmby nor Christian Ziege were legitimate answers.

I was tasked with drumming up the Premier League appearance record holder for each letter of the alphabet, by surname.

I am sure many of you reading this that also work in an office environment will have received the same email.  Forget wikileaks, the speed with which a sports trivia email can whizz around the entire developed world shows the true power of t’interwebs.

After managing to come up with about 20 of the 26 answers, I was beginning to grind to a halt.  And due to time restrictions, rather than setting up a alphabet/position matrix, I decided to hit the FA’s website and do a spot of research (AKA cheating).

Ugo Ehiogu and Ray Parlour.  Who’d a thunk it?

Whilst hunting for the remaining answers, one particular name in the top 30 Premier League appearances of all time jumped right off the screen at me.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.

After investigating further I decided it warranted put together a little piece for the site.  Check out the list below of the Premier League’s outfield starts leaders over the last 10 full seasons – being 1999/00 to 2009/10.

Outfield Premier League starts leaders 1999/00 – 2009/10

	Player	Starts	Subs	Apps	Ave
1	Frank Lampard	350	6	356	35.0
2	Gary Barry	350	8	358	35.0
3	Jamie Carragher	343	7	350	34.3
4	Steven Gerrard	325	15	340	32.5

No real surprises there then.  One thing the England team certainly weren’t lacking in South Africa was experience!  Not that it got them very far.

OK then, guesses for fifth place?  The player with the fifth most outfield appearances in the most popular league, of the most popular sport, in the entire world.

Aaron Hughes.

Aaron Hughes?!

Yep.

Aaron Hughes.

How impressive is that?

The Northern Irishman has averaged almost 32 games a season for the last 10 years, for Newcastle, Aston Villa and his current side Fulham.  He currently has the 27^th most appearances in the history of the Premier League.

By the end of the season he will likely be in 21^st place.  At age 31.

If he continues to play for two more seasons, he is likely to end up in the top 15 alongside the absolute legends of the game.  Three more years could even see him in the top 10 of all time.

I am happy to admit I had no idea Mr Hughes had been such a consistent and reliable player for the best part of 11 years now.  However, now I am enlightened.

As it turns out, Aaron is also the captain of the Northern Ireland national team and has 75 caps to his name.  Funny that.  I had been given the impression that Northern Ireland team was made up of 11 guys called “David  Healy”.

Aaron was forced out of his home town team when Einstein himself, Graeme Souness, splashed out £8.5 million on the defensive rock that was Jean-Alain Boumsong.  Aaron was sold off to the Villa for a ridiculous £1 million.

I think Aaron’s treatment by Mr Souness back then, and the English media ever since, is pretty much the dictionary definition of being undervalued & underappreciated.

Click here for a fantastic article I found from the Belfast Telegraph about our man of the moment.

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For those that care, here are the 11 outfield players that managed to average 30 Premier League starts for the last 10 years.  Some of the other names on this list may catch you by surprise as well.

Outfield Premier League starts leaders 1999/00 – 2009/10

	Player	Starts	Subs	Apps	Ave
1	Frank Lampard	350	6	356	35.0
2	Gary Barry	350	8	358	35.0
3	Jamie Carragher	343	7	350	34.3
4	Steven Gerrard	325	15	340	32.5
5	Aaron Hughes	316	10	326	31.6
6	Sylvain Distin	312	8	320	31.2
7	Kevin Davies	306	23	329	30.6
8	George Boateng	304	15	319	30.4
9	Danny Murphy	304	53	357	30.4
10	John Terry	303	9	312	30.3
11	Emile Heskey	301	52	353	30.1

Some observations

1.  Frank Lampard isn’t looking so fat/dispensable/overrated these days is he.  I don’t think it is a coincidence that Chelsea’s recent implosion has come at a time when Lampard and Terry are both out of the side.

Their decision to allow a number of experienced and gritty professionals can also be questioned.  Ricardo Carvalho and Michael Ballack in particular spring to mind.

2.  Gary Barry.  How does he do it.  Tonight is not the night for this one given I have already babbled on for 800 words.

3.  Kevin Davies.  Absolute legend.  But no longer underrated.

4.  George Boateng.  Tip of the cap.

5.  Although neither managed to average 30 games a season over the noughties Phil Neville (439, 10^th) has played 10% more games than Gary Neville (399, 19^th) in his career.  You couldn’t have seen that coming 10 years ago.

6. For those that are wondering, Ryan Giggs (555, 2^nd) recorded 298 starts in the decade and therefore missed out by two starts, as did the aforementioned Neville, P.

The morale of this idle tale?

There isn’t one!  Only joking.  Although the link to gambling is tenuous/creative.

I think the fact that the Aaron Hughes has managed to slip under the radar like he has indicates just how important it is to use your own eyes make your own judgements when assessing and analysing sport.

Don’t believe everything you read in the media.  And even more importantly don’t rely on the papers to provide you with the information you need if you hope to make a profit from this game.

Value arises from undervalued and underappreciated assets.  So you are unlikely to find them in Martin Samuel’s latest column.

You need to be able to think outside the box and look at things a little differently.

And then next time you read that a Sunderland “cannot possibly” beat a Chelsea or a West Ham “cannot possibly” beat a Man United, you will be able to shut it out, look at the situation and the market pricing objectively and make an informed decision.

And then afterwards you can laugh your way all the way down the local boozer.

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