Barry Venison

Barry Venison (born 16 August 1964) is an English former professional footballer and sports television pundit, who as a player was a defender from 1981 to 1997.

He notably played for Liverpool, Sunderland, and Newcastle United, having also appeared for Galatasaray and Southampton. He was capped twice by England.

Playing career

Sunderland

Venison was born in Consett, County Durham. He played for England at youth and under-21 level in his early days. He started his club career in his native North East with Sunderland and set a record when he became the youngest captain at a Wembley cup final when, aged 20 years and 220 days, he skippered Sunderland against Norwich City in the 1985 League Cup final in place of the suspended Shaun Elliott. Unfortunately for both Venison and Sunderland they lost 1–0.

Venison had originally made his debut for the Black Cats, aged just 17, on 10 October 1981 in the 2–0 league defeat to Notts County at Meadow Lane. He went on to play in 20 league games that season scoring one goal in the process. The steady and reliable right full-back settled into first team football well at Roker Park and became a firm favourite in 1983–84, when he missed just one league game.