Club As a teenager, Barrett helped
Chester City to promotion from the
Fourth Division in
1985–86 while on loan from
Manchester City, where he came through the youth academy and played in three first team games. At
Oldham Athletic he was a member of the side that lost the
1990 Football League Cup Final to
Nottingham Forest at
Wembley and narrowly missed out on a place in the final of the
1989–90 FA Cup, losing in the semi-final replay to
Manchester United at
Maine Road, then helped the
Lancashire side to the
Second Division title and promotion to the
First Division (which became the
FA Premier League a year later) in
1990–91. The £1.7 million fee
Aston Villa paid for Barrett in February 1992 remains, as of 2019, Oldham's record transfer receipt. His greatest success as a player came with the
Birmingham club: they finished runners-up in the
1992–93 FA Premier League and won the
1993–94 Football League Cup, beating Manchester United 3–1 at Wembley with Barrett playing the full 90 minutes. He was bought by
Everton midway through the
1994–95 season; although they won the
FA Cup at its end, Barrett was
cup-tied having already played in the competition that season for Aston Villa, meaning he could not claim a winner's medal. Much of his spell at Everton was dogged with a knee injury and he moved on to
Sheffield Wednesday in February 1998 after making 78 appearances for the
Merseysiders and spending a short time on loan at second-tier
Sheffield United. Injury again restricted his input at Sheffield Wednesday – the last game of his professional career was a 4–0 loss at
Middlesbrough on 3 October 1998, though he remained under contract at
Hillsborough until retiring at the end of the
1999–2000 season which coincided with the club's relegation from the top division.
International Barrett earned his first
cap for
England on 3 June 1991, playing the whole 90 minutes in a 1-0
friendly win against
New Zealand at the
Mount Smart Stadium in
Auckland. In June 1993, he featured in the
1993 United States Cup, starting in both the 1–1 draw with
Brazil and the 2–1 defeat against
Germany. These turned out to be Barrett's last caps for his country, for a total of three. ==Coaching career==