In the increasingly short-term approach of top level football, having a player at a club who has been around for a number of years is as rare as it is important.
It’s something for fans to latch on to, and adds some continuity and identity to any given team; such qualities are not so easy to come across in the modern game.
Here’s a look at the current longest-serving player at every Premier League club.
*Longest-serving is defined here by when a player made their competitive debut for the club
1. Arsenal – Theo Walcott
Debut: August 2006
A teen prodigy at Southampton, Theo Walcott was surprisingly called into England’s 2006 World Cup squad before he’d even played a first-team match for Arsenal after making the move to north London earlier that year.
He made his Gunners debut on the opening day of the 2006/07 season from the bench and has since played more than 350 games in the decade since. It might have been many more but for a number of long-term injury layoffs.