Who is the longest serving player at each Premier League club from the current squad?

Chelsea’s John Terry has been at the club since 1995

On 20 January 2006, Arsenal celebrate the 10 year anniversary of one of their signings in 2006 – a certain 16-year-old named Theo Walcott from Southampton. The forward was a highly rated youngster with lightning quick pace both on and off the ball and Wenger was quick to bring him into the first team in the months to follow. 

Since then, he has made 320 appearances for the north London side and scored 81 goals. Considering that he is still only 26, it comes as a surprise to learn that he is the longest-serving player in the current squad. No, it isn’t Tomas Rosicky who also joined in 2006. The 35-year-old Czech international joined only in the summer – five months after Walcott. 

With that in mind, who is the longest serving player at each Premier League club? The list does throw up a few surprises. 

The longest serving player currently plying his trade in the Premier League is none other than Chelsea skipper John Terry. The English centre-back joined the Blues’ academy at the age of 14, initially starting his career as a midfielder but moved to defence due to a shortage of centre-backs. He would rise through the ranks before making his senior debut in a League Cup match in 1998 and is close to making 700 appearances for the London club this season.

Arsenal signed Theo Walcott 10 years to the day

Tony Hibbert is probably the longest serving player when you look at the year he joined Everton’s academy. While Terry joined Chelsea from West Ham in 1995, Hibbert has been at the Toffees’ academy since 1991, joining the club when he was 10 years old.

He would make his senior debut a decade later after impressing with the youth team and has since gone on to make over 300 appearances – not as much as he would have liked but injuries kept threatening to derail his career. Now 34, this is probably his last contract – one that expires this summer – especially since he hasn’t played at all this season.

Steven Taylor is yet another defender who has been around for ages even though he is still just 29. But he has struggled for consistency due to recurring injuries and Newcastle have had to bear the brunt. Like Terry, he too joined the Magpies’ academy in 1995, but at the age of 9. 

Wayne Rooney has been at Manchester United since 2004

Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney is the club’s longest serving player even though he started his career at Everton. Having joined the Red Devils for a commanding fee of £25.6m aged only 18, Rooney would go on to become one of the Premier League’s most famous players. A five-time Premier League winner, Rooney now holds the record for the most Premier League goals scored by a player at a single club (176).

Other popular players include Lucas Leiva (Liverpool), Joe Hart (Manchester City), Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur) and Ryan Shawcross (Stoke City). The complete list of all 20 clubs is given below. It also comes as no surprise that the majority of the clubs (13) have an Englishman as the longest serving player.

#	Club	Player	Position	Debut	Transfer fee	Games	Goals
1	Chelsea	John Terry	CB	1998	Free	694	66
2	Everton	Tony Hibbert	RB	2001	Free	328	0
3	Newcastle	Steven Taylor	CB	2003	Free	257	15
4	Crystal Palace	Julian Speroni	GK	2004	£700K	386	0
5	Manchester United	Wayne Rooney	FW	2004	£25.6m	506	242
6	West Ham	Mark Noble	CM	2004	Free	344	37
7	Aston Villa	Gabriel Agbonlahor	FW	2005	Free	363	84
8	Arsenal	Theo Walcott	RW	2006	£7.3m	320	81
9	Manchester City	Joe Hart	GK	2006	£630K	322	0
10	Southampton	Kelvin Davis	GK	2006	£780K	301	0
11	Leicester City	Andy King	CM	2007	Free	321	57
12	Liverpool	Lucas Leiva	CM	2007	£7m	298	6
13	Stoke City	Ryan Shawcross	CB	2007	£1m	336	22
14	Tottenham Hotspur	Danny Rose	LB	2007	£700K	105	7
15	West Bromwich Albion	James Morrison	CM	2007	£1.5m	250	30
16	Swansea City	Angel Rangel	RB	2007	£420K	323	9
17	Norwich City	Wes Hoolahan	CM	2008	£263K	269	43
18	Bournemouth	Jayden Stockley	FW	2009	Free	22	2
19	Sunderland	Lee Cattermole	CM	2009	£4.9m	165	2
20	Watford	Sean Murray	CM	2010	Free	85	14

Note: Only senior team apperances have been counted