I’m not enjoying this at all. Garry Barry has always seemed like a decent bloke, a hard-working and honest player. I’ve long had a soft spot for the Villa, through family and later friend-based connections. And they’ve usually been a club with whom we’ve had a good relationship – mutual appreciation of Steve Staunton, mutual dislike of Stan Collymore, that kind of thing. So to see all of that soured by the summer’s ugliest transfer saga is not pleasant in the slightest.
Not least because… well… do we actually need the guy? At that kind of money? If he’d genuinely been available for the £12m or so that we first came in with (and you have to bear in mind that despite his ethereal value to Villa as a talisman and club captain, he’s a 27-year-old with no European experience and a solitary year left on his contract), then yes – good signing. But £18m really is taking the piss. Sadly, the only realistic outcome of this situation is that we do eventually sign him for that fee. His position at Villa is just about untenable, and nobody else is showing signs of coming in for him. So we’ll spend five or six million quid too much on the guy, and be short of cash with which to strengthen areas of genuine need. I would much, much rather see us spend the roughly twenty-to-thirty million we’re likely to have left on David Silva and, at a pinch, Robbie Keane (if Crouchy does end up making the move, to Portsmouth or elsewhere) – and keep Xabi.
Meanwhile, relations with Martin O’Neill (a man who I’m sure many of us wouldn’t have minded seeing in our own dugout some years in the future) and one of the Premier League’s few genuinely likeable clubs appear to have been irrevocably damaged. Not to mention our own reputation – and for all that United and Chelsea fans might want to have a pop at the “whinging Scousers” on the F365 letters page and so on, we’re usually above this kind of thing. This is supposed to be the summer in which everyone unites to laugh at Ronaldo shafting the club that made him – we’re not supposed to be involved in something similar…
I thought this post was going to be about YOUR FACE.
But yes, I agree with all of this. It’s heartbreaking.
A team of Barry, Gerrard, Keane and Torres sounds wonderful, but there’s a nagging doubt that Barry & Keane should have been signed two or three years ago. In order that the side could have been grown, rather than assembled at great cost.
‘Ugly’ sums up this scenario perfectly. I feel sympathy for our Villa supporting mates that they’ve had to read of this fued between O’ Niell and Barry.
On the flipside maybe it just shows a steely will to win that we should be proud of in both sides. How? Well MON clearly isn’t a manager to be crossed or messed with. He’s shown a mighty stubbotn streak, but it’s a clear statement of intent that no one – not even the club’s golden boy – is above the club. So whilst Villa would be weaker without Barry. They’ve gained an even stronger manager.
As for us well it depends how this pans out. To have two big names like Barry and Keane wanting to come to us makes great reading after a season of negative headlines.
A major frustration right now is reading journos and idjuts dismissing Barry as a no-mark and claiming we’re better off with Xavi. Clearly Alonso’s form slipped last season. Barry’s meanwhile couldn’t have gone much better. Financially it might be one in, one out, but to my mind there’s more than a simple player swap here. Barry can cover far more positions and has more defensive bite than Alonso, conversely Xavi’s range of passing is arguably better. Rafa picks the team and if he wants to employ a system which Alonso no longer fits then this is a key signing rather an un-necessary one.
What we need to see now is action, not words. If we fail to get these players or we end up paying way over the odds for them then we appear weaker as a club, the runt of the big four.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Sorry?