‘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.

But yes, I agree with all of this. It’s heartbreaking.