Better him go to City than Liverpool. At 28, he has given Villa the best years of his career. 12m was a great price for someone with only a year left on his contract. Ive said it countless times but a 442 of himself and Petrov was never going to work. I suppose at City, De jong will play behind himself and Ireland so that has the makings of a tidy midfield with Robinho and SWP on the wings.
Its sad when a home grown player leaves but the time is right for him and the club. Barry started out as a left sided central defender when Villa played a 352 under John Gregory. Remember Johnny Giles bigging him up at the time as Villa had a great burst that season before falling away big style over the last few months. His lack of pace in defence was apparent though and he ended up in the reserves for a while. Graham Taylor actually brought him back into the side as a left midfielder where he remained for a few years before settling into his best position at centre midfield under OāNeill.
Despite being one sided and a bit leggy, Gareth Barry is a fine player on the ball and very creative. But if City think they have bought a defensive midfielder who can tackle and run all day they are very mistaken. Thats why I think its the correct decision for the club to sell him now as I dont think we were going to progress with him as our main centre midfielder, imo the most important position on the park.
Thoughts will turn now to a replacement. MON has a long interest in Steven Duffour but he would play behind the strikers I would have thought. Sidwell and Reo Coker are also in the wings and I could see Milner moving inside. Real Madrid are bound to shed some of their squad. Van der Vaart would be a similar type player as Barry but with similar limitations. Sneider could probably play centre also. Could we attract them or Hleb? I think we need to and soon.
Then again MON will probably buy Tom Huddlestone or Scott Brown:rolleyes:
12 million seems a lot for Barry all right. Still shows a lack of ambition on Villaās part that they are selling to Englandās other Europa League qualifying contenders.
Ah ya but Barry has brought Villa as far as he could larry. His relationship with oneill and the dressing room was badly damaged by last summers antics id say and a change for that price suits all parties. After the pool being so keen on him last summer itās a fair old step down for him. Losing him and laursen tho in the space of a few weeks is a fair blow and we need oneill to start showing ambition in the transfer Market pretty soon. To be fair he has had enough time to scout replacements for both.
At least if he had gone to Liverpool though Villa would have got a better price for him and wouldnāt be selling to one of your biggest rivals in the race for fifth, sixth, seventh place.
Kaka released a statement earlier saying he was staying in Milan, that was the end of the story and called on everyone to āleave me in peaceā. Tonight, itās being claimed that heās on the verge of a Stg56m move to Real Madrid.
Yeah heard Kaka has pretty much signed for Madrid according to Newstalk.
Think 12m is a decent price for Barry. Heās nowhere near Van der Vaartās qualtiy thuogh KIB and they donāt play anything like similar roles. Van der Vaart was almost a striker at Hamburg - he may be as energetic as Barry (i.e. not very) but heās far, far better on the ball.
Still didnāt see much of him at Real Madrid so not sure exactly why he went off the ball there but irrespective of ability he does have far more attacking tendencies than Barry.
- nice dig there but things could be worse. Tony Mowbray and Owen Coyle could have turned us down
City have more money than Liverpool so I doubt we could have got a better price. Liverpool might not be interested this summer in Barry.
Hughes will probably be sacked before Xmas next season. I predict another season of upheaval at City.
Huge season for Martin OāNeill at Villa Park next season. Make or break time really for his managerial CV. There will be no Liverpool or Man Utd for him if we go backwards next season.
[quote=āKIB manā] -
Huge season for Martin OāNeill at Villa Park next season. Make or break time really for his managerial CV. There will be no Liverpool or Man Utd for him if we go backwards next season.[/QUOTE]
So what does make or break season mean for Aston Villa? Is make fifth but break seventh? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
[quote=āKIB manā] - nice dig there but things could be worse. Tony Mowbray and Owen Coyle could have turned us down
City have more money than Liverpool so I doubt we could have got a better price. Liverpool might not be interested this summer in Barry.
Hughes will probably be sacked before Xmas next season. I predict another season of upheaval at City.
Huge season for Martin OāNeill at Villa Park next season. Make or break time really for his managerial CV. There will be no Liverpool or Man Utd for him if we go backwards next season.[/QUOTE]
Heād want to start building a team soon. The man takes the longest summer holidays of anyone in the game and only starts shopping in mid August usually.
[quote=ātherock67ā]Yeah heard Kaka has pretty much signed for Madrid according to Newstalk.
Think 12m is a decent price for Barry. Heās nowhere near Van der Vaartās qualtiy thuogh KIB and they donāt play anything like similar roles. Van der Vaart was almost a striker at Hamburg - he may be as energetic as Barry (i.e. not very) but heās far, far better on the ball.
Still didnāt see much of him at Real Madrid so not sure exactly why he went off the ball there but irrespective of ability he does have far more attacking tendencies than Barry.[/QUOTE]
Ya but Barry is really an attacking midfielder too. If we played 451 next season surely Van der Vaart would have the energy to play on the left side of a midfield three. The smaller pond of Villa Park might see him reproduce his better form similar to Hamburg. What kind of price did Madrid pay for him? Iād say that 12m could cover his price anyway. Whenever I watched Van der Vaart (not that often) his fitness and workrate seemed a bit low so Iām not sure if he would be a MON type player anyway. But that has to be the kind of quality we must target.
At Hamburg he played half his games as a striker almost beside Olic. He could certainly play in the free role in a midfield three but far more advanced than Barry does.
From a man who supports a side in a two team piss poor league I presume your permanently sleeping. Though I do think the EPL needs a shakeup. This season was bad really even United went backwards I felt. The only sides to truly improve were Liverpool and Fulham. Small bit depressing alright but sure we can live in hope.
Yep thats what Iām afraid of. This isnt the time for bargain basement last minute dashes either. Our captain and vice captain have left and the season ended on a major downer so we need some high profile signings quickly to reassure the likes of Ashley Young.
KIB, What makes you think Van Der Vaart would be even interested in a move to Aston Villa? Here is a player who has been linked with Man Utd and Chelsea only last season.
- nice dig there but things could be worse. Tony Mowbray and Owen Coyle could have turned us down