Aston Villa lose their backbone, how will they stand tall now?

June 3, 2009 by Martin Banks
Filed under: Aston Villa, Transfer News 

Last summer it was THE transfer saga of the summer, the whole Gareth Barry to Liverpool story. It began early, prior to the window even opening, with Rafa Benitez stating an intent to sign the Villa midfielder. It royally pee’ed off Martin O’Neill and a public war of words began.

Liverpool made an offer, Villa rejected it. Liverpool made another offer, Villa rejected it again. Liverpool made yet another offer and, guess what, Villa rejected it yet again. It’s possible that more offers were made and rejected but by this time everyone was so bored and pigsick of it all that they just wanted it to be sorted out one way or another.

Villa (or should that be Martin O’Neill’s stubbornness) won the battle; Barry stayed at Villa. But it wasn’t as straightforward as that. Barry had spoken to the papers, saying that he wished to join Liverpool and he criticised Martin O’Neill while he was at it. This seemed like a risk-free thing to do, as he would be heading to Anfield any day now, so why not? But when that didn’t happen, Bazza found himself stripped of the captaincy, banned from the training ground and fined 2 weeks wages.

So what at first was an exciting face-off, then crescendoed into a frenzy of will-he-won’t-he, only to peter out and start to lose steam as it got tiresome and repetitive and then eventually it became downright boring. By the end, neither Villa fans nor Liverpool fans could give a damn whether he went or not, so long as the news spoke about something else. Y’know, kinda like how we currently feel about Susan Boyle and MP expense claims in the UK!

Finally, the window closed and Barry remained at Aston Villa. He realised he was stuck there, but it didn’t seem like he was exactly delighted by the situation, after falling out with the boss, losing the armband and then getting boo’d by the fans. He saw out the year, but it seemed very unlikely that he would stay at Villa to see out his contract.

Barry didn’t waste much time getting things into place, being announced today as the first signing of the transfer window. The rumours were abound for a while, but then it meant little as there was a rumour out there on the blogs and in the papers linking every half decent player the world over with Man City. Their endless bags of cash will ensure that rumours will swarm around them like flies around… errr… doo-doo!

It came out yesterday that Barry was in talks with City, but I doubt many expected it to all be wrapped up so quickly. It kind of makes you wonder if this was already half-arranged during the season.

Barry has gone back on his original reason for leaving Villa, which was an ambition to play Champions League football, to join a team that arguably has the same chance of reaching that goal as Villa. He has said that he wanted to join the Manchester club as they have ambitions that match his own, despite joining a team that aren’t in Europe at all but Villa being in the new Europa League.

Life without Barry

It will be odd to see us line up without Barry in the team, after being such a huge part of the team for a large part of his 12 years here and how we go about replacing him will be fundamental to whether we can continue to build on the success we have been enjoying since Randy Lerner purchased the club.

It was reported in the papers yesterday that Martin O’Neill has told Steve Sidwell and Nigel Reo-Coker that they will play much bigger roles for the club this coming season. This reeks of ‘I’m not going to replace Barry’ or maybe ‘I’ll replace Barry with a young up and coming player for the future’.

Sidwell has not proved too useful for us to date, so a big improvement from him would be required to keep us where we are, never mind grow.

Nigel Reo-Coker has shown promise for us, putting in good performances when he gets the chance, but he has generally worked best when alongside Barry. He may have it in him though, I have more faith that he could fill Barry’s boots than Sidders and he will like the chance to play as the more attacking one in the middle. So maybe NRC is the answer. Can you tell I’m more trying to talk myself into it than anything else?

Rumours about replacements will now be rife though, no matter what MON  hints at, so we’ll take it as it comes, keep our fingers crossed and hope that Barry wasn’t as fundamental to our success as we fear. Cuz he’s gone now, he’s no longer an Aston Villa player (how weird is that?!).


Comments

4 Comments on Aston Villa lose their backbone, how will they stand tall now?

  1. andy villa on Wed, 3rd Jun 2009 11:38

    2. 12 million for a player who is nearly 29, with 1 year left on his contract, who evidently did not want to be here, is fantastic business for us and tbh, just shows how silly man citys spending will be in the future…

    i cannot blame gareth barry for going back on his word, and turning his back on european football, let alone champions league football… it took 5 mins of mark hughes filling his pockets with cash, before it became a very easy decision for him to make.. i havent read his “apology”, but i dont expect he will be honest for one minute, and instead of telling the truth about money swaying him, he will make all sorts of “ambition” comments…

    i did however, split my sides when i heard the reason that mark hughes wanted him… “his range of passing?!?” yes, if by range of passing, hughes meant nice neat and tidy sideways passing with no penetration when teams sit behind the ball or against the better quality defences…

    personally, i am glad to see the back of him… and for 12 million, we are laughing all the way to the bank… i am looking forward to seeing the dynamic of our midfield change now, and without barry and petrov, both fine neat and tidy players by themselves, but when partnered, they pretty much carbon copied each other with nice composure on the ball, tidy sideways passing, but severely lacking in mobility, protection for the backline or support for the attack… bringing in someone with a bit of pace, and an attacking instinct to add to the composure on the ball, would be superb, and hopefully, a better “partnership” can be formed in the centre of our midfield… we might already have the answer already at the club with james milner a potential candidate for the role… and sometimes, the most genius strokes, come from adversity…

    i am a little bit miffed that we have again, let go a player before we have replaced him, which shows our hand to other clubs when we go sniffing round their players…

    time will tell whether this will help improve us, or hinder us, but the bloke didnt want to be here, we held out when the big boys came calling, and sold on our terms for silly money… and at least he didnt go to liverplop…

    this will be a BIG summer for martin o’neill…

  2. Kiwivillan on Wed, 3rd Jun 2009 11:46

    3. You say Sidwell has not proved too useful for us this season. He played the majority of his games in the unbeaten streak we had, for gods sake, so how can you justify that? Any way even though Barry has left at least MON rotated the midfield well throughout the season…. oh damn…

    [response by MB: point taken Kiwivillan and agreed that you have a point. Sidwell worked well for us in the 4-5-1. I guess I was referring more to the end of the season, when he just played bit parts and seemed low on juice and confidence. I think it's just seems so long since those heady heights of the unbeaten streak that it's too easy to be down on some players. Maybe if Sidders could stay fit he could get his form back. With a bit of luck his Reading form, that would be great.]

  3. browny on Wed, 3rd Jun 2009 16:38

    4. I am a Liverpool fan and glad we didnt bid for him this time. He is a good player but not as good as Alonso.
    That isnt my point though.
    Someone has commented that its a great deal for Villa. ??? Why?? Best player gone and you will have to spend as much on a replacement who may or may not be as good.
    If he had gone to Liverpool or Arsenal, it wouldnt have made much difference to Villa, as it would just add strength to their squads, but because MON was so stubborn, and cost Barry his dream move… Barry has immediately jumped ship and now it is to one of the main threats to Villa’s chances of 5th position. It is a bad bit of business! What next Agbonglahor to Everton… strengthen the rivals why dont you!

  4. andy villa on Thu, 4th Jun 2009 8:02

    5. man city would be our, and your, rivals no matter whether we sold gareth barry to them or not… they have ridiculous amounts of money, and will spend it, and progress just like chelsea did… we cannot compete with them financially, and neither can you, so why not take ridiculous money from them, for a player who wanted to leave for the money? (so much for his dream move…)

    my reasoning for being pleased with the deal, is right in my post…

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