Aston Villa lose their backbone, how will they stand tall now?
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?!).
I’ll swap you my Barry for your Bentley
It’s not altogether different from swapping Panini stickers in the playground, except that you don’t have to pay your stickers £50,000 a week once you have them!
I have heard a rumour that we are in talks with Spurs about a swap deal of Gareth Barry for David Bentley. I’m hoping it is just garbage, because it doesn’t seem to make too much sense. Well certainly not as a stand alone thing anyway.
Barry is a class central midfielder (albeit not originally, but he has definitely made the position his own now) who is near the top of his game and Bentley is a winger who is near the bottom of his game.
Barry is by far our best in his position, and we’d need to sign someone to replace him, whereas we are not in a desperate need for a winger. A back up would be good but there’s no point having a back up winger if you have no-one in the centre.
Barry is the captain and a central figure for our team, Bentley doesn’t get in his team and would struggle to get in ours, unless he recaptures his old form.
Barry is worth at least £10, Bentley would struggle to fetch 5, so I’m guessing if it does go ahead we would get some cash too.
The positive side
It seems that I’m not too keen on the idea doesn’t it? There are some positive ways to look at this though. It seems likely that Barry will be leaving us during the summer and it is also being rumoured that we will be buying Bentley, so I spose it makes sense to wrap them both up at once. I have also read in the past that Barry was a Tottenham fan when he grew up so it could appeal to him on those grounds. He will also like the fact that he will most likely get in the team every week, which is far from guaranteed at Liverpool.
I would also take it as a sign that we intend to do some big signings this summer; if we are going to spend around £5m on Bentley, someone who will largely be a back up winger, then surely it means we will also be splashing out for a centre back, a centre midfielder AND a centre forward. We need to replace Laursen and Barry and we still need a centre forward who can actually score goals, so if this goes through I see ambition (yeah, I know it could also mean that we will unambitiously make do with what we already have, but if you look up there, the title of this section is ‘The positive side’).
Also being said
There is also a rumour that Man City have offered us £10m for Barry. I think we may want around £12m and we have seen that MON will not be haggled down once before, but City could easily meet our valuation and pay Barry handsomely so that could throw this swapping lark out the window.
Wherever he goes though Barry needs to be replaced surely. Unless MON has big hopes for Salifou, Reo-Coker, Sidwell, Gardner or even Milner moved into the middle.
Is Carew leaving us for Man City?
Sky Sports are running a story on their website and on Sky Sports News that John Carew is a target for Manchester City. If it is true, you have to fear that he will be very tempted by it.
Why would he go?
It has not been made any secret that he and O’Neill have had their differences and he also may feel that we are going to struggle to keep up with them next season (MON publicly saying as much didn’t help there). This and the fact that they will undoubtedly increase his wages, lead you to think that if Man City go for him, they have a good chance of getting him.
Where would it leave us?
For the last few months, Carew has been about our only threat in front of goal, so to lose him would be devastating under current conditions. But there is every chance that after the summer Gabby will pick his head up and get back on top of his game. Gabby will never set the world on fire, but when he is full of beans he can be a real terror for defenders to deal with and can even find the net fairly regularly when he’s on song.
Emile Heskey is our other main striker, a player who I never wanted to sign, despite being one of those rare people who think that he is a good player. The reason I didn’t want him is because he doesn’t fit into our team, and that has been proven very concisely I feel (O’Neill seems less convinced than I am).
Nathan Delfouneso is kicking at the heels of the first team, but I seriously doubt he will get into the team regularly unless injuries force it. It worked out for Gabby, so the Fonz just needs to bide his time and be ready when his chance comes.
Carew replacements?
You have to fancy that if MON let’s Carew leave it will be with someone else in mind to come in and replace him. I guess I won’t be too averse to it happening as long as someone good is brought in (someone who will fit the team), because we won’t ever get the very best from Carew if he doesn’t get on too well with the Gaffer.
It’ll all hang on MON signing a real good replacement though, and that is an area his expertise don’t seem to stretch to.
What’s new rumour-cat? Tuesday’s latest Villa transfer gossip
Martin O'Neill has an itchy-biro-finger over Randy Lerner's cheque book
The transfer window is so close that you can feel it’s smelly breath on the back of your neck. So it’s no surprise that there are loads of rumours around linking us to all and sundry. Some will come true, some will nearly happen and some are just made up by someone wishing to shift papers or get pageviews 
Here at AVB we like to go through them all and try to give a little info on a player and open it up to debate on whether you want them at Villa or not. Yesterday we saw a nice response in agreement with me that Senderos would be a poor signing, or to correctly quote what is one of the funniest comments we’ve had on here for a while:
As for Senderos, I’d rather have sex with a lawnmower than sign him
And on that bombshell, let’s dive into today’s bunch:
- Giles Barnes is a young pacy winger for Derby County, who has been on an unsuccessful loan to Fulham for part of this season. I say unsuccessful because he hasn’t made a single appearance. Roy Hodgson either doesn’t think he is cut out for the Prem or doesn’t see a way to fit him into his team. Now, I’m a big fan of Roy Hodgson, I think he’s doing a great job at Fulham, but I must admit that when I first saw him interviewed I judged the book by it’s cover and said “What’s that old fanny gonna do with Fulham?”. He proved me wrong and I respect that. Anyway, we’re talking about Barnes, not licking Hodgson’s bum-ring, so back to the matter at hand; we are more suited to Barnes’s style and he may well go fairly cheap, so don’t rule him out but he’s not going to set the club on fire and may well prove to be another Wayne Routledge.
- Fulham’s keeper Mark Schwarzer is next up, having been mentioned as someone we have been sniffing around, but I can’t really see O’Neill buying another aging keeper when we still have Friedel. I think MON will keep his faith in Friedel for at very least one more season, so I can’t see where this rumour has come from. A younger keeper maybe, but I just can’t see it with Schwarzer.
- Stewart Downing looks destined to get relegated with Boro so will almost definitely be moving on this summer. He will be far from cheap though and isn’t an area of urgency (like centre back and centre forward are) so I don’t see this happening either. It may do, he is certainly a talented player, but I doubt it. If it does tho, I’m going to take a positive stance and say that if we spend big on a midfielder/winger, we also plan to spend big up front and at the back too. Cuz if he splashes £12m+ on a winger and gets some mediocre centre back then I’m right on that O’Neill-hating bandwagon. And I don’t want to get on that wagon. I like O’Neill.
- Man City’s Joe Hart is again being linked with us and if we do buy a keeper I fancy him as the favourite. He will very likely move on after having had his progress disturbed by the arrival of Given. The lad is definitely a big prospect and may well go on to be a regular England keeper if he finds a team where he’s number one choice. He probably needs to learn to make ridiculous mistakes if he wants to play for England tho
- Along similar lines to Downing is David Bentley. He is also a talented player but he has gone seriously off the boil. He never plays for Tottenham so will most likely move on in the summer but they will want to recoup as much of the £16m they wasted on him as possible. Again, it’s not an area we are screaming out for new players in but if we do make the step up to serious European contention, then we need some rotationability (<– nah, it’s probly not a real word!).
- A quick note on Thomas Vermaelen, who we have been linked with; apparently Arsenal are now interested too.
- Finally, Rabiu Afolabi of FC Sochaux is on our radar. He is a tall central defender with plenty experience but like many of the rumours that are now surfacing, he is unlikely to be of the mould we need to replace a player as influential and significant as Laursen.
What’s new rumour-cat? Latest Aston Villa transfer rumours
They’re thick and fast still, as you’d expect, and they’re maybe getting a little more desperate every transfer window. We are being linked with players we didn’t end up securing in January and some players you just can’t see us ever buying. Next thing you know we’ll be linked with Masal Bugduv!
See what you make of the recent ones:
- I’ll start lightly, not with a new incomer but with a stayer. Stiliyan Petrov is on the verge of signing for longer with the Villans. I’m sure we all remember the time when we just wished he’d eff off back to Celtic, but Petrov has won over even the most hardened fan with a class season in our central midfield. He has teamed up well with Barry and formed a good partnership. Having Petrov there next season, and on song, means (if he leaves of course) we can replace Barry with an exciting, attacking central midfielder. Unfortunatley, Frank Lampard doesn’t seem interested though.
- We didn’t sign him in January and he still doesn’t seem to be that settled at Man City anymore, so it was inevitable that the Micah Richards rumour would resurface. It would be a gamble if we bought him as he may well be no better than Zat Knight nowadays. When we signed Knight he was a former England defender that had lost his way and Richards is the same. Many believe O’Neill could restore his confidence and get him back to his best, but can we afford to take that chance? We are pretty desperate for solidity at the back.
- Next up, still at the back, is Gael Givet. He is a Frenchman who plays for Marseille but is currently on loan at Blackburn Rovers. From what I’ve seen of him he is half-decent but prone to make the odd error. Once again I question; do we need more of what we already have?
- Up front there has been suggestions of Mevlut Erdinc. “Who the hell is that?” Well he’s a Turkish international striker who plays in France for FC Sochaux and has a prolific score rate of 27 in 55. It’s impressive and someone who can get the ball in the net would be perfect for us, but could he do the same in the Premier League? He’s only scored one in 8 at international level. So, not one to be written off, but he remains an unknown quantity and is only the most tenuous of links anyway.
- He’s been mentioned before and he’ll be mentioned again; Raul Albiol. He’s a centre half at Valencia who is apparently on the radar of us and Liverpool. It is suggested he would be more interested in us for the higher chance of regular first team action. Myself, I think Cuellar could come good next season (remember the delayed reaction of Petrov), so maybe the 2 could work together, Cuellar mopping up and Albiol just in front. MON will also be keen as he can cover for Petrov in the holding midfield role if he gets injured.
So… anything there that interests you? Want them all? None of them?
Or are there other players around that you wish we were linked with? I’m still keen on Tevez. Am I dreaming?
O’Neill has no idea… any of us dare to venture a guess?
Morning, morning, morning Villa fans! How are we all today? I’m sound, thanks for asking My 9 month old daughter has already done 2 cacks today though, which kinda takes the shine outta things, and she’s straining like there’s more on the way! I write these at 6am y’see, and then sechedule them to upload around midday. Oh well, we’re not here to discuss my little girl’s bowel movements or my morning routine, so let’s get onto business:
“I’ve no idea,” he replied to Setanta’s Darrell Currie when asked where he thought Villa would be in a year’s time. “Honestly.”
The above quote is lifted from a Setanta Sports interview with Martin O’Neill, in which he also talked up the progress that Spurs and Man City will make next season, claiming that our push for the Top 4 will be more difficult with those 2 also doing the same. It surprises me massively that he makes no mention of Everton, as I believe they are more likely than either of those 2 to be in the thick of the fight. Just look how well they are doing this season, under huge injury woes. But this isn’t EvertonBlog.com, so let’s leave their potential threats aside for now.
Where will we be in a year’s time?
It’s a question that many of us Villa fans have avoided answering, particularly in this period of pessimism, where everything we touch seems to be turning into another loss (or draw on a good day!).
In the last 5-6 years many teams have had a good season, putting pressure on the top four (Everton, Spurs and now us) or even just a season where they do better than usual (Bolton, Fulham, Middlesbrough, us) but the following season they often have a mare (us, Everton, Spurs). So will next season see us push on with the progress we’ve shown this season or will we see a decline in our fortunes?
In the same interview, O’Neill hinted that the funding for transfers this summer will not be vast, and having seen his limited activities in January, you can’t help but think that we will only be signing unproven, unready youngsters and/or players past their best.
So what do you reckon? Will Villa kick on and carry on growing next year? Or will we suffer a dismal / mediocre season next term?
‘The Gareth Barry Saga – Part 2′ is set to be even bigger than the first one
Where does the future lie for Gareth Barry?
It’s no secret that Villa will lose Gareth Barry at the end of the season if we don’t make it into the Champions League and now as the shadows of doubt appear on our chances, the rumours begin to fly around.
The new addition to the fray this summer will be Manchester City, with Mark Hughes naming Bazza and John Terry as his main targets. Myself I can’t see him getting either. Terry seems happy at Chelsea and even if he did move I can’t see it being to a club that are yet to qualify for the Champions League. The same condition would apply for Barry.
Barry made it very clear that he wanted to join Liverpool for their Champions League status and if we can secure that this season that he’ll stay with us. I honestly think he secretly hopes we don’t make it.
Not that I think Barry dislikes us, I think he has enjoyed the time he’s spent with us but now that he has improved so much and become recognised as a quality player he has raised his ambitions and wants to play for a Champions League side that will compete to win the competition. Which he doesn’t see us as.
If (and that is still a big task) we qualify, we will really struggle to get far in the competition in our first season in there. O’Neill’s plans are not to win the Champions League next season but simply to qualify for it. By qualifying we can build the squad and then aim to be successful in it a few seasons in. It’s a long term plan is O’Neill’s.
But Barry is thinking shorter term.
The clock is ticking for Barry and he doesn’t have as much time to spare as MON, which will most likely see him join Liverpool (or Arsenal if they come back in for him) this summer.
Barry leaving would really throw a spanner on the works for us, as he will be very difficult to replace. Even if we do manage to entice a player of equal quality as Barry, he won’t know how to play with us like Barry does. Barry has been with us so long that he is part of the furniture on the pitch. New players come in and play around him moreso than he learns to play with them, so a newcomer may well get to grips over time but we won’t be as good without Barry for a few months at the very least.
It’s also a bit of a catch-22 because CL football is about the only way we could entice a player of Barry’s class but it’s also the only yardstick by which he’ll commit to stay.
This is only the beginning of this one. It’s going to roll and roll, you watch.
Spurs preview, The Villa-Villa connection and are there any bankers out there gunning for ‘Arry?
Filed under: Aston Villa, Injury News, Match Previews, Transfer News
First and foremost today is the weekend’s match. I’m now tending to do them on Friday’s even when the games on a Sunday, so no-one worry they got mixed up; the game is on Sunday at 4. Arsenal play tomorrow at 3 against Blackburn and, with a bit of luck, Big Sam’s boys can continue their winning streak (of 1 whole game!) and we can go into the Spurs match with a little of the pressure off.
Villa, as we all know only too well, are not exactly on fire at the minute, but we have had a little break over in Dubai and hope to come out firing on all cylinders. Our campaign began as a simple push to continue improving but, thanks to a poor season from Arsenal and a great run of games from us, we found ourselves 4th and we will not be giving it up without a fight. We’ve tried 4th on, it fits nicely and we like the way we look in it. So get lost Arsenal, it’s ours now. You can have it back when we go top 3
Injuries
Villa had a few small niggles but they don’t look to be problems, leaving just the captain out, and Spurs have Defoe and Hutton out. No Defoe is a welcome thing as I feared he could outdo Davies and Knight with his pace, Knight particularly is far from fast.
Villa-Villa
You may think “What on earth has David Villa got to do with us? We can’t afford him” and you’d be right, but the story is that Valencia want John Carew to replace the Spaniard before they will do a deal with Man City. Carew has been reported a number of times to have had spats with the manager and has been dropped from the starting line up more times than I would wish for, so there may well be truth in him leaving in the summer. Personally I don’t want to see him go as I’m a big fan of the big man, but why else would MON have bought a similar player (Heskey, maybe not the same but similar) if he didn’t plan to flog Carew.
Villa (as in Viyya) will go for BIG bucks, maybe not quite Kaka-mess big but big all the same. And what will he give Man City? Well, unless someone up there learns that there’s more to winning football games than buying the best strikers in the world, then nothing. But if they also coerce some superb midfield players with £’s in their eyes during the summer then they could well become a competing side. Man City may well break up the Big Four party, but I still don’t like it. I prefer the way we’ve done it.
No coin throwing antics please
Finally, let’s try not to get a bad reputation by repeating the coin-throwing palava from last year. Villa in the past have been reknowned for having some of the best fans, but with things such as that incident and the recent booing of the side, people are beginning to change their opinion of us lot.
So let’s throw nothing but cheers towards our boys on Sunday.
Up the Villa.
Villa setting up to make summer swoop for City goalie
Villa target?
The latest speculation is that Martin O’Neill is planning to launch a £3m bid for Joe Hart of Manchester City.
Well I’m sure young can guess his age and his nationality… yep, he’s young and English. The running theme continues with this latest piece of speculation from the Sun newspaper.
In it’s usual way, the Sun has reported it as if it is fact and if it happens they will show you flashbacks and say ‘You heard it here first’, but if it turns out to be utter BS then they’ll pretend they never mentioned it.
Likely?
Myself I find it weird. We haven’t long bought Friedel and old as he may be he still looks sharp enough to have a season or two left in him. And then Guzan is lining up nicely to replace him.
What do you think? Is Hart a likely target for Villa in the summer?
MISSING: Nationwide search now on – Has anyone seen Aston Villa’s confidence?
If found please return to the 11 men in Aston with their heads down
For a team built on danger, last night we didn’t even look capable of scaring my cat (my cat is a great big fanny btw, a proper little chicken s**t). We spent the majority of the first hour whaling the ball upfield like a Sunday morning pub team, and almost everytime it was won by a blue head anyway.
Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t encourage the long ball game, but if it will help us through a few games and get us wins when we are having a rocky period then OK, I’ll take it. So surely this is a big part of why we bought Heskey; to win the header and bring it down for someone like Gabby to run onto. Did he do that even once last night? I can’t think of an occasion. So we ended up playing ‘poor long ball football’, one of the ugliest styles of football there is!
So with our back up plan failing and our usual game stifled, Villa looked seriously low on confidence pretty soon into the game. The goal reinforced our dropped heads and for the next 45 minutes we played very bluntly. We didn’t cave and let City in all that much, to our credit, but we also didn’t look sharp or likely to score. A lot of the game took part in the middle of the park, with us giving the ball away cheaply far too much.
When we reached the hour mark, our midfield perked up, beginning to pass the ball (and actually reach the intended target at last) taking control of the game, and for the last half hour we dominated the game. But for all that domination, we never really looked like we were going to score unless a chunk of luck came our way.
Our defence looked pretty shaky, particularly on the counter and we relied on Brad Friedel a few times, then when Milner went to right back I feared the worst, but the midfield mostly held the ball away from the defence (excepting the second goal of course).
Yet again Ashley Young was wasting surges with crosses that went to no-one, Aggy was very inneffective and Heskey did very little of beneficial consequence. Carew came on in the second half for Curtis Davies which helped to pluck us up and, if we had the fabled-goal-poacher I keep harping on about, we could’ve at very least got a draw last night. But no-one on the pitch seemed all that likely to put the ball over the line.
Another disappointing result in a very poor few weeks for Villa. We all knew a rocky patch was going to come, but we all hoped it wouldn’t last this long, or come right before a tough string of fixtures. Both have happened. Should we panic now?
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