June 2008 Archives

THE second of two club statements was today issued by Aston Villa on their official web-site on the subject of Gareth Barry.

The first was sent out on May 14.

You may remember it seemed to rebuke yours truly and the Birmingham Mail for daring to state that Martin O'Neill would allow Gareth Barry to go if the player asked to leave. It also stated that the manager would play "hard-ball" and would not allow him to leave for less than £15million. Peter Crouch, I said, could still become part of the deal.

"MARTIN O'Neill will not stand in Gareth Barry's way should the Villa skipper eventually confirm, as expected, his desire to quit Villa Park for Anfield.

"But O'Neill has his doubts whether Liverpool could actually afford Barry with the Reds having to offload a flood of fringe players to finance such an ambitious tranfer at a time when boardroom wrangles have split the club in two.

"Rafa Benitez has alleged that Barry is keen to quit Villa but Villa will play hard-ball over the remaining two years of Barry's contract- unless Liverpool stump up around £15 million."

That story led to this statement from the club on the same day:

"Martin O'Neill has reacted furiously to a newspaper report suggesting he has thrown in the towel and will allow Gareth Barry to join Liverpool.

"O'Neill has strenuously put forward his desire to keep the Claret and Blue skipper at Villa Park despite interest from the Anfield club.

"And the Villa boss has reiterated this stance after reading this evening's back page story in the Birmingham Mail, which claimed that he would not stand in Barry's way and that the Villa skipper could go if the 'price was right'.

"O'Neill told www.avfc.co.uk: "I have not said anything of the sort. To suggest I would be happy to sell Gareth is simply not true.

"I did say that no club would want to keep an unhappy player but at no time has Gareth expressed any displeasure about his time at Villa.

"We are doing everything we can. We are determined to keep Gareth at Villa Park. To say that I am resigned to losing him is simply not the case." "

Well, in the four weeks and a day that have followed precisely this has happened:

Barry has asked to leave- as was supported by a club statement issued to just a handful of national newspapers a couple of days ago, a flurry of newspapers reported at the tail-end of last week that O'Neill had "given up the ghost" and admitted that his skipper will have to leave (no such club statements were issued then- I wonder why?) and O'Neill is currently playing hard-ball over a fee with bids that have so far climbed to just £13million.

Villa are quite within their rights to refuse to sell at that price.

In my mind there is no doubt that Barry will be a Liverpool player before too long- and I hope the issue does not get too messy ala Dwight Yorke to Manchester United.

There will be no silly "If I had a gun...." statements from the manager this time, for sure, but this is an issue that needs to end quickly.

The Villa manager, and for that matter Randy Lerner or Paul Faulkner, have a number of issues with which to contend.

Firstly, do they hold out for £15million, or £16million or £18 million until Liverpool sell Xabi Alonso, John Arne Riise, Jermaine Pennant etc and then finally stump up the cash but by doing so eat into valuable time?

Whilst Villa are holding out for their money- and they are quite within their rights as Barry is as good or even a better player than either Michael Carrick or Owen Hargreaves- both transferred to Manchester United for around £18 million- they run the risk of potential targets sealing deals with the likes of Manchester City, Spurs, Portsmouth, Newcastle or Everton.

It's a dog eat dog world out there. The likes of Sidwell, Bullard, Huddlestone, Milner, Lennon or Scannell cannot wait until mid-August for an official approach from Villa.

Martin O'Neill had, six weeks or so ago, spoken of his fears of the Webster Ruling- the possibility that players can now buy out their contracts.

Never mind his worsening relationship with Rafa Benitez- those two do not have to get on- what about O'Neill's relationship to Alex Black, Barry's long-time agent (and also the agent to another rising star at Villa- Barry Bannan)?

O'Neill can risk that particular relationship ebbing away, but at what cost?

Barry in six months will be worth a fraction of his current market rate. And in 12 months you will be halving it just as Liverpool are having to do over Crouch (£15million is having to become £8 million in a matter of weeks).

O'Neill's desire, with five weeks until the InterToto campaign begins, is to bring in two goalkeepers, a right-back, a centre-back, a left-back, at least two midfielders- or three if Barry leaves- and a striker.

His squad is already four down on last term.

One can only hope that he is already well down the road to achieving this and is not reliant on the Barry fee from Liverpool.

As one Villa fan put to me today: "That would be like the Ellis era all over again".

For all the good that Lerner has brought to Villa- and there has been so, so much topped by a simply brilliant deal with the Acorns Hospice and also including: the free scarves, the Holte Pub, the 1982 celebrations, cheap seats at the front of the North Stand, free coaches to Chelsea, the completion of the training ground, the new club badge, the gold leaf Roman mosaic, the big screens outside Villa Park etc... on the transfer front his worth to Villa is very much unproven.

Villa have spent, off the top of my head, somewhere in the region of £30 million on new players since his arrival.

The £7million for Stiliyan Petrov was financed, according to Ellis, by the sale of the Serpentine Land shortly before his departure.

But even including that sum there has been around £45.5million spent on: £9 million on Curtis Davies and Ashley Young, £8 million on Nigel Reo-Coker, £4 million for Marlon Harewood and Zat Knight, £1.5 million for Wayne Routledge, £1.5million for Scott Carson and £1million for Shaun Maloney £500,000 for Moustapha Salifou.

Then you take away all the sales: Gavin McCann (£1m), Liam Ridgewell £2.5m), Luke Moore (£3m) Gary Cahill (£5m), Peter Whittingham (£250,000), Steven Davis (£3million) (£14.75m).

That is some way short of Villa's competitors and is the chief reasoning, I would assume, behind Barry's decision to jump ship.

He has perhaps six years left at the top of the game and wants to win something.

Villa fans should have faith in O'Neill's ability to spend wisely. Ashley Young was a gem after all.

The worry is that in the last two years prices have doubled- or trebled. Look at James Milner who was within an ace of signing for £4million, or Barry who was set to move to Portsmouth or Spurs for £5million.

Five weeks and counting..... it promises to be an almighty few weeks for O'Neill and Villa.

And on the issue of statements, I'm thinking of issuing my own. Something along the lines of: "Bill Howell has today decided against having tea with his conflakes and will opt for juice..."

Actions sometimes, you see, speak louder than words.