Gareth Barry: Aston Villa fans continue to have their say
ANY regular at Villa Park knows Gareth Barry has hardly given his all this season.
During the second half of the campaign he looked like a man who was on his way out of the club, lacking commitment and avoiding injury at all costs.
With Martin Laursen out injured, Barry should have stepped up to the mark, but he didn’t, he was anonymous.
He has contradicted his initial reasons for wanting to leave the club. His move to Manchester City and not one of the ‘Sky Four’ proves that Champions League football was not the motivating factor for him going.
If he thinks Manchester City will break into the Champions League this coming season then he is deluded. If they do it in two seasons he will be over 30 and hardly in the first flush of youth.
It is clear that the motivating factor has been money. If he was an ordinary working man on £300 a week and was moving to a job which paid £500 I would say good luck to him, he would be moving to better his standard of living.
But Barry and his ilk are already earning astronomical figures, how many Porsches or million-pound houses can someone enjoy owning?
He has gone to a club in a poorer position than Villa, a club who didn’t even qualify for the Europa Cup – never mind the Champions League – and for what, a new challenge?
If he thinks Villa fans are going to swallow that he is very wrong indeed. I am sorry Barry has ‘grown bored of all the speculation’ surrounding him in the past 12 months, but where has all the speculation come from?
Yes, Barry himself! He is also glad he didn’t leave last summer as he would have ‘left under a cloud’. Well, he has hardly covered himself in glory with this departure. It is a blatant betrayal, not for him wanting to leave the club (I don’t want any player wearing the shirt who doesn’t want to play for us) but for the way he has gone about it.
He has deceived the fans who have supported him and the open letter in the Birmingham Mail proves he still thinks he can pull the wool over people’s eyes.
Secondly, I also feel slightly let down by the club. This all went through very quickly after first being announced, so it appears it may have been already lined up.
It did, however, come after the deadline for season-ticket renewals (coincidence, I hope) when only last week Mr Lerner was telling us that Villa were prepared to forgo the £12million (the exact figure we got in the end for Barry) for him to stay another season and wind his contract down.
It’s a good bit of business for the club but Villa, for me, need to come up with the goods now and I hope the fans, especially the ones who chanted Barry’s name during the last game of the season, have learned a valuable lesson.
As Villa legends go, he isn’t fit to lace the boots of the likes of Ian Taylor.
M LUTWYCHE, Edgbaston
I’M STILL struggling to come to terms with the fact Barry has gone.
Eleven great years from a player who was arguably our best for many seasons. The one thing which leaves a sour taste in my mouth was his claim that he would ‘only leave the Villa to join a top-four Champions League club’, which I 100 per cent respect.
It therefore doesn’t make sense why he would choose Man City. No disrespect to City but I think they’re about two seasons behind us. Of course, I’m disappointed he has gone to one of our main rivals but I can’t help looking deeper into this transfer and think there is more to it.
Does Barry know what plans Villa are making in comparison to those of Man City?
Also, let’s look into the transfers O’Neill has made and the players he has let go (i.e. Steven Davis and Gary Cahill). Players of quality have been let go.
All I hope is that next season we aren’t sat here again saying we weren’t quite good enough and didn’t have the depth in the squad. Let’s stop promising to buy big and just do it!
C GRIFFIN, via email
