Keep Barry at Villa

According to a very recent article on the Daily Mail’s website Liverpool have agreed a fee with Villa for Barry purportedly to be £17.5m plus Finnan, which I would imagine will be good enough to please all Villa fans despite the recent turn around of attitudes with Barry being cheered all game last Saturday.

The full article can be found through the following link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1039828/INSIDER-EXCLUSIVE-Liverpool-Villa-finally-agree-19m-deal-Gareth-Barry-England-star-secures-Anfield-move.html

As the proprietor of this site, even I would agree that this is reasonable business, as long as we use the money quickly and smartly to replace quality with quality……

Any avid fans of KeepBarryAtVilla.com will have noticed a distinct lack of activity recently, mostly due to the fact I was resigned to Barry leaving (along with all other Villa fans) which kinda made the site pointless.  That and the fact Barry quite obviously doesnt want to stay, I can perhaps take him to water, but make him drink? Probably not.

However a few interesting things have come up today, which I thought worthy of mentioning on here.

Fistly, the Alonso deal is off, this means that Liverpool do not perhaps have access to the funds they thought they had available to them for the Barry deal and also means that they have a midfielder that they weren’t banking on being in the squad this coming season.

Secondly Arsenal, who seem to have less midfielders than even we do at the moment, have had a speculative conversation with the Villa about Barry’s availability.  If he does leave then part of me would rather he went there than off to play with the scousers, especially as it would really mirk Benitez….

Thirdly, Villa have released an official club statement today, saying: “The Club can confirm that Gareth Barry will be back in training at Bodymoor Heath tomorrow”.  This strikes me as a very odd statement as who is it aimed at?  If he’s going then Villa fans don’t care if he eats chips all day, equally Liverpool fans would rather he was up there with their lot - so what’s the point in all this?

Is this long drawn out saga about to get yet another twist??

According to multiple sources in the press this morning, Liverpool have made a final offer for Barry which equates to £17m made up of a £15m advance and £2m of add ons.

I think the Villa’s hands are tied now to a certain extent as Barry’s recent behaviour has made keeping him not really an option anymore, no club wants a player who doesn’t want to be there as it almost certainly reflects in their game.

£15m + £2m is a bit cheeky as it still doesn’t match the clubs valuation of £18m and is below the market rate for a regular England midfielder and a club captian, however it may the the best we are going to get now and perhaps Villa should act with the dignity that our captian has been lacking recently and bow out of this sorry saga.

The Barry saga has now hit a low point that I never thought our illustrious (ex) captain would reach.  In an interview with The News of The World yesterday he made the following comments:

“My mind’s made up, I want to join Liverpool.

“There’s no going back, it’s time for me to move on. I’m desperate to play Champions League football and that’s why I have to leave Villa.”

Despite MONs consistent and constant comments that he wants to keep Barry at the club, Barry has also made the following statement:

“Villa kept saying they wanted me to stay but I have not heard from the manager for weeks,” he claimed.

“It’s seven weeks now since the season finished but while the gaffer’s found time to be a pundit for the BBC at Euro 2008, he hasn’t found the time to speak to me.

“Have Villa offered me anything to try to persuade me my future is at Villa Park, not Anfield? Not a thing.”

I really hope that Barry’s agent has engineered this as oppose to Barry as I thought he had more integrity.  I would just like this over with now as soon as possible so we as a club can move on and hopefully not have our memories of Barry, who up until recently was a role model for all young players and a leader of which we coule be proud, tainted and adjusted to contain only this sour tale.

“Gareth Barry has stated in discussions with our manager he would like to leave Aston Villa to join Liverpool.

“But Liverpool’s bid for the player has been rejected and they have been informed of Villa’s continued position in this matter.”

I am sure it is now just a matter of time, £18m is on the table now from Liverpool and now that it is clear the player wants to leave, and we have received a decent offer, there isn’t much purpose to this website anymore - it’s been emotional.

M

Today’s Sun newspaper is running a story that Barry has now requested that Villa let him go:
‘The England star phoned his Aston Villa boss to plead for a move after nearly 10 years in the Midlands.’
His agent, Alex Black, has also confirmed this:
“Gareth has spoken to Martin since he returned from England’s game in Trinidad and told him how he feels,” he is quoted as saying by the newspaper. “At this stage of his career Gareth wants to be playing Champions League football and believes this is his chance to do it.”
Here a KeepBarryAtVilla.com (a job that may soon become redundant I fear), we don’t always believe the hype - however the developments today if true would be the clearest indication that we are going to lose our captain.  My opinion has always been that he manager could persuade Barry to stay with talks centering around how we are developing as a club and how our ambtitions match those of our captian.  It is worrying that we couldn’t persuade Barry of this and has dented my confidence in our ambition slightly.

There seem to be a lot of rumours going around at the moment stating that Liverpool are about to make a £20m bid for Barry.

If this was the case then I can realistically see the Villa accepting this and moving on.  This woudl be the first offer that is at what I would consider to be near the players market value.

Rumour has it that Barry has been seen in Liverpool today supposedly discussing a contract with Liverpool, does this mean that Villa have accepted a bid?

I don’t usually pay too much attention to the papers, however as pretty much every paper this morning claims that Barry is off to Liverpool, maybe I should take note.

 
The Star, The Sun, The Mirror, The Telegraph, The Times, The Independent, The Guardian and Sporting Life all claim that Barry is as good as gone after he has admitted that he needs to play in the Champions League to continue his development.  It is also claimed that he is ‘desperate’ to join up with Gerrard at Liverpool.

 
If the negotiations do not progress any further in the near future, it is quite likely that he will put in a formal transfer request.

 
Now of course none of us actually know what is happening behind the scenes at Villa Park, but I don’t think it is looking likely that he will be staying at the moment - which is a big blow for all us Vila fans, especially as all the transfer gossip seems to centre around players leaving rather than us bringing in some much needed new talent.

Henery Winter wrote the following in this mornings Telegraph:

‘Defoe, outshining the mediocre Dean Ashton, took his two goals neatly. Bentley, who replaced a lacklustre David Beckham at the break, made some rash challenges, a flaw he must address, but he delivered more in his first five minutes than Beckham did in 45. But a warm Caribbean night really belonged to Barry and Defoe.

‘Sweetly created by Stewart Downing and Wayne Bridge, Barry’s early goal settled England, delighting the thousand-odd fans who had travelled here. And when the excellent Defoe put England two clear after 15 minutes, they joyously joined in the Mexican Waves sweeping around this party venue masquerading as a sports arena. England were putting on a show, with Downing and particularly Barry, pulling the strings. Even Fabio Capello’s granite features broke into a smile. England made merry on the pitch and on the terraces’

None of this would be suprising to Villa fans who have seen Barry play in this way for the club, it however will only serve to apply more pressure on O’Niel and Learner to keep him as BarryMania (you read this phrase here first sports fans) continues to dominate the paper talk around Merseyside.

Not sure it is exactly the kind of PR that we want, but Football365 did at least mention that we exist:

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8671_3623879,00.html

However I am not entirely happy with the reporting as it seems very biased, while Barry does not say that he is staying, nor does he say that he is leaving!

I must say that I am beginning to feel like he will be off to Liverpool during the summer, and if that does happen then I am sure we all wish him well and will give him a warm welcome when he comes back to Villa Park.

As they say, its not over until the fat lady sings though, watch this space.

P.S - we categorically do not support slavery!

According to today’s edition of The Mirror and Telegraph, Steven Sidwell will join the Villa in the near future after Chelsea accepted a £5m bid.

Sidwell, who is currently in Moscow with the rest of the Chelsea squad, will reportedly have to take a 50% pay cut to join the Villa although he will benefit from a significant signing on fee.

This will of course provoke further speculation that Barry will be on his way out, however in my mind you would replace your best player with one of perhaps higher quality than Sidwell – does this mean that Barry is staying and Sidwell will play with him?

According to this mornings Sun, Barry has said he will decide within 2 weeks whether or not he will remain a Villa player next season.

If you haven’t already registered your support on the petition page, then please do so!

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez in a display of total arrogance has said Martin O’Neill needs to accept the prospect of Gareth Barry leaving Aston Villa.

“If your captain wants to leave, it is a problem, but that’s football,” Benitez told the Liverpool Echo.

“I have been very clear. The player had said before that he wanted to play Champions League football. We knew that and so tried to sign a good player. It is that simple.

“I think the right approach when you want to sign a player is to talk to the manager.

“I was talking to Martin O’Neill. I said we would like to sign Gareth Barry and asked what the situation was.

“He just said he needed to talk to the owner and I said okay. He will not have any problems with his supporters because he never said to me he wanted to sell Barry.

“We were also talking about (Liverpool goalkeeper) Scott Carson because they have the option to sign him.

“We were just talking about football so why he was so angry, I do not know.”

Benitez is also convinced that it is not his fault that the whole transfer story went public.

“We made an offer but I think we were straight,” Benitez added. “When you make an official offer, you do so by fax. Some people see the fax and you cannot control everything.

“The Birmingham press found out about the offer and it was not our fault. They were very clever and used that information.

“I was talking with Martin O’Neill 20 days before that and nobody knew. We were doing things properly. We are waiting now to see what happens next.”

Quite why Football seems to be the only business these days where things are done by fax is anyone’s guess.  It is also reported that a meeting will be held between O’Neill, Learner and Barry within the next few days, I hope we can get this resolved quickly.  Ideally we all want him to stay, but I think if he is going then get it done quick so we have the summer to rebuild.

Martin O’Neill has praised Gareth Barry for his professionalism as he produced another fine display to help secure Villa’s Intertoto Cup spot.
 
O’Neill said: “Gareth might have been affected by the speculation last week, but I thought he was back to his best yesterday - he did splendidly for us. You wouldn’t have thought he had anything else other than a win on his mind.

“We’re going to be sitting down very shortly and discussing Gareth’s future. We won’t let this lie. I’m going to see the chairman in the next couple of days with a bit of luck and the two of us together might be able to persuade him to stay. I say persuade him, but he still has two years left on his contract.

“It’s quite ironic that Liverpool have gone to great lengths to say that this supposed offer has arrived from an Italian team for Steve Gerrard and he has several years left on his contract. Maybe we should take a leaf out of their book and do exactly the same.”

“Gareth is a demigod at Villa Park, he has that reputation and he’s playing for England and he hasn’t had to move to another club to do that.

“He’s been particularly brilliant for us. We want to improve the team and our best chance of doing that is to keep our best players and adding some quality.

“The rest I can’t really tell you. I wouldn’t want to be saying how confident we are of all these things. It’s a different era we live in. We will see.

“All I know is he has never expressed one iota of unhappiness in my time at Villa Park. He might not have stayed that long had he been really unhappy before.”

Personally I think the way he celebrated after his goal shows that his heart is still with the Villa, hopefully that will be enough, combined with an increased wage package of course, to keep him with us for 08/09 season.

O’Neill today reacted furiously to ’staggering’ comments from Rafa Benitez as the row over Liverpool’s bid for Gareth Barry rumbled on.

Speaking to this morning’s Mirror, Benitez suggested there had been an ongoing dialogue between the two managers regarding Barry - a suggestion which has been flatly denied by O’Neill.

O’Neill told the club’s official website: “I’m absolutely astonished at this story ‘Rafa Exposes O’Neill’ I’ve never denied speaking to Rafa Benitez so how can you be exposed for something you haven’t denied?

“I think Rafa is being very clever here. He gives the impression that there’s been constant dialogue. That’s simply and utterly untrue.

“He made a phone call to me; I did not initiate the phone call. He asked about Gareth Barry and I said: ‘Well he’s got a testimonial and two years left to run and he’s our best player. So what would the reaction be?’

“I said that I would speak to our owner - obviously because he has a big, big say in the proceedings - and I assumed he would have the same answer as myself, that Gareth wasn’t for sale.

“So I’m astonished to read this. The next conversation I had with Rafa Benitez was last Friday morning when Liverpool had put in a faxed offer to us which we received on Thursday afternoon.

“There was hardly time to speak to the chairman or to react to things before it was in the Liverpool Echo. The only reason Rafa Benitez was phoning me was to cover himself! It was as simple as that.”

“I see there’s a reference in the paper this morning, and this is his quote: ‘I was surprised by part of his comments I had a private conversation with him 20 days ago. He knew everything about my idea and I knew about his idea.’

“What idea did I have? I’ve got absolutely no idea! I have no idea what he’s talking about. It’s absolutely crazy.
“It suggests this is a conversation that I wanted to keep going, to keep on the boiling pot. Absolutely not. It’s a complete nonsense.

“This is not something I initiated and I certainly was not on the phone to him to ask him about his players either, which I think is something he’s trying to refer to.

“That is not true. He mentioned players himself but I might not be interested in any of his players.”

I hope we focus on keeping the player and don’t let this row between the two managers distract us from the real point here!  Keep Barry At Villa…..

For those of you who frequent the Facebook Social Networking site, there is also a Keep Barry At Villa group on the site.

The group currently has well over 200 members and is worth joining if you want to chat to like minded individuals.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34995815726

The Transfer Gossip page on Football365 today contained plenty of Anfield based tripe regarding Barry:

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8671_3541029,00.html

This has had a knock on effect of people leaving comments on the site linking to www.KeepBarryatVilla.com which is great, personal thanks to everyone who is pushing this site out to the masses - we need to keep this engine trundling on so that the club and Barry himself get a way to read the views of the fans as oppose to just the various members of the press.

UTV, Martyn

Martin O’Neill has declared that keeping Gareth Barry will be his number one priority for the summer.

We have all read that Liverpool are leading the pack for Villa captain Barry and have made a bid for our club captain.  Unsuprisingly and thankfully O’Neill rejected the offer and is determined to keep the Barry at the club as he tries to further strenghten the team during the summer.

O’Neill is quoted on AVFC.co.uk as saying:.

“Obviously trying to keep Gareth Barry at the football club will be the most important thing that we’re trying to do in the summertime,”

“A player of Gareth’s undoubted quality and ability would take some replacing, so keeping him at Aston Villa is as important as anything we do in the transfer market.”

“I want to really keep the progress going. We want to try and step forward again and we’re looking to add that extra quality to the quality that we have. We definitely need more,” added O’Neill.

“That gets harder as you go along because you’re trying to add to a better side. But we’re trying to progress and we have got to do it, otherwise we wouldn’t just stand still, we would probably regress.

“There’s no standing still in Premier League football because there’s always someone looking over your shoulder.

“Look at the sides next season that have got this driving ambition. Tottenham Hotspur have just spent £16-18million on a young kid who has never sampled the Premier League! He looks a really good player.

“So they’re showing their intentions. Newcastle will want to compete and Sunderland are averaging 43,000 gates. So it’s going to be even tougher next year.

“Being back in the Premier League and having had two seasons to look at it, I believe that for us now to compete we have to add to what we’ve got.”

To me this doesn’t seem like a serious bid as it is undervaluing the player considerably. However this is the first time that anything other than speculation has emerged so watch this space.

The article below is copied from www.Football365.com:

Liverpool are understood to have launched their bid to sign Aston Villa captain Gareth Barry by tabling an initial £10million offer.

The Reds are believed to have formally contacted Villa yesterday with their bid for the England midfielder.

There has been speculation for the past fortnight that 27-year-old Barry has emerged as one of Rafael Benitez’s major summer transfer tasrgets.

It remains to be seen whether Villa manager Martin O’Neill will accept the bid for Barry who has two years to run of his current contract.

But Benitez wants Barry to form a partnership with his England colleague and close friend Steven Gerrard.

Barry, who celebrates the 10th anniversary of making his Villa debut next week, has made no secret of his desire to play Champions League football.

He is on more than £40,000 a week at Villa and could come close to doubling that if he moved to Anfield or Chelsea who have also been linked with the player.

But it the desire to win trophies that is uppermost in Barry’s mind at this stage of his career.

The former Brighton trainee has already expressed a desire to hold talks with Villa manager Martin O’Neill to assess what his transfer plans are for the 2008-2009 campaign.

Villa are challenging strongly for a UEFA Cup spot but Barry wants to see whether Villa are in a position to move to the next level.

O’Neill pulled off a masterstroke in persuading Barry to sign a new four-year deal when he took charge of Villa in the summer of 2006.

But he may find it harder to persuade Barry to sign a new contract and to convince him to stay with the midlands club.

General Charles Krulak has made a statement indicating that the club will not stand in Barry’s way should he wish to leave the club. While many people may think that this means that the club wants him to leave, I actually think quite the opposite.This statement gives me the confidence that the club feel that Barry will not ‘want to leave’, this can only be achieved if the clubs ambition matches Barry’s and they are able to provide him with the package and quality of team mates that he may wish to seek elsewhere.

Krulak said: “Obviously, we are keen to keep our captain - and we will do all in our power to keep him. But at the same time, he plays a huge part in this equation.

“At the end of the day, he needs to want to stay. The very worst thing we could do would be to try and hold onto a player who wants to leave.

“I hope that we can show him that his future is, in fact, at Aston Villa. We will work hard to do just that.”
The full article can be found here:

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8690_3483200,00.html

Please click on the Petition link on the left and add your comments, we need to show support for this and the more people the better.

It has emerged, in an article in the Sunday People (so take this with a pinch of salt), that Arsene Wenger has now joined the queue for Barry’s signature. With Mathieu Flamini allegedly on his way to AC Milan, Arsenal could well be in the market for a new midfielder. It is claimed that Arsenal have the funds to match his £15m valuation by Chelsea and Liverpool, although whether or not Wenger would spend this on an English player is another matter.

Although the comments from both Arsenal and Liverpool fans on Football 365s Transfer Gossip column would indicate that perhaps the fans don’t rate Barry as highly as we do:

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8671_3483049,00.html

We have all seen all of the paper talk, indicating that Barry is pretty much gone, however I for one don’t believe he will and hope that character and decency prevails over the commercialism that it taking over our game.

Please take part in this straw poll and help us see what people really think will happen.