Jul 7 2008 By Pat Murphy
Birmingham Post
If Gareth Barry finally gets his move to Liverpool, he’ll soon have an opportunity for gratitude to his new manager’s fondness for a rotation policy that frustrates so many of his players.
Liverpool will play at Villa Park just a frtnight into the new Premier League season on on August 30.
Can you really imagine Barry turning out for the Reds that day after burning his boats with Villa in this past week?
I can’t see the Holte End extending a warm welcome to a player who has been deservedly respected this past decade, yet has chosen to vent publicly his frustration at his stalled move.
Throughout his unfashionably long stint at Villa Park, Barry has been the model professional. Careful in his public comments, yet always accessible to the media, gracious to the supporters and fully committed on the field.
When his career stalled, Barry kept his head down and eventually found in Martin O’Neill a manager who believed in him and played him in his best position in central midfield.
Otherwise, he’d have gone to Tottenham Hotspur or Portsmouth in August 2006 and would he have become an England regular after that?Villa and Barry have been good for each other and Barry may find that the Anfield grass isn’t that greener as he comes to terms with the Benitez rotation policy, rather than getting better and better by being an automatic choice for O’Neill.
And if Liverpool bomb out early from the Champions’ League will Barry have learned so much more as a player than if he’d stayed at a club that is clearly on the rise?
Barry was ill-advised to go public while on holiday in Florida last weekend. He should have continued trotting out the cliché about leaving the matter to both clubs, emphasised his respect for Villa’s supporters and let his agent and Benitez take the flak.
It was disrespectful to suggest that O’Neill was more bothered about working at Euro 2008 for the BBC rather than sorting out the impasse. Clearly, Barry doesn’t understand that many managers and agents were out at Euro 2008, setting out deals, establishing relevant contacts and watching potential purchases in the flesh.
I don’t hear any Arsenal player bleating about Arsene Wenger’s continual presence at the tournament.
Managers are entitled to be wherever they wish for three weeks in June if they think that’s what is best for their club. And it’s not as if O’Neill wasn’t back here on several occasions in between matches.
He’s been in the business long enough to be trusted in his judgment and aims. He has until the end of August to strengthen the squad and once Barry had made it clear he wanted to go at the start of June, there was no point in further dialogue. It was then up to the two clubs to negotiate and Liverpool have tried to get Barry on the cheap.
He’s ahead of Owen Hargreaves and Michael Carrick in the England pecking order, yet both fetched a good deal more in the past two years than Liverpool are offering Villa.
And until recently, Benitez was valuing Peter Crouch at £15 million, with one year left on his contract compared to Barry’s two. There is no comparison between those two in terms of value. and it now looks as though the former Villa man is off to Portsmouth for an iniial £8m with £3m in add-ons.
Liverpool’s boardroom wrangles and Benitez’s uncertainty about his own position aren’t any concern of Villa’s but Barry won’t be joining a club enjoying the stability and promise of European dominance of the Shankly and Paisley years.
And Villa don’t need the money, thanks to Randy Lerner’s largesse. He is totally on O’Neill’s side. They can afford to tough this one out, aware that Barry has burned his bridges at Villa Park.
Some might say this is just damage limitation by Villa, being bloody-minded for the sake of it. But O’Neill should be commended for fighting his corner at a time when top players and their agents have too much power.
.
utusanLFC :
what a bias reporting... what a condemnation by a Midland regional newspaper... hihihi... Of course Barry know fully well of Rafa's rotation policy. That's the main attraction! If he's the 1st choice at Villa, he knows he never know his real potential because there is no real competition at that level. But at LFC, the competition is so great that only good player do get playing time under Rafa. Go figure!
Birmingham Post
If Gareth Barry finally gets his move to Liverpool, he’ll soon have an opportunity for gratitude to his new manager’s fondness for a rotation policy that frustrates so many of his players.
Liverpool will play at Villa Park just a frtnight into the new Premier League season on on August 30.
Can you really imagine Barry turning out for the Reds that day after burning his boats with Villa in this past week?
I can’t see the Holte End extending a warm welcome to a player who has been deservedly respected this past decade, yet has chosen to vent publicly his frustration at his stalled move.
Throughout his unfashionably long stint at Villa Park, Barry has been the model professional. Careful in his public comments, yet always accessible to the media, gracious to the supporters and fully committed on the field.
When his career stalled, Barry kept his head down and eventually found in Martin O’Neill a manager who believed in him and played him in his best position in central midfield.
Otherwise, he’d have gone to Tottenham Hotspur or Portsmouth in August 2006 and would he have become an England regular after that?Villa and Barry have been good for each other and Barry may find that the Anfield grass isn’t that greener as he comes to terms with the Benitez rotation policy, rather than getting better and better by being an automatic choice for O’Neill.
And if Liverpool bomb out early from the Champions’ League will Barry have learned so much more as a player than if he’d stayed at a club that is clearly on the rise?
Barry was ill-advised to go public while on holiday in Florida last weekend. He should have continued trotting out the cliché about leaving the matter to both clubs, emphasised his respect for Villa’s supporters and let his agent and Benitez take the flak.
It was disrespectful to suggest that O’Neill was more bothered about working at Euro 2008 for the BBC rather than sorting out the impasse. Clearly, Barry doesn’t understand that many managers and agents were out at Euro 2008, setting out deals, establishing relevant contacts and watching potential purchases in the flesh.
I don’t hear any Arsenal player bleating about Arsene Wenger’s continual presence at the tournament.
Managers are entitled to be wherever they wish for three weeks in June if they think that’s what is best for their club. And it’s not as if O’Neill wasn’t back here on several occasions in between matches.
He’s been in the business long enough to be trusted in his judgment and aims. He has until the end of August to strengthen the squad and once Barry had made it clear he wanted to go at the start of June, there was no point in further dialogue. It was then up to the two clubs to negotiate and Liverpool have tried to get Barry on the cheap.
He’s ahead of Owen Hargreaves and Michael Carrick in the England pecking order, yet both fetched a good deal more in the past two years than Liverpool are offering Villa.
And until recently, Benitez was valuing Peter Crouch at £15 million, with one year left on his contract compared to Barry’s two. There is no comparison between those two in terms of value. and it now looks as though the former Villa man is off to Portsmouth for an iniial £8m with £3m in add-ons.
Liverpool’s boardroom wrangles and Benitez’s uncertainty about his own position aren’t any concern of Villa’s but Barry won’t be joining a club enjoying the stability and promise of European dominance of the Shankly and Paisley years.
And Villa don’t need the money, thanks to Randy Lerner’s largesse. He is totally on O’Neill’s side. They can afford to tough this one out, aware that Barry has burned his bridges at Villa Park.
Some might say this is just damage limitation by Villa, being bloody-minded for the sake of it. But O’Neill should be commended for fighting his corner at a time when top players and their agents have too much power.
.
utusanLFC :
what a bias reporting... what a condemnation by a Midland regional newspaper... hihihi... Of course Barry know fully well of Rafa's rotation policy. That's the main attraction! If he's the 1st choice at Villa, he knows he never know his real potential because there is no real competition at that level. But at LFC, the competition is so great that only good player do get playing time under Rafa. Go figure!
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