Shrimpsvoices

Is it just me or have Villa been abit stupid here they have sold Garry Barry to Man City for £12m and not the £18m they REFUSED to budge on when Liverpool tryed to sign him, now seen as there new owner has a bottomless pit of money You would have thought Villa may have asked for even more from city considering their massive over spending on players i.e. Bellamy £14m and De Jong £17m.

Villa demanded £18m for Barry from Liverpool when Barry still had two seasons left to run on his contract. A season later I don't think it is a surprise that their valuation has dropped when Barry could walk away for nothing in 12 months.

A strange move for me. I could understand Barry wanting to move to Liverpool so that he could gain the opportunity of playing in the Champions league. Money bags City won't be at that level for a while yet, especially if they are signing the likes of Barry to get them there. Villa have quite a decent squad that lacks depth. If O'Neil can sort that out I think Villa could be in a position to challenge for the top four places before Citeh. Sideways move for me.

Would have been a good signing for Arsewipe. But the wages are probably better at City.

130k a week.

Not that tough a choice for the lad.

Well, its not often both my teams appear on a message board, so i can shed some light on a City fans position here!!!

Firstly, our Chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarek, has, in his own words, a 10 year vision for the club to be challenging for honours across Europe, not just domestically.

Gareth Barry, is a player, who in his own words; "is joining a club heading in the right direction"...now i don't want to antagonise AVFC, who in truth i have no problem with, but they don't have the long term strategy that City have.

In regards to wages, being close to MCFC as i can be, there is no way, and i'm honestly stating - no way, any player is on more than Robinho's £92k.

Players like Barry, Kompany, De Jong, Bellamy et al, have come due to the potential of what the club offers in regards to its vision. If our board, wanted to spend x- number of pounds on players to buy out the market than thats their choice.

I also happen to have noticed two things:

1. If Liverpool were that interested in him, then they could easily have bid more than the bargain £12m we got him for.

2. I was disgusted and annoyed at people saying Barry has made a backward step?? He took Villa as far as he could, they haven't gone anywhere over the last 2 yrs either - regardless of the fact they finished 4 places higher than us, City offer more potential - long term, than Villa do (another factor in his 5 yr contract signing).

In the end this is an MFC board, and to start talking premier league on here would be a detriment to all concerned.

I'll leave you with one final thought though, Sulaiman Al Fahim, is currently negotiating the purchase of Portsmouth FC....i wonder if, in 12 months time people would be sat on radio phone-ins, message boards, and the ridiculously pathetic "Y.O.S.S" program, calling players mercenaries for joining that club!??

I highly doubt it.

Face it, it may take 10 yrs, or 9 as the case is now, but the top 4 will eventually be disbanded.

"Face it, it may take 10 yrs, or 9 as the case is now, but the top 4 will eventually be disbanded"

Face it, also, that there will be more of this muscle-flexing by foreign multi-billionaires using our clubs as baubles to flaunt at their international money rivals.
Once City (through their wealth) have ousted, say Arsenal, then they will become one of the new 'top four' or Champions' League clubs.

Gone forever are the days that clubs with a good manager and a decent squad could rise from the Championship or the middle of the top division to win honours (like many, many teams did pre-CL).

Now the only way they can break through is by throwing vast amounts of money at it.

It's only since the enforced creation of the CL that these billionaires have become interested. Previously it was too much of a 'heart ruling the head' risk because you never knew if you were going to get any return for your investment. Football was (as it should be) a bit of a gamble with nothing guraranteed.

That was the excitement - YOUR club was looking at similar others (like Derby, Forest, Villa, Everton, Dundee United, Aberdeen) and seeing them win trophies. This gave you real hope that your club might do the same, by pure footballing means.

Then the Prem formed so the big English clubs could keep all the TV money. Then the big European clubs forced Uefa to set up the CL for them - so they had a guaranteed number of games from which to rake in even more every year.

That - the virtual GUARANTEE of millions of pounds return every year through CL TV cash - is what has attracted these billionaires.

B-le-S is right, City will break through, maybe Pompey will follow them as they all wave their wads at each other.

If people don't like it - scrap the CL and they will disappear overnight.

In terms of Barry's career I think it will be a backwards step.....he won't be around in ten years to sample the fruits of the money throwing (some plan) or it seems in playing in Europe. Don't forget Villa also have a money man to head the running of the club. In terms of the next five years (probably Barry's peak) I think that, with the addition of 5 or so squad players, Villa could push the top four as their young squad improves and (providing they can keep their players) matures together. They seem to be going a different route to that of the other clubs. Yes they have spent money, but from the outside their plan appears to have been to invest in young ( ) players and bring them through together. I hope it works for them, as it will be far more refreshing than watching Man Utd/City/Ch£ls£a/Liverpool/Arsenal (more recently) scraping the cream from the top of the foreign markets, paying top price in what is sometimes a short-term fix. Ironically the only player Man City have at the moment who is good enough to feature for a top 4 club is Ireland, who they promoted from within.

Liverpool were interested in Barry last season. His performances at Villa this season have hardly been earth shattering, whilst Alonso has probably had his best season.