Barry saga leaving a sour taste

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villa arent being hard nosed. yes the 18m price tag is steep. but barry is a key player for villa, who dont acually need money. so liverpool should really either stump up or shut up

I agree totally with your post. How can Benitez think crouch is worth 15 million, and barry also worth the same? Ever since his assistant left he hasn't been the same. Or was it when he got that silly beard moustache thingy..

The first person to confirm that a bid had been made was Martin O Neill so I think that may have been worth a mention Phil.

On the Crouch comparison, I'm not sure if you're aware of this but strikers do tend to fetch a much heftier fee than midfielders so it really isn't as straight forward a comparison as you make out.

Lastly, why should Benitez do anything other than try to get players in on the cheap and out for as much as possible? Surely that's part of his and Rick Parry's job and for an experienced journo, a tactic you'd expect to see in any negotiation?

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Totally agree with you on this one Phil, in fact I made the point on another subject recently.

The only thing to add is that you forgot the other bit of Benitez's delusion - apparently Liverpool's reserve keeper (Scott Carson) who Benitez has hardly ever picked is also worth £10 million.

I just hope that someone else comes in with a bid of £18million for Barry and gazumps Liverpool.

Oh I'm not an Aston Villa fan.

Why rafa wants to sell Pete for 15 mil i dont know, we should let him go to fratton park for 10. If Harry Redknapp doesnt know the real value of a player then i dont know who does. I'll be sad to see Xabi go as despite what Phil says, he has the potential to be a boss of the midfield in the same vein as xavi, pirlo etc but i think a spanish or italian club would suit him more so it would be worth selling him to pay Villa's asking price which when compared to hargreaves and carrick is completely reasonable. Barry is proven both in the english league and also with Steven Gerrard so come on Rafa lets just get this over with and let Villa get on with their summer. Oh and we need to get rid of Carson too the price tag on him is obscene.

We do not know if Barry is a fixture in the England team until England play a competitive fixture. To say Barry is a regular is only speculation at this point.

The saga was made public by someone at Villa and MoN esculated it which didn't help. I don't blame MoN for holding out for more money just like he is with Crouch. Even Rafa knows he was never gonna get 15m for Crouch but tried to get as much as possible. Bear in mind that Crouch is the most prolific England striker in the England side over the last 3 or so years.

Alonso is younger than Barry and yet to hit his peak and will be better than Barry(In my eyes he is a better player than Barry) At the same time I can see where Barry could offer Liverpool a bit more and the idea was to make a profit on the deal.

I think Rafa should pull out of the deal at 15m and just keep Alonso.

As for the article itself, a load of one sided drivel

How can anyone take Benitez's public valuation of his own players and use it against him in a genuine transfer bid? I'm no fan of Liverpool or of their manager, but this is comparing apples to oranges.

I think Liverpool should break the bank for Barry. I think he is miles better than Alonso who is too slow in my opinion. We have got the most out of him and if someone is prepared to pay £16m then take the omney and run. Barry is faster and scores more goals. Plus he has an understanding with Gerrard.

Rafa clearly believes in this 4-4-1-1 formation with Gerrard playing just off Torres. But I would be worried about our lack of firepower if Torres and or Gerrard got injured

Can someone please explain why Rafa beneathus wants to sell a player he values at 16 mill and replace him with a player he values at10/12 mill?.

Yeah.....£18mill? No. Not for a minute. Crouch? £15 Mill? No. But it was a flippant comment by Benitez and one that has bit him in the derriere.

DO we need Barry? Probably not, but I think he would work well. Better than Alonso? Maybe, but only just.

And O'neill was the one who let the bid go public so he should stop sucking lemons and dissing LFC. Plank.

I back MON and Villa 100%. If Barry were to actually put in a transfer request, and thus kiss goodbye to reported cool £3m, he might get his move to Liverpool on their terms.

But the way that Liverpool have gone about their business from day one, including the repeated silly low bids, just makes a once great club look like a laughing stock.

Thankfully Villa, with the ever classy Randy Lerner and O'Neill in charge, continue to grow in reputation.

Barry's once golden reputation, though, is gone for good in the blink of a red top headline. Silly man, thanks for the good memories but shame you had to sour them in such an unseemly way.

The valuation of Barry is of what value he is to O'Neill, as the captain of the club and Villa's best player he means a lot. If that's 18 mil to O'Neill fair enough, I'd not want to let him go!

As a Liverpool fan my concern, given the fact we have so little to spend on transfers, is that Benitez is spending his money on a position that can be filled by Mascherano, Alonso, Lucas and Plessis. Whereas on the right of midfield we have Pennant or Kuyt.

I know on which position I'd be spending my money.

Having read your views on Alonso, I would say your knowledge of football is 'vastly over-rated'.

£18 million for an 'engine-room' midfielder does seem excessive to me but then again I'm an Arsenal fan and we just seem to spread our transfer funds across a far greater number of young and relatively unknown players.

If you compare Barry's value with Benitez's valuation of his own players £18 million is not only totally consistant but actually begins to look quite reasonable.

I mean come on, £15 million for Crouch? If that's a fair valuation then maybe Adebayor really is worth more than £30 million.

I think that AV are being a bit unrealistic in their valution of Barry, but they know, sadly, that eventually, Liverpool will be forced to stump up the cash and pay their fee. Gerrard wants Barry at Liverpool so Liverpool buy Barry. That is the main reason I believe why LFC are still chasing him. For any other players we might have dropped our interest and gone somewhere else.

TBH, I feel as well that both clubs have a part to blame in this. Benitez is admittedly a bit far-fetched shall we say in his valutions but O'Neill sat at Euro 2009 commentating while his skipper was in indecision. O'Neill has also been very sensitive and emotional about the whole thing. This was not needed.

If we eventually get Barry, I'll be pleased but only if we sign other players such as Bentley/Downing in this transfer window, otherwise I feel that the money has been wasted on a player we didn't really need when we already have Mascherano/Gerrard/Lucas all in the middle and that is without Alonso being included. Bentley and Downing are much better prospects for the future.

And, if handled right, I suspect at least one of them would be cheaper than Barry too.

As a Villa fan I think Barry has been a loyal servant and a solid player for us, but a Champions League and Premier League star he is not. £18 million is about 5 or 6 million over valued and if we can get anything around that figure then I'm quite happy to see him leave for pastures new. He is a solid midfield player, and if we can snap up Sidwell for 5/6 million then thats plenty of cash to go towards a David Bentley or a Scott Carson.

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"But what is taking place in between is an undignified mess that has done no favours for Liverpool, their manager Rafael Benitez and Barry."

You say this, yet when actually talking of the details you talk of:

"Villa firing off invective in Liverpool's direction." and "O'Neill's hostility towards Benitez"

So WHERE exactly does this portray Benitez in a bad light. He's said little or nothing on the matter. O'Neill is the one shooting his mouth off constantly in the papers. It was HIM who came out and mentioned Barry in connection with Liverpool, LONG before Benitez mentioned him. Liverpool may have offered a low amount for him, and may overvalue Crouch and particularly Carson, but what club doesn't?

Your constant sniping towards Benitez has grown increasingly tiresome over the last two seasons, any chance you could change the record or hand over these blogs to someone without such a blatant agenda?

What is everybody getting excited about. The transfer system is a market place. No science is involved only barter. Benitez is entitled to play it the way he wants. £65 million for Ronaldo, £36 million for Adebayor, £10 million for Carson. You get what you can when you can. O'Neil has never got over the fact that Barry wants to leave and he just wants to be awkward - but he is entitled to do that. It will all be forgotten in 2 weeks time when Big Phil gets sacked

There seems to always be something a little unpleasant when Benitez is involved in the transfer market. He puts an absolutely ridiculous figure on Crouch when Portsmouth made a pretty generous offer. He knows what Villa want for Barry but seems reluctant to talk business with them. Yes I suppose he is in a situation where he has to generate money in order to get the expensive player/s he wants. Other managers like Moyes don't have a heap of money either but they don't seem to generate the bad feeling all around the transfer market that Rafa does.

Benitez is the joker he thinks he can slap a 15 million price tag on crouch who hardly plays for Liverpool and hasent been much involved in the England Squad over the last year or so, where Barry has and he wont pay the simple 18 million Asked which i think is fair
Benitez is a fool no one will pay that sort of money for crouch but someone will for Barry
Benitez over prices his players and thinks he can get money out of it the other day i must of heard him say 15 million for vornin (Sorry about the spelling).

Yeah, I'm no Liverpool fan (I support Arsenal), and I do agree with you there is some unreasonable behaviour from both camps.

However, if it was the beloved Sir Alex Ferguson, we wouldn't get articles saying how unreasonable he is. He has done far worse things in the transfer market than Benitez. You journalists target Benitez easily, yet you chicken out and try to be so polite towards Ferguson. It's ridiculous.

Why don't you write an article accusing Man Utd over double standards over the Ronaldo saga? Nobody's allowed to pursue Ronaldo, but Man Utd are allowed to pursue anyone they want.

Excellent article, but I think that the most alarming point of this whole "saga" is that Liverpool FC are remarkably underfunded this summer. How can they be expected to compete in the so-called "big 4" if they haven't got the money.

Benitez is using bully-boy tactics to try and unsettle the clubs around him. Look at the apparent situation with Spurs and Robbie Keane.

In the past, we would have folded had such an offer come in for one of our star players. Now, we are in a healthy position, no reason to sell, and Liverpool/Benitez do not like the fact that we will not be pushed around.

Martin O'Neill had my complete and utter respect before this whole soap opera unfolded. It has increased tenfold with his handling of this transfer.

If I was a Liverpool fan I would be embarrassed the way my club is being run.

JC, AVFC

This is a shambles. A mess that both clubs can do without, but not entirely Benitez's fault. Why MON is getting irate about something being done publicly is beyond me. He made it public, NOT RAFA. The first blow struck in the media was when asked about something that was merely speculation at the time MON starting slating Liverpool's alleged first offer as derisory. By this point LFC had in no way stated that they were bidding for Barry. Get a grip MON and AVFC and straighten up. I for one think we should simply say fine, our valuation is £x if you want £y then tough. Sell him or sit him in the stand. They will soon let him come for a compromise price. MON needs to stop being so stubborn and childish and LFC need to move closer to the valuation if we are that desperate for him. Only person suffering here is Barry, simply for wanting to ply his trade against the best in the world in the UCL, and who can blame him?

This is an excellent post although you do seem to gloss over Barry's bizarre outburst. I can appreciate that he is frustrated by not being able to achieve his 'dream' - which, lets be honest, could well be sitting on Liverpool's bench next season rather than playing. Has everyone forgotten Mascherano? - but his personal attack on O'Neill is so out of keeping with a person I had taken to be a mild-mannered, sensible, model profession. Yes, as a Villa fan, I can admit to being frustrated that Barry does not see his ambitions matched by Villa's but his attack on MON - a man, lets not forget who has made Barry the regular international he is - seemed both completely unnecessary and genuinely shocking. I just hope at his press interview for Liverpool he does the decent thing and apologises unreservedly for his behaviour. MON is a decent individual who will no doubt forgive Barry his excesses. But I sincerely doubt the Villa faithful will forgive this undeserved attack on the man we call God. Given Barry's loyal service (I say loyal, no big club has come in for him before) that seems a real shame but it is entirely of his own making and for what?

You can't really blame Benitez - Liverpool want to challenge for the premiership but he doesn't have the funds that the likes of Chelsea have. He needs to sell players.

he may have talked the talk about Crouch (£15m) but everyone knows he'll only get £9m from Pompey.

I'm not sure if Barry is worth the £18m that Villa are asking but in todays ridiculous transfer climate it may be worth a bargain.

Both O'Neill and Benitez are to blame for the undignified public squabbling but these guys are under sever pressure.

I read the first bit about Crouchy, and was furious im not to botherd what the rest was about, but you said its stupid crouch be valued at £15 ill tell you where your wrong, hes second fiddle to Kuyt who started each game for Holland so must be worth a litte cash not only that but second fiddle to TORRES who is always going to be first pick!! just becuse he played 3rd choice after the worlds best striker and Kuyt a worker who copes with Torres better is utter ribbish in my opinion!!

Phil I think you may have overlooked Alonso's injury problems over the last season. As far as the season before goes I think its fair to say that our whole team were poor including the likes of Carra and Gerrard.

Last season whenever Alonso looked to be coming into form he would get injured. The ARsenal game at Anfield comes to mind.

His better years are ahead of him.

How big is Oneill's ego??? Barry was 100% correct in his unauthorised interview last week look at how Fergie is moving heaven and earth to keep Ronaldo, in the end it was O'neill crying in the papers and on TV this is just another transfer to Rafa, if Liverpool leave it alone, will anyone match 15m I don't think so will Villa just let him rot, I don't think so either.

Even Mark Delaney who played for Villa and works for Villa did another unauthorised interview where he said O'neill would have jumped to play for Liverpool.

I don't think Barry for Alonso will make the slightest bit of difference. I think Alonso is a quality player. But for those who don't think so, including the Liverpool management, Mascherano is their chosen man in that position. They paid £20 million I believe for him so what says Barry will even start? Knowing Benitez's ridiculous rotation policy the pair of them will get half the games and Liverpool will once again just scrape 4th place.

True, Gareth Barry has been a faithful servant to the Villa for some 10 years but one must question his decision to go to a particular Sunday tabloid and state the things that he did. To say that MON has not shown Barry enough desire to keep him at the club is ridiculous. Barry knows as well as the next person that the last person MON would have wanted to loose this summer would have been himself. By doing this Barry has left himself in an awkard position not only in respect of his own personal carrer but at the same time with that of the Villa fans that had grown to greatly appreciate and respect the captain of their club. I can completely understand his desire to play CL football but at the same time he has done himself no favours by his actions over the last few weeks. It is obvious to see his position at Villa is now untenable, it is just a matter of time.

To the people who suggest MON made the bid public....i seem to recall the whole reason Villa got so angry about this in the first place was the bid was leaked to a local newspaper in Liverpool the day before a vital Villa match....

Also, a point on valuations. To Aston Villa Garath Barry is worth £18m+. Realisticly, they are not going to be able to replace him with a player of similar quality. They don't need the money, and don't particulary want to sell him either. Therefore if Aston Villa suggest the fee is £18m then its up to Liverpool to pay up or admit they can't afford the price and let everybody get on with their lives.

As for Gareth Barry, he has been ill advised with his News Of The World interview. The fact he won't put in an official transfer request to try and therefore secure himself a £3m parting gift from villa also stinks. You'd have to draw the conclusion that this will be eventually resolved by Barry HAVING to put in an official transfer request and liverpool getting him for the £15m they are prepared to pay. Effetively Villa then get the £18m they want.

to pacmanjunior:

"How big is Oneill's ego??? Barry was 100% correct in his unauthorised interview last week look at how Fergie is moving heaven and earth to keep Ronaldo"

How big is Barry's ego! He's no Ronaldo! He's Gareth Barry, a guy who's just forced his way into the England team. Ronaldo scored 40 goals + last season and is United's best player by far, and thanks to Ashley Young's performance's last season Gareth Barry can't even claim to be Villa's best player.

Neither club is short of money, so each manager is simply trying to get on over the other.

O'Neill is right is in valuation, as he is comparing Barry to fees paid for Hargreaves and Carrick. He doesn't need to, or want to sell his captain and best player, so why shouldn't he get the best deal he can.

Benitez is simply trying to get Barry on the cheap, but if he really wants him, he will pay what Villa want eventually.

The question is will Barry make the difference at Liverpool? Is Barry any better than Alonso? If they are are looking to sell Crouch, who will they buy if they want a partner for Torres? If Torres is to play up front on his own, who should they buy as the attacking wide support? Kuyt has scored important goals from wide right, but is he good enough to turn Liverpool into title challengers?

My thought is that Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal will again battle it out for the title, and anything Liverpool are doing is just to fend off Everton, Spurs and Villa to stay in 4th.

That's the top 7 for you aiming for Europe, the rest are pretty much happy to stay in the Premier League.

This is one of the most one sided pieces I've read in a while. Firstly, all of us know that Rafa has placed the £15m tag on Crouchie because he wants to get the best value out of him. Wouldn't you do the same?? We all know he will be sold for about £10m. However, with Barry Villa want £18m and won't accept anything less than that!! For a player that has been largely anonymous, apart from last season, that is a stupid amount of money to demand. If I was Rafa I would not offer a penny more than LFC have already offered. Lets see how stubborn they really are if they are a player and £15m out of pocket.
Similarly, £10m asked for Carson is never going to be met, but surely he is a £6m goalie isn't he?? Ask high and see what you get, thats the aim of the game.
Also, I don't think Benitez has done anything bad. He declared that he wants a player (which most of the clubs do anyway), the player says he wants to come, so lets stop farting about and seal the deal.

Xabi Alonso is 'vastly overrated'?

For the record, Xabi Alonso is a better player than Gareth Barry.

If anyone is vastly overrated, then it is Gareth Barry.

I agree with NorthfieldVillain that Barry's golden reputation has gone for good. Ashley Cole destroyed his in something of the same way and he has never been seen in the same light since.

The biggest joke is that with Barry Villa were rising inexorably and with the steady improvement of a young side could well have expected to be in the top four at the end of the coming season. They might still do that and push Liverpool down a place or two.

It would be the laugh of the 2009 if Barry missed Liverpool's Champions League fixtures through injury and saw Villa grab Liverpool's Champions League place.

Bring it on.

I think this is one of the most shoddy, one sided pieces of writing I have ever seen.

So far as I can see all the public comments have so far come from MON and not Rafa. Barry has served AVFC for 10 years without giving them any grief so far as I am aware and perhaps foolishly has given an interview to NOTW expressing his disappointment with MON and AVFC. Gareth, please note this paper is not well read on Merseyside!

Anyway, back to the point, how on earth does our amateur journalist consider Rafa and LFC have acted so badly as he claims???? Surely any club should be trying to get players in for as little as possible and out for as much as possible??? No actually I tell you what we'll give Villa whatever they want for GB and Pompey can have Crouchy on a free to keep everyone happy.

Phil - and everyone else who keeps comparing the barry situation with crouch

- Rafa did come out and say crouch is value at £15 million. true. - but he's not gonna say he's worth £9million is he? - cause then the bids will come in at 7-8 mililion

- He has rejected a bid of £9million from portsmouth but I'd bet my house that if a £10million bid came in he'd accept it.

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this is not comparable to the barry situation at all. O'neill says £18m and rejects £15mil.

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Inmy opinion players are worth whatever they're worth to they're club. If Liverpool dont think Barry is worth the amount stipulated by MON - then go and look elsewhere.

Little one sided this view. MoN made it public note Benitez. Perhaps an underhand tactic to look like the good guy / victim.

Barry is a good player, and I believe that having English stars in the team can only be a good thing.

Carson is an England international Keeper. So £8 - £10 million is the going rate

As for the ridiculous comparisons with Crouch ... get a grip people. He'll go for £10Million.

However if we are in the world of the ridiculous. Crouch's international record stands up much better than a certain Wayne Rooney's. So Wayne not worth £15 million?

Well actually I doubt he is but you won't here many other people saying that

As for all this acrimony over Benetiz in the transfer market, please please please name me another incident? Just one.

I am just astonished you have a job McNumpty, your constant whines about all things Benitez bore me to tears.

It's all about good business! Start by asking for a high price; the customer comes in with an offer vastly below that; ask for a little bit less; the customer ups their offer; etc. etc.

I don't think Benitez really expects to get £15 million for Crouch. And I don't think O'Neill should really expect £18 million for Barry. There's being sensible and then there's being stubborn. I think both managers are a little bit guilty of the latter.

I'm a Liverpool fan, but I won't criticize O'Neill for simply trying to do a bit of good business. And I'm not going to criticize Benitez for trying it on either.

And while I think Mr McNulty's views lean slightly in favour of the BBC's very own pundit supreme, I can't disagree with his sentiment that yes, we all do love "a spot of handbags" in the close season.

In what way has Bareth Garry 'ousted' Owen Hargreaves. Bareth has been on Villa his whole career. Surely if he had any talent whatsoever, he would have moved to a big club long ago. It just shows, one decent game for a poor English national team can go a long way. Bareth belongs on a mid-table Coka-Cola championship team. I've heard Wolves have put in an offer. A drunk, injured Hargreaves over a fit Bareth Garry anyday

Who cares?? Another ridiculous transfer saga created by the press. If the media guys left this alone rather than make everything up (as usual) then Barry would be at Liverpool and Villa would have some money in the bank.

Leave this 'spin' alone and concentrate on something important, like our severe lack of English talent in both players and managers.....

Something for another time......

thehappybrain - If thats all McNulty does then get a new hobby stop whinging about Benitez hes a great manager!!

Phil, I tend to agree with your comment about Alonso's overvaluation. But, comparing Barry to Hargreaves, give me Hargreaves any day. Younger and fitter. Barry is a single paced, single footed player, but, he will add much needed balance to the side. People as why ask so much for Crouch. I'll tell them why. Study his statististics in goal returns for minutes on the pitch for both Liverpool and England. He is the most prolific English forward. Due to his unusual appearance he doesn't get the same adulation from the media as the rumble tumble Rooney, but he scores more goals, fact. I'd like to see them keep Crouch. What is more worrying to me as a fan is the fact that Voronin hasn't been paid off. I do not believe that man is a footballer of any standard above that I ever participated in at Grays Athletic. I take that back, he'd even struggle there. He just cannot play football

The truth of the matter is that English players are overpriced, we all know it and you need to wonder where it will end. In my opinion Crouch needs to get the hell out of liverpool as he is a good player and, despite often he comes up with the goods is still questioned by those with no football brain (including the media). He is far from a donkey target man and is also an England international, But I feel for him because Benitez is asking silly money for a player he rarely uses and quite obviously is not in his plans. Barry needs to be carefull because for England he has been our more attacking Macalele enabling Gerrard to push forward, He needs to start every week and needs to play in the middle but is that gonna happen with Mashcerano who does exactly the same job but attacks less? Benitez isnt know for his attacking football so the likelyhood is Barry will play a couple in the middle and Barry will be chucked out on the left unless he plays 5 across the middle and Torres up top,which I guess is possible (in which case why buy Keane)?? . Im an Arsenal fan and would love to have Barry in our side alongside Cesc but we have built a quality team within a budget that wont allow us to bid for any established and quality English players, Anyone remember Curtis Davis being tagged at £10m two years ago?? that was with NO premiership experience!!

Why do people think Liverpool should give there players away? Benitez is perfectly within his rights with his valuation of Peter Crouch, England's #1 scorer over the last 2 years. It's Liverpool's perogative whether they choose to play him or not, Martin O'Neill doesn't pick the Liverpool team, if he focussed more on Villa they might at least get in the Intertoto Cup.
The bottom line is Barry wants a chance at a "big" club before his career ends. That doesn't entitle Villa to 'a ridicilious" transfer fee. Villa are the ones who keep going to the press, yet you choose to ridicule Benitez.The reality is Liverpool would like Barry, but don't need him. Just like Barry, there are plenty of top players who would love to be at a club like Liverpool.
Martin O'Neill has made a mess of the situation and is now trying to dig out by blaming Benitez, this is the same guy who had no problem 'raping' the smaller clubs in Scotland while at Celtic.
Rafa is doing business the way it should be done, looking for top value for his assets while trying to purchase at fair market value.
Shut up Villa!!!

To Phil about Barry being criticised by fans:

I honestly don't think Barry would of been given such a hard time if he had handled himself differently. He's done himself absolutely no favours with his comments and digs at MON, and his inability to put in an official transfer request.

For a player who left with his head held high was Olaf Mellberg. He played a blinder in leaving on a FREE to Juventus, with fans dressing up as Vikings on the day he left to wish him well. He shows that players can leave clubs for new challenges and to better their careers with dignity.

IMO Gareth Barry is a Better player then Xavi Alonso, he is a proven player in the league and if he joined Liverpool him and Steven Gerrard would link up well together strengthening there midfield

Obviously a Liverpool fan with my username. I am in two minds. There is no right or wrong in this. I do admit that Benitez has maybe underestimated O'Neills stance and Villa's. He maybe thought he would get his man easier than it has turned out.

For me, Rafa has played too much games with this and pushed Villa too far. He should have thrown in a £15 million bid straight away instead of trying to save money with the silly bids he has made. But you cannot criticise Rafa, he is only trying to get a player with the limited funds on the table. Unhited, who have just done the double appear to have more cash than us, so I think Rafa should have been given a little extra cash for this transfer but thats not the case.

Your correct, the transfer just needs to take placxe now and if you ask me, Villa have played the best game and hats of too them. Rafa should just fork up the money and stop playing his games as he is clearly not good at mind games with a trained Lawyer in O'Neill.

£18 million for Barry? I would pay no more than £16.5, but you would really need to pay the full amount now as it would be embarrising is we missed this transfer now.

What annoys me is we just can't pay the asking price, United and Chelsea will never have this problem, which is why they are title challengers every season!

I think Barry is a great player, and as a Villa fan, I will be sad to see him go - I have been resigned to this since prior Euro 2008. £18 million is a lot to ask, but why not when you compare his vluations with Carrick and Hargreaves. Couple that fact with Gerrard and Barry's performances together and it really doesn't seem that bad.

I still have a gut feeling that Crouch, rather than a comparison, could still yet be part of this deal!

Bad form on Barry's NOTW comments, but I agree with him on one thing - I'd have been happier having MON doing his day job over the summer rather than a month of BBC punditry

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For me it proves that Benitez was the instigator when he was having problems with Mourinho.

Couple of points

1.We put in a formal offer (LIKE ANY OTHER TEAM DOES) = FACT

2.Normal clubs and managers, if an offer does not meet there standards, they will just reject the bid, they do not go to the press and whinge like a child.


3.If what Barry said is true, the MON did not try to persuade him much, higher wages, new contract etc.

4.MON is expecting us to roll over to his demands and pay 18 mil, he has urged us, it does not work like that, MON as created some bad blood between himself and Barry, meaning he is urgent to get rid now, if he wants to get rid, he can lower the price SIMPLE. Or we can just walk away.

5.From day one, the 1st bid MON should have said BARRY IS NOT FOR SAIL, REGARDLESS OF THE PRICE!, but he never, a few days later he was saying he is worth the same amount as Mascherano, that is saying he is for sale, Liverpool didn’t want to pay that much, so they are trying to negotiate.

The fact is we are just bidding like any other team does, however MON made a bid deadl out of in, cried to the press.

Finally a member of the media who see it as it is!! There are a few comments above that suggest that the 'story' was leaked by someone at Villa when that is NOT the case. The leak came from the Liverpool Echo (echo echo) and MO'N was responding to it.

If the Echo (and ultimately whoever gave them the story) had kept it shut then Barry would probably already be a liverpool player and it wouldn't have cost them £18m!

I cant see what the fuss is all about !!!
If Liverpool didnt haggle about the price they would not be doing their job properly. They are not chelsea who use blank cheques to pay over the odds for the players they want.

I can see that Benetiz is taking a lot of heat for this situation but the "media darling" Martin O´neill is just as much to blame in my opinion.

I would have thought the best solution was to pay £15 million and throw in Scott Carson in exchange for Gareth Barry

This is a stupid saga that shouldn't have happened in the first place.

We were 2 games away from automatic entry into the Uefa cup when Benitez went and made his interest in Barry public.......Barry's head went ga ga at the thought of playing in Europe with Liverpool that he consequently played like a Sunday league player against Wigan, and all hopes of Europe dissapeared for us.

If we had got into Europe automatically we wouldn't have this saga now, as Barry would still be a Villa player relishing the thought of European football with Villa.

What Benitez probably doesn't understand about MON is that his Mentor was as stuburn as him...and that was of course, Cloughie......So Raffa, if you want Barry, then pay the money, because MON is not gonna budge.

As Sindia pointed out earlier, this is business. Each party is entitled to seek the best deal for themselves whether buying or selling. There is a forum elsewhere on the same subject which was approaching 2000 posts the last time I looked. Why is everyone getting their knickers in a twist? Because, it is largely a media fed frenzy as is the Robbie Keane saga. Phil, whilst I feel that sometimes you come in for some unjust criticism for your articles, I think you are just fanning the flames with this one.

I totally agree with MON holding out for the £18m, whether Barry is worth it or not he is under contract and until that expires MON can charge what he likes. It's interesting, if not quite hypocritical, that when Gerrard was rumoured to be attracting interest earlier on in the summer Bennitez quickly came out and reminded everyone that he is a Liverpool player and not for sale.

Finally, I wanted to pick up on J_singh's earlier comment that "the saga was made public by someone at Villa" I think you'll find the reason there is such a bad taste in Villa's mouth is because Benitez allegedly leaked the story to the press on the eve of our game against Everton, when we were still fighting to qualify for Europe. Barry was anonymous all afternoon and we lost the game. This resulted in no European qualification, and quite coincidentally a very disillusioned Gareth Barry, who it just so happened, could get Euro games elsewhere. Mmmmh???

Phil says:


To LFC518...as I said earlier, no problem with Benitez demanding big bucks for his players - but he cannot apply wildly differing criteria when he is a buyer in the market.


I say:

Phil you dont understand - he doesn't do it. In the media he says 15mil for crouch - but in reality he'll accept 10million, or 12mil if liverpool are lucky.

The point is that O'neill is not coming down by 3,4,5 million like rafa would do with crouch

You're an idiot.

I don't normally respond to this blog garbage, but your comments incensed me. Like so many journalists, you have clearly failed to research the facts and have ridiculous opinions and views that change as often as I change my pants.

Barry is an excellent player, but then so is Alonso. Contrary to the nonsense you write, Alonso is adored at Anfield and many are surprised at his sale. We can only assume that Barry may be perceived as better suited to the Premiership, whilst Alonso's best games often come in Europe. But take nothing away from Alonso, he has the passing ability that exceeds that of anyone in the Premiership and the likes of Carrick and Essien could a learn a thing or two from him. He is tenacious, hard-working, with an excellent first touch and plunders in with a few goals too.

Secondly, regarding the transfer saga, O'Neill is as much to blame for this farce as anyone. A man who acknowledged the possibility of a sale to Liverpool earlier in the season to Benitez, O'Neill has fast back-tracked since and is quick to splash his comments all over the media in an effort to drive the price up. He also has a lot to answer for having failed to contact Barry since the England-Trinidad game, despite knocking back Liverpool's original bid, and instead indulging us with his Euro 2008 punditry. I know where my priorities would have lied, considering Barry is the captain and talisman of Villa.

So, I repeat my initial point - you are an idiot. And I can only hope that a reasonable fee can be organised for Barry and this whole saga can be laid to rest.

Anything that McNulty posts about Liverpool always has a clear anti Liverpool feel.

I remember his Liverpool Echo days. Never a good word to say about LFC.

yes. it is a one sided article. but this is because benitez has been bang out of order.

villa have done nothnig wrong here, whilst benitez has publicly tried to unsettle a player and then made derisory bids.

benitez is a fool and i am looking forward to next season when he will be managing a mid table spanish team and all the english managers he has wound up will poach his players

MON retorted to comments contained in the Liverpool press.

It unsurprisingly was required as the situation was unsettling Gareth Barry. He subsequently had an attrocious performance and we ended behing Everton in the league.

Benitez acted inappropriately and at an inconsiderate time.

Kuyt is an atrocious footballer and should not be considered an asset.

I'm sure Barry was up for a move to Portsmouth before MoN arrived for a fee of around £5m and although Barry may have improved I think the Villa asking price of £18 is a joke. The man wants to leave and Villa don't need the money so why is MoN being so stubborn.

@ Phil McNulty in response to this:

"To LFC518...as I said earlier, no problem with Benitez demanding big bucks for his players - but he cannot apply wildly differing criteria when he is a buyer in the market."


Of course he can, what are you talking about?!

Name a manager that doesn't want to get more than market value for his players and pay as little as possible for new ones.

Benitez has barely spoken about the matter other than to point out that he had said nothing until MON publicly lambasted him for 'going public.'

As previously stated what about an article on Fergusons double standards with regard to player persuits? Oh yeah, he doesn't manage Liverpool so you're not interested.

To beto1960:

I think the fuss is that villa value him at £18m and despite telling this to Livepool 3 times they keep coming back with bids of £12m, £13m and the last bid £15m.

A similar situation would of been Carrick going to Man Utd. YOu didn't hear Man Utd in the papers every week offering £10, then £12, then £13 , then whatever else in an attempt to disrupt the club and player so much they got their way. Spurs obvioulsy said £18m and he's yours otherwise go and look elsewhere.

I think Villa have made their stance very clear, they don't want to sell the player and therefore don't need to enter into a haggle with liverpool on this.

It is all Benitez, he made unreasonable demands for both Carson and Crouch and then is getting annoyed at Villa doing the same.

If he had sold Carson to Villa for £5-6m I imagine that this deal would be done and dusted.

Having said that Carson is probably only worth £4m, it will be interesting to see what Spurs get for Robinson because despite the age difference I would suggest that they should be valued at a similar amount.

Benitez knows he has a small budget so has had to attempt to inflate the value of his players, yet the problem is that neither Chelsea or Manchester United are interested therefore he will never get the inflated fees.

Carrick, SWP etc went for more than they should simply because it was United and Chelsea. Not for any other reason, Benitez must understand this.

And clearly MON is holding out on Liverpool because he knows they think of themselves as a club in the same bracket as United and Chelsea so will eventually pay for pride's sake. Because if they don't get Barry now I think they will look very foolish indeed. But alas no money so it will be arguing over clauses etc for the next week or so, whilst Barry sits at home.

Although why he wants to leave Villa, despite loads of Liverpoo fans saying for the CL, is beyond me. He is captain of a young, mainly British side, with the supposed best young manager in the league. A team on the up, which has a settled ownership system, by all account it seems MON and Lerner get on well, and to top it all Lerner seems to be very sensible, willing to invest, and an asset to the club. Whereas Liverpool the squabbles go on, there is no money, and whilst yes they play in CL, will the addition of Barry and the departure of Alonso take them any closer to the PL - I for one think not. Although you can bet those ex-Liverpool pundits will talk about it being their year.

Oh look having ANOTHER go a liverpool. Granted Xabi had a poor season. But 16m for a CL and Euro 2008 winner? Maybe you should rate him. Oh and bit younger than Barry... And the you say so he can be paired with SG, Cant see them be a pairing as SG will play off Torres !

Then you compare crouch and Barry. Different players and different positions.
Barry is being built up by the media.

Rafa must win something? Have you any idea what he is building at liverpool? Probably not. Have you seen the youth and reserve teams?

He is competing with teams with greater resources and playing catch up with UTD. Having to catch up by spending less. Thats why he is also following arsenal approach with the youngers.

Please talk about something that you are informed about!

PS. I guess this wont get replied to!!

Every time I hear this I have to check the bottom of my show to make sure the smell isn't coming from something I stepped in!

Barry is not, I repeat, not worth £18M; and for the record Crouchy isn't worth £15M either. But the idea of a valuation is to get offers there or there abouts - so why MON is so convinced that Barry, being near the peak of his football career, should be worth that is preposterous.

It's understandable to put that price tag on him, to dissaude offers (like Man U putting £75M on Ronaldo. But no player is bigger than their club, and AVFC has an investor with deeper pockets than ourselves.

Conclusion is, they should let Barry go for £15M and thank him for his decade of hard work.

If you think about it O'neil is totally right. If Hargreaves and and Carrick are worth £17-18M a peice, so is Barry. Basically Benitez wants to do a deal on the cheap, if he wanted that he shoudl have got in their with Flamini before Milan did. He doesn't want to pay the going rate for an English Central midfeilder, because he hasn't got the cash. Barry may not be "worth" £18M, but was either Carrick or Hargreaves, maybe maybe not. At the end of the day the whole market is overpriced, if you don't like it don't buy, can anyone tell I'm an Arsenal fan?

Phil,
Barry is worth at least £18 million....not in comparison to other players, but because of his significance in the Villa squad.
Liverpool should pay up or shut up...but clearly they won't do either.
Liverpool have arrogantly played the bully throughout all of this....as if they have some divine right to obtain the best players at rival clubs simply because they see themselves as "a top 4 club". More power to Martin O'Neill elbow for standing up to Benitez, Parry etc.

Villa have had 10+ good years from Gareth Barry. He could have gone 2 years ago, just before Martin O'Neill arrived, when the club was in a real mess.....but he stayed and both he and the club have thrived since then....I wish him well, but I can't help thinking he would have a better opportunity of continued development and success in Arsenal's midfield, rather than in Liverpool's rotation system.

Barry may not be better than some of the players discussed here, but he fits very well in the AVFC formation. You can even say that he is a good Villa player and may not necessarily be a good Liverpool player, but the fact is that Barry has a contract that is still in effect; that AVFC did not take him to the market place; and he is an integral part of Villa.

Therefore, MON has every reason to price him such that if LFC really want to take this crucial piece of jigsaw from AV, then compensate AV. For Villa to effectively replace Barry, it may take more than the amount the club will get from Liverpool.

I personally fear the worst, and that is for Liverpool to decide they don't have the money or Barry is not worth the money, therefore call off the bid. Barry is stuck in Villa, making it awkward for everyone.

Despite what he did (I am willing to entertain the possibility that he said a lot more to NOTW, and not everything he said was nasty to Villa or MON), Barry should not be penalized beyond what he already gotten.

For the sake of everyone, I hope the transfer goes through asap.

But in the meantime, Barry should be patient. 18mil is not a small figure, the deal may take longer than he hopes. Take a holiday, take a chill pill, go play some golf, go drive around the countryside, just let the adults sort it out.

Afterall, the whole world already know you want to play Champions League for Liverpool, but don't mind if MON shows you some real love.

Think of MON's public reaction to your remarks as a sign that he loves you, so don't blame him if he feels a little betrayed, like a father being told that his cooking is really bad.

I feel Gareth is worth the 18 million pounds demanded. He is an important player for Villa and has made some outstanding performances for England too. Carrick was worth 18million and Hargreaves was worth 17 million. Gareth has got the nod ahead of this two in the England squad. If Benitez wants 16 million pounds for Xabi Alonso, then i think he should bring 18million pounds if he wants Gareth Barry; a worthy replacer of Alonso.

A great servant to the club for Villa, but eveyone seems to forget he signed a new contract last year, until 2010. If Barry didnt want to stay and make his contribution to Villas continued improvement he shouldnt have put pen to paper.

Then we read about him whining about not being made an offer to convince him to stay.....? didnt he accept an offer by signing his new contract?

Great player for us, but its time to move on and spend the cash on people who want to be a part of the next push upwards.

i'm normally a fan of benitez, but he simply got this all wrong from the start. barry is a good choice to go for and I'm glad benitez has made an english player that has a very high consistent level of play his top priroty, because we really need more like that. i'll be sad to lose alonso, because he's the best passer at anfield, but barry will deliver more in the premiership, and we need that.

however, bentiez should have done all this business behind closed doors. if he had, barry would proabably be a liverpool player by now and for £2-3m less. he's also managed to p*ss of the manager of a team he was hoping to flog carson to (and potentially crouch), which has mean't we won't get anywhere near the amount we might have got.

i think in the end, we'll get barry and sell both crouch and carson. but it could have been done better and actually saved liverpool alot of money (i reckon £5-7m) on the cost of barry and the sales of players.

To Phil

I disagree that he'a applying different criteria to his valuation of players. The main argument people are making in the Barry vs Crouch valuation is how much he plays Crouch, once again, that's his perogative. From an achievements point of view, both are fringe England Internationals, with Crouch being a regular goal scorer - which in any other scenario would make him more valuable. The playing time scenario is Benitez's right, remember Mascherano wasn't getting in a West Ham team that nearly got relegated but he had no problem paying 17mil for him.
As for Alonso's valuation, although he's had a couple of so-so years, he's a class above Crouch or Barry and still young.
I think that Benitez is an easy target because of the situation at Liverpool right now, as a previous comment pointed ouyt, the press are chickens when it comes to confronting Ferguson.
Benitez is doing a great job and long may he give the middle finger to want-to be's like O'Neill.

Same old same old, English player = over priced. Villa fans may argue hes a good player and a good servant to the club so they deserve a nice hefty bit of money. But like usual English football players when they're realisticly only worth 10 million get sold for 20 million. I mean Carrick to Man Utd is an example, totally overpriced.

No wonder the premier leagues top teams dont buy English, they can pay 5 to 10 million for a decent foreign player rather than 15 to 20 million for a Englishman.

@ fgpaul

Benitex has done things behind closed doors. O Neill is the one who can't stay out of the papers. The story was picked up in the rags and O'Neill confirmed them.

How is that Benitez's fault?

To Phil, thanks for the response.

I think Portsmouth did make a bid but I was making the point that a 'big' club had not come in for him. I mean no disrespect to Portsmouth or their fans but they're not quite the 'big team' I had in mind.

I agree with the general sentiment, from both sides, that Barry is not worth £18m. Its interesting - I don't think anyone has really mentioned it - but Villa seemed to have lined up a decent enough replacement in Sidwell and he's only costing £5m if the speculation can be believed. Even if Barry goes for £10m I think we're getting the better deal (though maybe I'm just bitter).

I don't wish Barry a bad season though. Good luck to him. Like I said, it's just a shame he won't be welcome back to Villa Park.

Benitez needs to adjust his medication. Barry is a donkey. Crouch is useless. Alonso is a mule. Benitez does not have a clue what to next. How much has he spent so far? More than Houllier? More than Murinho (not possible)?

Deadly Ledley,
get a clue please.. mid table? liverpool will finnish 2nd you heard it here first

I find Phil's comments about Rafa having a dual standard in his prices as grossly unfair. We are comparing a Striker and a Midfielder and never, in any team have these two positions had the same valuations. The fact is Strikers are always likely to cost more - just look at Adebayor - than other players so it is ridiculous to compare the valuations of Crouch and Barry. Barry and Alonso are very similar players and Rafa values both at the same price give or take a couple of mil for Xabi's age.

Secondly, I have to agree with many of the posts. O'Neill is coming out of this smelling like roses and Rafa quite the opposite and that just doesn't sit right with me. O'Neill is constantly in the press sobbing and Rafa has kept very quiet. Personally I'd just pull out of the Barry deal and leave O'Neill with a thoroughly demotivated player and no money in the bank - it's the least he deserves!

Phil, your article has certainly riased a number of issues, some of which I agree with, others not so sure.

Firstly, this saga has been an unmitigated disaster from start to finish by everyone - Benitez, O'Neill and Barry.

Is Barry worth 18mill? - no definitely not. Is crouch worth 15mill? - again no? but then again if Darren Bent is worth 16mill, you could argue crouch is actually worth more. The difference is that Liverpool will negotiate on Crouch, it was an opening gambit and I'm sure if Pompey or someone else puts say 12mill on the table it will be accepted.

Villa aren''t budging from their price, which is their perogative - but if ultimately Liverpool were to pull out MON has hardly done anything to appease barry by his comments, fining him and banning him from pre-season.

As for alonso, you are quite correct that he hasn't lived up to standards, but he head and shoulders above anyone else when he captained Spain reserves against Greece. He has undoubted talent, and I think Italy will suit him a lot more than the prem.

With regards to replacing players - where does the price tag come into it. Replacing a player with another one who cost less doesnt mean the team will be worse. I seem to recall Alex Ferguson sold Beckham then replaced him with Ronaldo for half the price, but have United been a poorer team?? Its about what a manager feels a player can add to the overall team dynamic that matters. It's impossible to purely go on valuations, and in any case I think Benitez is about right in assuming he wont get more than 13mill for alonso, and he wont pay more than 15 mill for Barry.

I do beleive that if Benitez wants to continue playing as he did last year then Barry will be a good addition, and will bring more to the table in this style of football than alonso can.

But overall, yes what a disaster by all involved.

seveneightnine

who finishes 1st?

good point

it's blogs like this that make me realise thatpundits aren't that good anyore.

if we wanted to hear a rant on how rafas this and that, i would have spoken to a man u fan, not read something from a proper pundit who's meant to attempt to be unbiased/even.

but back to the point
Barry's mediocre to the last degree, lets nip this in the bud, he isnt the missing piece of liverpool, he isnt great, hes a slightly better player in an average team, it's like going to buy nolan from Bolton, it's just not worth doing

and 18 mil? come on, mascherano cost 18 mil, and he's a million times better than barry.
stop kidding ourselves yeah?
ok Rafa overpriced some of his players in public, but from the 15 mil quote, he's now gone down to 10 mil, showing he's actually more reasonable than o'neill tbh.

fact. alonso's better than barry, and 18 mil could be used someone much better, like buying bentley, or a decent wide player which we've been lacking for years.

The theme of player valuations is very interesting. Shouldn't one consider it as a "Club Compensation" fee as opposed to a "Player Transfer Fee". People who can't understand this will then realise that Barry is worth £18m to villa because of his significance, whilst trying to claim £10m for a keeper who has hardly ever played for you is madness!

He's our captain, an England regular ahead of Carrick and Hargreaves who were both over 15 million, and is at the peak of his footballing ability. Plus, we don't need the money.

Why shouldn't we play hard ball?

The fact is, we don't want to sell him. It's his choice to leave, not ours, so it makes perfectly good business sense to hold out for the best possible deal.

And if Liverpool don't meet the valuation, then he won't be leaving. It's as simple as. No-one wants an unhappy player, but if we genuinely aspire to break in to the top four then we can't allow them to poach all of our players.

I'm disappointed with Liverpool's under hand tactics, especially Gerrard, as it's massively unprofessional to make comments to the press about how you want your mate to join your team. I'm also disappointed with the way Barry has conducted himself recently. He's always been a decent guy, but now he's going to the press to whine about MO'N not talking to him? This is the same player that 2-3 years ago was seriously struggling to kick a ball straight. He looked to be over weight and lazy. We stuck by him then, even when Spurs came knocking and we could have got rid of him. He has been a good servant to the club, agreed. But we have been more than good to him and he should be reminded of that.