Anyone interested in Steve Sidwell as a replacement for Gareth Barry?

why would Liverpool want spend 12 million on someone who is over 27 with a only a couple of good years in front of him.

no way
if barry goes i hope for once MON will go abroad and buy someone who at least has plenty of international and european experience - there are tons of central mids better than sidwell and under £10mil

i dont think replacing barry with sidwell would be a foreward step.gb is one of the best central midfielders in the prem.signing cesc fabregas, steven gerrard or frank lamps would be a foreward step.im not saying they're serious candidates, simply showing barry the respect he deserves.i would like to see MON bring in tom huddlestone for next season tho.

what would be better is if we keep hold of barry and also bring in sidwell, we do have the smallest sides in the league so we need to be bringin more players in not letting players go especially the better players we have. sidwell in the middle of the park could be a very good signing

No way i dont rate Sidwell that much anyway. At Reading he was good dont get me wrong but he is not a better or even on par with Barry so i do think it would be a backwards step. What about Flamini? His contract runs out in the summer could be worth a go even though we proberly would not get him

i added the bit about diego after you posted brett - for maybe the same as we got for barry, would he be good enough?

buy diego an sidwell and keep barry

Are you taking the piss? Sidwell for Barry not a backward step? England regular and loyal player, swapped for Chelsea reserve more interested in money than getting a regular game at a premier league club ( Reading ). Sidwell has shown his true colours with his last move and you have totally discreditted your posts by writing this junk. I'm actually not a huge fan of Barry and think people overate him, but Sidwell fails as a replacement on every count!

He would'nt be bad signing as a squad player if we can get him for around £5m. How about making an approach for Scott Sinclair as well. I hear he might be available for around 5m as well. Looks like a good player if he was giving first team football.

nhuggy

in my opinion, i dont think it would be a backward step, mostly because i clearly dont rate barry as highly as you. as for england regular .. lets see in a few months after capello has played around a few times

sidwell joined chelsea for purely personal reasons, as will barry if he leaves villa .. if you were offered 4 times your salary would you leave your job? someone said to me the other day he'd leave his wife for 4 years of £50k a week .. there are not a lot of things many of us wouldn't do for that type of money

sidwell is also a chelsea reserve because they've got some of th best central midfielders in the world. barry would also be a reserve player at chelsea

I can definitely see why Liverpool would want GB. He's great friends with Gerrard and they play well together.

But I agree with the above posts - how about we bring in Diego AND Sidwell so that GB will stay. We haven't given GB any reason not to go. Guarantee him some top players to play with and I know he'll stay - just give him a reason MON!

is the villa V blues not on tele?? cant believe it couldnt get tickets!! does anyone know where i can watch it like on a website or sumin??? please help

Bit disappointed in those comments Damien. Barry has been the only consistent bit of a class in the villa team in the last 5 years, not sure what sign that would send out to gabby and young if we were to let him go either. As for "only a couple of good years of front of him" he's 27 and you could easily see him playing till mid thirties, he doesn't exactly rely on his pace!

sidwell no way as good as barry bad post. would be gutted if he left. gardener is a better prospect than sidwell. He did only go for the money he was never getting a game there barry could have gone 2 years ago but showed loyalty even though he was a spurs supporter growing up

I don't think Barry would be very easy for us to replace and I don't think Sidwell would be the man for the job.

If Barry didn't leave and Sidwell joined, that would be different, but I have a feeling he's a bit too interested in his bank balance to play for us.

Liverpool need to offer us a swap for Barry. I'd take Alonso.

Bring in Rafael van der Vaart please.

sidwell might be a useful addition to our squad. he's a couple of years younger than barry, so with the right guidance and time might be able to make a similar contribution.

as far as an out and out replacement for barry... right now?? not a backwards step??? LOL!!!!

sidwell aint gud enuf,simple as!even wen he played 4 chelseas 1st team he was only average..only way id sell barry is if we got alonso in a swap deal,younger nd better if ya ask me.. do we need 2 sell 1 of our best players 2 get money in?isnt our owner a billionaire who wil make unlimited funds available once dere da rite players 4 da club..tink its aload of bull nyway

but why leave when your already getting some decent money..
and i think we all know barry is loyal to football not money?

sidwel is not the player for me had one good season at reading and i think he should go back to reading

anyway summer transfers if anyone wants to say anything
QUERESMA, NELSON, JASKALINEM :'( DECENT CB, AND A DECENT FORWARD WHO CAN SCORE GOALS FOR FUN.

AS FOR SELLING IT WOULD BE THE WRONG DECISION. CAUSE WE ARE ALREADY THE SMALLEST SQUAD IN THE PREM AND WE NEED TO BUILD ON THE PLAYERS WE ALREADY HAVE NOT SELL THEM TO OUR RIVALS..

AND STOP LINKING OUR PLAYERS TO OTHER CLUBS UNLESS IT'S ABROAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nan was a fan - IF U TOOK ALONSO FOR BARRY AND YOU WAS THE MANAGER OR THE PERSON INVOLVED IN TAKING HIM AWAY I WOULD PERSONALLY SACK YOU..

IT'S QUITE OBVIOUS THAT THIS STORY IS GETTING A BIT OF PUBLICITY AND THATS WHAT BIG PLAYERS GET SO WHY SELL YOUR BIG NAMED PLAYERS???? I JUST DON'T GET IT :'(

Damian - Your probably getting sick of me by now! I would consider selling Barry under the following circumstances;

1. We line up a deal for Diego before hand

2. We sell Barry for Riise, Pennant and Finnan plus 7.5mil, they are all out of contract and would certainly shore things up a bit....

This of course will never happen. Just going back to Reo-Coker for a second though, do you harbour any concerns about his lack of attacking ability? He is one of the best tacklers in the premiership and almost the best ball winner, but when he has it he often loses it just as quickly.

dont sell barry, dont buy sidwell. instead, lets add to wot we got. we need to strengthen the team. i wouldnt personally see the benefits of selling our captain. i rate barry. he has played alongside gerrard an hargreaves and not looked out of place. if he doesnt get in the england squad in a few months time, thats no fault of his, as he has put in decent performances.

damian - diego would be more than good enough! but i think he'd go to arsenal before us

if we do get a new midfielder id love to see a creative spark, gardner and NRC have got a tackle in em now we need a box to box playmaker

RUDDY - no more capitals please

Leroy

1. We may already have a deal lined up for a player like Diego, we just don't know and probably wont know for some time
2. I'd accept the cash or a deal that included Crouch, Pennant and Finnan - but I don't think you'd get cash after those three and I wouldn't want Riise

What you've said though about Reo-Coker is, I think quite important, when you look at Barry playing alongside him. We need Reo-Coker to have a Diego type player alongside him not someone like Barry.

Barry for me is stuck in no man's land in central midfield, he's not a true holding player, although he does do a decent enough job and he's not a true attacking central midfielder, but people put him in both camps.

Define the role Barry plays; is he an attacking central midfielder, a holding central midfielder, a defensive central midfielder or even a left sided central midfielder in a five man midfield??

If you look above or in the other post, we've got him down as three of those .. I think we can get better for each role and think in Reo-Coker we have better for one and the stats actually back that claim up at the moment.

It's also worht noting that Reo-Coker is only 22 or 23 years old - his game and movement in going forward is still going to get better - Barry is, quite literally peaking at the moment and his game isn't going to get much different.

But Leroy, we can talk about this [url=LINK]on the forum[/url] as there is a thread now

cheers

MON has said himself he doesn't like buying huge players, there are doubts whether he'l shell out the 10 for carson. Sven is also a very big name manager so thats why diego is entertaining him.

Barry wont be going anywhere i dont think and if he dose i think we would have to sign someone with a bit more class than sidwell

Diego Now he is class i dont think we could get him tho and i would be very shocked if martin o neill was intrested in a brazlian because he is english nuts

Sidwell would be a good signing, to go along with Barry and co.

damien do you knw where i can watch the villa V blues match cus i cant get a ticket??

If Barry were to leave I think that would show what he thinks of MON and his plans and that would worry me, although not enough to lose sleep as sleeping is ace.

bring back der hammer.............. ;D anyone?????

boruc
brown
finnan or nelson
fletcher
hammer
huddlestone
sidwell
saha

whatever happened to nicolas dica rumour?

DAMIENDAMIENDAMIENDAMIENDAMIENDAMIENDAMIENDAMIENDAMIENDAMIENDAMIENDAMIENDAMIEN

I'd like to have Diego in midfield, though I don't see it happening.

No. Not good enough.

If I got the sack for the Alonso deal, I'd be very cross. I'd be talking in BIG capital letters.

Why would Barry go to Liverpool? Think about it, stay at Villa and be 'the man' or got to a club that's got Board level unrest and a manager who's consatantly rotating? The only reason this popped up is because Barry and Gerrard are mates and both work well together in the England midfield. If Liverpool changes hands it's likely a new manager will come in and you don't want to be a player bought in by the 'old regime' and those are the ones that often get the chop. Barry has nothing to prove as he's the main man at his club and now an England regular. Remember he had the option to go to Spurs a couple of seasons ago and didn't - he's got more grit than people like Sidwell and Cole that are in it for the moeny even though they already earn more than they could spend. Barry isn't greedy, he's a proper footballer.

Would you leave your job 4x the salary..? mmmm the melberg thing is back again i see..! Barry will stay, because he is going forward here. Its a really weak excuse saying lets see what happens to barry under capello.. its the same for every england player..!!

Has the blog crashed under the weight of laughter that Sidwell is as good as Barry Damian?

gaz said:
is the villa V blues not on tele?? cant believe it couldnt get tickets!! does anyone know where i can watch it like on a website or sumin??? please help

Try LINK around half an hour before kick off, might need to download a some software and might have chinese commentary but well, that's the price you pay for stealing...

I'd trade Barry for VD Vaart and no less.

This Barry story was took from the Sun, it's total bollocks like everything else in that rag if you have nothing better to talk about, do me a favour and don't post…

thats all very well bringing in Sidwell if we can..but i wouldnt trade or sell Barry for anything. he is improving and getting into the England squad with us, and i dont see him wanting to change that. sure bring in some competition for him but i wouldnt want to get rid of him.

kevin nolan, can't believe nobody has suggested him. his states have matched stevie g's for the last couple of seasons, he is a captain, played in europe and is given total respect by reo-coker.
He would fit right in. But I would still offer gareth barry the world. you can be a good player but you still need heart for the club. barry was born for the villa

Damien,

You talk about players to take us to the next level i.e the top 4, and then propose Sidwell - a player who could not get a game at Arsenal or Chelsea.

You also keep stating that Barry would not be a regular starter at a top 4 club, well how many of our players would? Does that mean we should sell all our players?

I just cannot believe that you would sell off one of Villa's best ever players for a foreign import who, if successful, would want to move on after 2 years. Its a good job Martin O'Neill does not think like you.

Peter

How old was Sidwell when he was at Arsenal and who were the midfielders he was up against? As for his time at Chelsea, he's up against some of the best midfielders in the world.

As for which players of ours could get into a top four team, well, I'd say Laursen and Young for starters. I'd even go one further to suggest Mellberg could, on the basis that he's joining Juventus. Others might even say Gabby could but I'd say he needs to prove himself first over two seasons much like big Curtis does, but I wouldn't be surprised if both of those players were in our team when we are top four.

But back Barry, he might just make my top ten of central midfielders - but he is nowhere near one of Villa's best ever players - sorry, but that's just my opinion.

But you shoudl also note what I've said above about Sidwell. I've said he wouldn't be a backward step and who knows, possibly a forward one, mostly because I think he's more of a threat than Barry going forward. I'm not saying he is an out and out better midfielder than Barry but just because he's been playing in the reserves at Chelsea, it doesn't mean he's not a very good player. After all, if Barry joined Chelsea, he'd also be playing reserve team football.

I wouldn't exchange barry for Sidwell yet after Reading done us 2-0 last season loads of Villa fans were saying we should sign Sidwell. I rate Sidwell - good enough for UEFA chasing team but not top 4.

I would sell Barry for £12 mill but only if we lined up a top class attacking midfielder - Van der Vaart, Arteta, Diego.

Its a shame Petrov hasn't proved to be as good as the above (he's def got the ability).

Damien,

In case you have not noticed barry keeps some pretty good players out of the England side....hargreaves, carrick and earlier in the season Lampard.

Barry would not be a reserve like Sidwell at Chelsea, he may not play every week - but he would start a lot of games. As he would if he signed for Liverpool, why else would they supposedly want to pay £12 million for him?

As much as I like Laursen to suggest that a big club would be interested is not true. His age, injury record and the quality of the centre halfs at the big blubs would count against him.

If you dont think that Davies would be in our team when we reach the top 4 - why would martin pay £10 million for him at the age of 22? He was purchased with exactly the future in mind.

You need to get real Damien, believe in the homewgrown talent we have (barry, gabby etc..)and stop believing we will sign all these foreign players. You went on and on in the transfer window about how we we going to sign all these players - and none of them came to fruition. You do not no anymore about our transfer targets than any other Villa fan reading the paper.

Pete, sorry calling you Pete now because I don't know how many times you've spelt my name wrong ...

Yes, I can see he's keeping players out, at the moment. Second choice Steve was quite literally grasping at straws and was willing to do anything to save his job. Capello is doing what ever decent manager does in any profession - not changing things too quickly, not until he is sure of what it is he wants to change.

Like someone else said, let's give Capello a few months, wait until September to see if Barry starts every match.

The simple fact of the matter is, we don't know if Barry would be a reserve at Chelsea or not, it's just opinion and just because somebody is willing to pay a lot of money for something doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to play every week. But, if it happens and he joins Liverpool and plays every week and they stay in the top four, I'll take my hat off and stand up and say I was wrong. BUt, if the following season, he starts every game and they drop out of the top four - I hope you come back on here and acknowledge what I've said also.

I do think Davies will be in our team when we're top four .. something we agree on.

I am real Pete but first off, Barry can hardly be considered 'home grown'. He came from Brighton and the following year he made his debut for the first team. I'm a huge fan/supporter of our home grown talent - read through this site and you'll see that.

As for me having to 'stop believing we will sign all these foreign players', I'd really like you to show me one quote where I've said that - I'm specifically referring to the term 'foreign'.

The reason I went on and on about all these players coming in during last summer, was for one reason; we were actually told by the club that they were coming. However they did not use the term 'foreign' which is why I know I wouldn't.

It was done for one very specific reason and it's now clearly documented that they promised us something and it never happened, along with a few other things. Most visitors to this site understood why I did that and it's was done for a good reason. Nobody else questions the club these days, somebody has to and the number of things that we're told which turn out to be complete tosh is growing - but nobody else mentions it or seems to notice.

As for knowing anything about transfers, you're probably right. We get emails in all the time and most are complete madness but sometimes we've had emails in from people saying something and it's turned out to be true, so those email addresses don't get junked straight away anymore - we were however spot on about Vassell going to Manchester City and more recently we were spot on about Nelson on Jan 31st - even that it broke down. We were also teh first to say anything about Bosingwa - now it's everywhere that we're interested.

In my honest opinion the only player good enough to replace GB who doesnt play for a top 4 team is Tim Cahill

QUOTE DAMIAN "Personally, I think it's worth a punt if Barry leaves. Bringing in Sidwell wouldn't be a backward step and could possibly, turn out to be a forward one, especially as I think he offers a little more going forward than Barry. "
I think that sounds to most people like you think Sidwell is better than Barry Damian. Glad your not manager.

nhuggy

if i write, i think you might be a muppet, it doesn't mean you are a muppet. it means that i, as in me and only me, thinks you might be a muppet - not that you are a muppet

if i had written, sidwell is better than barry and we should go all out for him, thats me, as in me alone saying sidwell is better

the fact is, i didn't say sidwell was better. i said exactly what you are quoting above, which is, just in case you really didn't understand it, that it wouldn't be a backward step and could turn out to be quite a good one. pay real close attention to the word 'could'

also, if i was in a pub and i said exactly what i've written above, i could understand how that may be perceived as 'sounding' like what you think it 'sounds' like, but i didn't say it out loud, i wrote it. it's not supposed to sound like anything, other than what i've written

and like i said, i never wrote that sidwell was a better player than barry. but if we get him and he turns out to be, then i might revert back to this page and say, i thought he might be .. and sure enough if it happens i'll remember now that i did in fact write it

thanks for your input

I don't rate Sidwell one bit. I have no idea why Chelsea signed him when they have only played him like 3 times. He was pretty good for a team like Reading but in my opinion it would take 3 of him to replace the legend that is GB!!

Somebody like Aaron Lennon or John Arne Riice would replace Barry if he leaves, if MO'N is gonna buy Steve Sidwell the pricetag would be around 4-5m

Villa's success comes from NOT having big name players, players that will work for eachother and don't think they ar bigger than the team (look where Totenham ended up, to many big names!)

I would be looking at Bullard(Fulham) for central midfield, if no Huddlestone (Tottenham) or Noble (West Ham) or all of them.

Strikers worth looking at are Crouch or K.Jones as future replacments for Carew and Vaughan(Everton)cover and rotation for GA. or maybe even Walcott on loan.

Wingers we need to consider the availability of Pennant, Bentley, Wright-Phillips and even consider two left midgfielders who can play left-back Drenthe, N'Zogbia.

Goalkeepers, I still like Taylor, but give him some competition from R. Wright.

I think I have said enough!