Is Gareth Barry finally Liverpool bound?

of course its bad business. Barry is by far our best player, and you can tell from the odense game how much we miss him. we were sh!t without him and have always been sh!t when he's not playing, and when he came on aginst odense he controlled the match from left-back. thats pretty amazing. if any other player was as good as barry he would be worth more than 18 million. its because we ain't a big team we keep getting f*cked over by the bigger teams.

and if he does go we couldn't get an £18 million player to come to villa. it just wouldn't happen, we ain't good enough yet.

although it confuses me why all the good are going to spurs when spurs are sh!t. Bentley is a d!ckhead for going to spurs because blackburn are better than spurs so that seems stupid.

anyway, we need to keep barry and do whatever it takes for him to stay.

I was at the Odense game and Sidwell was rubbish. He cannot be our replacement for barry..

"Sam_Villa 1" is right..Barry came on and showed his class from Left back. villa are going to miss him badly.. >:(

sam_villa 1

from what i understand, may be wrong, but barry and o'neill met yesterday .. this story coming out from mail online sor tof fits in with the 'he reiterated his desire to leave' ..

i think, maybe aston villa fans have to accept barry will be leaving

although, i do agree with your sentiments from saturday - he did have a very good game - but if we look back to last season we all saw him have good games but we also all saw he went many games where he wasn't actually that good

it's also going to be tough to spend all the money on one player - but i sure as hell hope o'neill tries

I really wouldn't worry - Rafa is clutching at Straws ... Liverpool haven't got a penny left and will need to raise the money through sales of which they've not got much else people want! I think Barry will be here till the next Transfer window for sure. And then will leave for £15m

On the search for new players. We're so short its unreal and yet another week has passed without an addition since Sat. I have come to conclude that either Villa haven't got the money or that MON doesn't really have the ability to get people in. The buys so far haven't set the house on fire - Yes good players but that's all. Defence we look so poor - I think 1 centre back, 2 rightbacks, 2 left backs 1 being a loan, a scoring midfield player on the right and a 20 goal striker. I think we're covered in goal now!

I'm not looking forward to the new season as I can't see improvement. I Love Villa but to me someting is seriously wrong when we can't attract players or spend big when others even Fulham,Boro,Wigan,WBA etc can

19 milloion is good business because it shows that we havn't been fecked over by a big club, we have got exactly what we were after in terms of cash and with a good experienced RIGHT back for good measure. I hope this will now settle the rest of the players and allow us to conclude all our tranfer dealings as well.

Im really disappointed hearing this, but either way it needs to be sorted now, the fact its still dragging on this close to the start of the season is a joke and cant be doing the team any favours eg who is going to start, who is going to captain the team, who is coming in as a replacement, Im so hacked off with Benitez and the pool, if we have a bad season a lot of it can be attributed to this crap. Hope mon puts a deadline on it, like tomorrow and then we can get on with sorting all the problems we seem to have when Barry isnt playing. anfield i spit on you.

Good Luck to Barry, but i hope we win somethink before liverpool
do, just to prove to the rest of the villa team that the grass is not always greener. lets go and buy De la red and hi-jack the Bentley deal.

I'm a liverpool fan and if the price of £17.5m plus Finnan is right, then I am very unhappy.

Firstly I do like Barry, I think he's a good player but he is not better than Alonso. If Alonso was english he'd be worth £30m he is world class.

Secondly Finnan is probably the most consistent rightback in the league, he's been solid for us season after season, I'm gutted that he's leaving.

This deal means we've paid more for Barry than Mascherano, the difference in class between these two players is massive, mascherano is first choice for Argentina (2nd or 3rd best team in the world?) where as Barry is an England squad player.

This deal is much better for Villa than Liverpool.

i would rather keep barry than lose him but i dont think he is worth £18mil, i wouldnt pay more than £12mil for him. why not have a straight swap barry for alonso 2 mil

Im undecided whether it's good or bad news that we've sold barry. But I think the price is great because he isnt worth that much.

Hopefully we can spend the money on a decent player and not waste it on buying 2 petrovs.

Oh and Finnan is a great player. Id love to see him in a villa shirt.

boring......next....

he is over villa let him go and get a decent striker! We have needed a 20 plus goal a season striker since yorke!

With Barry gone and some money to actually spend, we'll now sigh the few usual mediocre players!! what a shame this club has become

Wait, are we missing something here? LFC says they need to sell to buy. They bought Keane for 20mil and in a span of 24 hours they agree a 17.5mil for Barry? They haven't sold anybody within that 24 hours? Personally I'll only believe when Barry is in a Red jersey...or Rafa was just playing poker or O'Neil probably caved in...

i prefer if if barry stayed put, alonso is imo a better player and the money that is being touted for barry is a lot more than hes worth. I just can't see any point in signing him.

lfc 4 life

apparently van de vaart is going to Real...meaning De La Red is going to be further down the pecking order...reckon we might use a proportion of this money to purchase him?

A direct message to Martin O'Neill...

Martin, I and the majority of the Villa faithful trust you. Although many have seen this trust questioned over the last few weeks, I continue to trust you implicitly as the results you have given us tell us no reason not to do so. Wathing David Bentley join one of our biggest league rivals because you refused to pay the asking price was a tough pill to swallow, but I have to trust that you know full well you are doing the right thing.

However, if come 1st September 2008, you have not spent the generous amount of money you received for our captain, our loyal servant of 10 years, and one of our most important assets, with a replacement we the Villa faithful deem suitable - you will see this faith disappear in an instant.

This is a warning. Selling Barry, whilst probably now in the best interest of the club, is a very dangerous thing to do given the fragile nature of our squad. It is absolutely essential you use the compensation to good effect.

Don't let us down!

Keeping Barry would have been our best buy of the summer but it looks like hes off. Good luck to him, we saw on saturday that even in the wake of certain ******* idiot villa fans booing him at walsall he was willing to do his job and let his football do the talking. Which is probably for the best coz he doesn't seem like the brightest does he?
Finnan is much needed as it will fill the right back hole and fund the transfers of shorey and another left back. Then maybe de la red and i would love to see us go in for johnson from man city, he looks classy and defo one for the future. As they say every dark cloud has a silver lining, im as frustrated as everyone else and as a season ticket holder sometimes wonder where my moneys going. But have faith, i think the bigger picture is building, just veeerrry.......veeeryyy sllloowwlly

A deal has been agreed im gutted I feel like my wife has cheated on me with my best mate but you know the worst thing about this whole farce... We will now go and sign players with the money which tells me we didnt have any to spend prior to Barry's sale because I am willing to bet anyone we dont spend anymore than £17.5 million.

The way things look at the moment, Gareth Barry leaving will be the difference between an upper mid-table finish (being optimistic), and a battle against relegation. This bare fact by itself unfortunately vindicates Barry's decision to leave. Even with a hefty transfer budget, one has to question our ability to attract players of sufficient quality to simply stand still. Barry is our best player, our most influential player, and by far our most important player. He is irreplaceable, because players of his quality are difficult to replace even if you're a top club competing in the CL and we are yet to qualify for the UEFA Cup. What players of the necessary quality for us to progress (or even stand still) are going to join us with our best player gone? The answer is probably none. This leaves us with the prospect of another raft of Petrov/Knight/Sidwell standard signings, or, worse, just a few signings of this sort as MON waits for players of a a better quality to become available, leaving us with a squad short on both numbers AND quality.

I hope to be proved wrong, and I fervently hope that Barry still stays - for the good of Villa rather than himself, it must be allowed. Should he stay, this is a stroke of fortune that Villa have to capitalise on by pulling out all the stops to ensure that Barry is playing in a team that can and will finish in the top 4 - something I believe all Villa fans want to see, and something that, in theory at least, is still possible, however unlikely it looks at this time.

I'm truly sorry that relations between our fans has deteriated so much because of the Barry saga. I'm glad to say our relationship with Spurs fans hasnt reached the same level. That shows oneill's stirring has created animosity on a larger scale.

I would say you reap what you sow and players would think twice about joining Villa when your manager is such a vindictive and confrontational sod.

Barry is worth a lot of money to us if he makes the difference and helps us win the league.

We'll see at the end of the season how it all ends, but I truly wish there hadnt been as much aggro.

Good luck with Sidwell......

Kieran McGrath is absolutely right,lets swap Barry for Alonso please. Alonso is excellent on the ball and can see a pass a mile off. With the attacking pace we have in the team and alonso spraying balls left right and centre we would surely not miss Gareth Barry???

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Barryzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... god damn, will this transfer saga every friggin end..

That sounds fair,if he goes and no one at left back,we simpley put three at the back and a CDM!
UTV ;D

Andy-LFCFan how is Barry an England squad player he starts almost evry game now alongside Steve Gerrard and they've formed an excellent partnership, he's also been one of the select few to be chosen to captain his country.

sam_villa 1, youve asked why people are signing for Tottenham...pretty simple buddy =LONDON!!
If Tottenham wasn't a London club they wouldn't be able to get them, one example, When DiCanio wanted to leave Sheff Wed, he was going to come to Villa, at the last minute W Ham came in, his sole deciding factor when asked into why he chose a much smaller club in W Ham than come to us was he wanted to live in LONDON...end off

Tiresome transfer!!. I wish he'd just go as it's like death by a thousand cuts at the moment. I was never totally convinced he was going to stay after what has gone on and, to be honest, I don't think I would ever see him in the same light anyway (no matter how much I might like to think I would have).

I'm not sure that throwing money at him and giving him back the captains armband would have been good for team morale and think his presence can really only be a disruptive one, especially if is heart isn't in it. If the figures mentioned are correct then I think it's a fantastic piece of business and MON will be having the last laugh from all of this.

I don't think Sidwell was ever meant to be seen as being a Gareth Barry replacement though I can understand people seeing it that way. Sidwell looks half decent to me and I think he'll get us way more goals than Barry, once he's settled in.

Let him go, who cares about barry these days, If ronaldo came out and said he wants to play for madrid next season? he would have been sold why throw good money at him if his heart is somewhere else......

Barry doesn't care about villa, why care about him??
Let him go to the pool! he'll be drowning soon because they not as good as the devils or the blues so see ya bazza

As for any new transfer signings, think about who were gonna sign & then think again? I believe kaboul might come even though i dont rate him, if he was that good spurs would keep hold, every other team has bought a few decent players so far whens it gonna be villa's time to shine!!!!!!
The same method every season leaving in to the wire to sign 1 or 2 good players and 5 shit ones???
we have signed friedel so thats 1 expect 1 more fairly decent player and more rubbish like knight, salifou, coker, petrov, routledge. Dont get me wrong im not knocking these guys they do give 100% when playing, its just their still poor when they do? Fact and you cant disagree? no'deal is begining to really piss me off, so is avfc's transfer activty?

Another day goes by again

£17.5m and Finnan would be a great deal IF we had a manager that could actually go out and use that money wisely. MON however will probably go and squander it on some rubbish cast offs from clubs below us in the league or worse will just leave it sit in the bank and earn Learner some more interest. But don't worry lads we have the untouchable Petrov to become our midfield magician now. The top 4 are shaking in their boots already.

What a suprise!it says in the express and star that the reports that they have agreed a fee are rubbish!i wish people would stop making up stories about barry going!

well i already think were in the sh*t and if we lose barry were going to be in more. i thought when all this transfer news came about i thought 18mil for barry villa have done some good business and we would replace him but watching the last few games i think barry will be harder to replace than i first thought. saturdays game we were poor for the first 10min then barry came on and changed the game he was running the game and puching us forward from left back. even when we played walsall in the friendly as soon as barry went off we had no one pushing us forward.
we need players and fast the season starts in like 3 weeks and we have no right backs, were short on defensive cover, short on strikers and i dont know whats been done backstage but from where im lookin it doesnt seem that there is much bein done to sort these problems out.

i found this on de la red.

It is rumoured that as well as O’Neill, both Juande Ramos and Arsene Wenger are keen to secure the Spaniard’s services.

but he will probably go to arsenal or spurs like every other good player. i hate london. theres nothing good about it at all, infact it has the highest crimerate ( suprised me aswell, i thought it was liverpool)all its got is a big ferris wheel.

the big players should come to villa we had the birmingham eye a few years ago.

Well i'm not happy about one of our best players going but if he wants to go then F**k him! 17.5million of the queens english pounds is a fair amount of dosh! And finnan isn't bad! The best thing for him to do is just go now and let us make our plans for the season!

I think Neil LFC Fan is up with the fairies! L'pool have no chance of winning the league! They always f**k up when it matters most! Chelsea and Manchester United will be so much stronger than them (again) and it will be the same old 1,2!

Another message for Neil - F**k off u scabby scouse dole claiming gravy munching wheel trim stealing t*at

And when have relations between Villa and L'pool ever been good?

Liverpool FC is the only reason we have to sit down at matches!

Sign on, Sign on, with a pen in your hand, and you'll nevvvvvvvverrrrrr worrrrrrrk, again! You'll never work again!!!!

Barry is good but not that good. 17.5 plus Finnan is great business.

We do need a left back now. And cover for right back if Finnan arrives.

£40 millish for Keane and Barry is hilarious. Liverpool will struggle to maintain their top 4 status.

One other reason that players go to Spurs other than them being in London is that Spurs are ambitious and actually TRY to buy top players instead of farting around for months and buying Finnan and Sidwell! If MON has a lot of money to spend - and I stress the word IF - and hasn't spent it on good players by mid August, then I think we should sack him as he's not the man to make us a top 4 club. We overachieved last season and will definately go backwards next season without serious quality signings. I'm starting to think this guy's out of his depth at the top of the Prem which is where we need to be!

the barry story has be denied

I don't agree with Sam_Villa 1 and some of you at all: this is a awesome bit business for us. If Barry wants to leave, he is going leave. He's not suddenly going to wake up and think he needs to play for us now,w hat was he thinking. That's not going to happen. So we should just resign to losing him (and screw him if he wants to leave this great club to go up north to warm a bench) and make sure it is oon our terms; which it is apparently. As far as I'm concerned, we have won this battle. Not only that, but we'll have a squad full of young players who love this club and want to play for it. Period. Let the red scum build a team of get-rich-and-play-like-shit celebrities who leave in one or two years anyway, while we build an actual team, dedicated to the cause.

Alot of fans, even me a patient fan are really running out of patientce with MONs lack of transfer activity, all the failed promises. Why do players like mallbranque and kaboul join sunderland and pompey instead ????/ what the f**ks going on! >:(

philbob u are a grade A twat..Hillsborough was not Liverpool's fault..but then again ur probably the kind of guy who reads The S*n.

And that sign on chant shows you're never gonna win any originality contests mate, and its just pathetic.

Try having some class and not be bitter about things. Admit we're a more attractive club than you are at the moment, despite the fact we're owned by 2 horrible cunts.

No wonder Barry 're-iterated his desire to join Liverpool' in yesterdays meeting - the current Villa squad haven't got a prayer of breaking into the top 4 and the lack of signings is absolutely laughable. Even at left-back on saturday Barry was the best player on the pitch (along with Ashley Young) which goes to show how mediocre the current squad really is. We all thought the world-class signings would come last pre-season and they didn't. If they don't come by the end of August its gonna be a miserable season. If the likes of Bentley don't want to play for us we are really going to struggle to get quality players in.

To be honest, as soon as Bentley signs for Spurs I think Aaron Lennon will be coming to us and this has already been agreed behind the scenes. This could be just what the right wing needs if he lives up to his potential but we are going to really struggle in other areas. If Barry leaves I don't think we will be able to replace him, no world class players want to play for a club that has been abandoned by their own captain. The draw of wanting to play for Martin O'Neill also no longer seems to exist either.

My optimism was zapped by the lack of quality brought to the club last pre-season so I am finding it hard to be anything but annoyed and pessimistic about the current state of our squad. If Randy is as rich as we all think then the only way for us to progess is to pay over the odds for a few brilliant players a-la Chelsea a few years ago, so come Martin - spend some money!

One story in the mail repeated verbatim by every tin pot site on the net does NOT mean anything has been agreed by anyone. In fact the Express and Star are already claiming that the story is rubbish.

As for the Liverpool fan earlier trying to blame O'Neill, I think you need to look a lot closer to home mate. The fat Spanish waiter is to blame for all this and after this, and the Keane sage, I think you'll find that most neutrals will take O'Neill's side on it.

philbob88 -

There was no need for the reference to the terrible tragedy at Hillsborough and just goes to prove that there are still some small minded, uneducated people giving decent clubs and football in general a bad name. How you can go from talking about a fee 'possibly' being agreed between Liverpool and Villa for Barry to slating Liverpool fans and people in that manner is a disgrace and the decent Villa fans should be embarrased to have you as one of their own.
I think Villa have done very well out of this to be honest, its just a shame that its all been played out so badly in the press on both sides.

Jonah

Repeated verbatim? Where has the Mail said that Barry and O'Neill met? It's not verbatim but putting one and one together and coming up with something .. that may or may not happen, but is likely.

As for the Express & Star ... they're quoting sources ... the media department at the club is mickey mouse - we ALWAYS hear about things like this or players coming in, from other people first.

Nice for you to refer to this site as tin pot though.

Neil-LFC...........................F**k Off and mind your own business and go talk shite somewhere else...TIT!

I am deeply concerned by the lack of transfer activity, we are in deep poo poo. Full backs needed, right sided player(s) needed, a replacement for Barry and a recognised goal scorer are all an urgent requirement, other clubs like Fulham and Spurs to name just two are going to be competing up there this coming season and I feel we are going to be left behind unless something is done very very soon. I am convinced we haven't the money to spend only what we get for Barry and if my fears are correct then we have been well and truly ripped off> To think we wanted poor old DOug out,

club statement....

[url]LINK[/url]

Barry Staying?!

Lets see some signings then M'No DEAL

UTV

Just announced upon the official website, Barry is STAYING woo hoo!

official site - barry is staying!

barry staying not leaving offical scouce scum

barrys staying!!!!! it says on the clubs westie!!!!!
:D :D :D

All this is irrelevant now because he is staying (on Official sit NOW!)

Goldie - how can you call a player(s) rubbish and then say you're not knocking them. You idiot. Don't get me wrong I don't mean to offend as your posts always generate responses it's just that the reason they do is because it's mostly gibberish.

Why is everyone so down on Sidwell all of sudden? OK I'll admit we can hardly call it the signing of the century but at the price we got him for (allegedley) I think it's a great deal and adds some real quality to the squad. The season before I'd have happily paid that and more - give the guy some time, he might just turn out to be a real good signing.

Damian, don't rise to the bait - ignore them.

You and I would have probably agreed to us selling GB for anything around £15m at the end of the season. However, the shenangins of the last two months have firmed my resolve that we were right to try to keep him. The only loss for us has been the fading possibility of getting Finnan in at RB. Though Miguel would be just as good I suppose. So, an end to the drama, let's get on with the footy now. 4th place (at least) here we come, and let's see what GB has to say then.

Mr Barry is staying put :-. just saw it on av website

is it just me or is the rest of the premiership doing business and villa are standing still AGAIN!!! we have not had a right back for 18 months or more and we have known about melberg going for ages now and here we are still nothing!!! what is going on???? will MON do all his business in the last week of aug again and get the players that no-one else wants???

What I don't get is Liverpool fans saying how Alonso is better than Barry! They really don't get how much better Barry is and I do believe Keane and Barry would push Liverpool so much closer to the title. Your manager obviously knows it and not that it’s a great guide but it helps back up what I'm saying. The sun dreamteam results for last year
Alonso
GAME STATS MATCH STATS CARD/DEFENCE

2007/08 Value £4m Games Started (sub) 24 (3) Yellow cards 7
Total points 44 No. of Rated 7 7 Red cards 0
Ranking (position) 85 Star Man Awards 0 Clean Sheets 9
Ranking (overall) 211 Goals 2 Conceded 0

Barry
GAME STATS MATCH STATS CARD/DEFENCE

2007/08 Value £4.5m Games Started (sub) 40 (0) Yellow cards 5
Total points 183 No. of Rated 7 27 Red cards 0
Ranking (position) 6 Star Man Awards 6 Clean Sheets 10
Ranking (overall) 19 Goals 9 Conceded 0

Alonso got rated 7 just 7 times compared to Barry’s 27 times. Even if Alonso played double the amount of games he did last season (54) going on those rating he would have just 14 7 rated games and 88 points compared to Barry’s 27 7 rated games and 183 points in just 40 games. There is a massive difference between the two players and the 18m is a fair price

Official web site is saying Gareth Barry is to stay with the club after Liverpool failed to meet a dealine that all parties agreed to and that is now the end of the matter...great news me thinks! Now lets match his ambition!

Right Villa can move on - Barry is here until Jan at worst so that's good!

Rafa, has been proved again to be an idiot shame he'll be looking for a new job before Christmas! Barry must now see that Liverpool is all hot air - has been for sometime! Barry you must now learn that players a prawns and they're not needed as much as players think.

If I were Barry I'd say now that I'm there for the Villa and will even play left back if needed!

WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BARRY'S STAYING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No, he is staying.
Deadline passed.

I have been banging on about this for weeks and been getting some stick for being so negative.
Now it seems more and more people are sharing my concerns about MON.
If Brad (getting older, slower and less agile by the day) Friedle is our signing of the off season we might as well resign ourself to mid table mediocrity right now (or possible the slippery slope).
MON has shown no ambition in the market and I'm worried that he really is the eternal under spender. Come on, either he has no backing from the yank or he has not got the bottle to manage top quality players. We all know he can take some average players and get a bit extra from them....GREAT. Is that all we want.
Why is it when other clubs get wealthy investment at least they take a punt, try and attract some big names and at least give the fans something to shout about? What do we get a Muppet in charge and apparently no Muppet Master to give him a kick up the arse.
For gods sake O'Neill this is 2008 not 1978....Spend some bloody money for gods sake. Rant over.......

MON has been waiting to see whats happening regarding Barry.

Now he knows he knows what he needs to push us on. we are now out of limbo and can carck on with things.

There would have been no point in him building the squad and not knowing whether one of the key players was stayin or goin.

This is like a signing for us. Spurs could'nt hold on to Keane, blackburn had to let Bentley go, for us to keep hold of him is a massive bonus.

The deadline has passed so the next logical step is actually more likely to be a transfer request than a new contract and/or a public statement of commitment by GB so possibly more to run yet, alas.

We don't need to knock Liverpool fans - I dare say we'd be biased in the face of criticism of Villa, although we do a fair bit of that ourselves on this site! It's those that run the club that ought to (but won't) be ashamed. The acid test of the neutral fan is almost universally in Villa's favour from what i read, see and hear but that actually doesn't matter a great deal. What matters more is supporting the players that take to the field, whoever is wearing the shirt.

I think GB can perform well for us if he stays a little longer, much as Southgate did (and as captain too). He'll get my support... as of course will Sidwell. He's a talented player, give him a few weeks to get used to his team mates - or at least the half that are already there... he'll have to just get used to the other world class guys on the way a little nearer the time ;-)

Best wishes Freddie

IF the Barry story on AVFC is correct, this is our siging of the summer.
Sure he does go missing on times but who doesn't? The argument that we're cr*p when he does proves that its the rest of the team that are the problem, and we need to keep him for as long as poss.

I just hope that this doesn't mean our trasfer kitty is none exsistant now. We need 3 out of 4 places in the back line and with Bentley now gone maybe Lennon would fit into that right side perfectly (although I dont rate him as the finished player by a long way, my nan crosses better).

Come on MON, splash the cash and keep us in the 5th spot! If not, its going to be long season.

Get well Freddie

UTV

As a Liverpool fan I am DELIGHTED that Barry is staying at Villa. He is a very good player, dont get me wrong, but we just didnt need him and 18m was way over the top in my opinion. Both sets of fans will generally be quite pleased about this!!

Great - Another good strong stance from MON and co. Let's draw a line under it and carry on. I still think Barry will have to win our hearts back but if MON is willing to bury the hatchet (afterall the comments were more aimed at him than any of us) then I guess we should all try and follow suit.

Thank god thats over
MON stood for what he believed in
Get off his back, he didnt cave in to so called bigger clubs which is the only way to become 1!

Surely now with Euro footy and our best player stopping this must give us the pulling power to finish those signings we keep waiting for!

UTV and get well freddie