Barry No More

This is it.

The departure of Gareth Barry from my beloved Aston Villa F.C. to the Abu Dhabi United Group-funded Manchester City has left me no choice but to start-up this blog and share my sorrows about this.

I feel the loss as much as we lost Dwight Yorke years ago to Man United, Dean Saunders to Galatasaray even longer ago, and Gareth Southgate to Middlesborough a few years back. This time, Barry's loss will be irreplaceable (unless we somehow get a Lampard/Gerrard/Xavi/Iniesta, yeah dream on!). Barry was the cog in the Villa engine room for years now, the driving force in midfield, the skipper with the quiet but effective leadership, the passer of deadly balls, and most importantly, we got him on the cheap when he was really young from Brighton and transformed him into an England first-team midfielder.

He started off on the left of a 3-man central defence alongside Ugo Ehiogu and Gareth Southgate and never looked back. He was soon called up for England duty even when sometimes playing as a left-back too. What he lacked in pace was made up with his impeccable passing, composure, and a natural ability to hold on to the ball and create.

Still, various Villa managers have managed to rotate his positions from left centre-back to left-back, to left midfield, and until now, his best position, which is central midfielder. He had to struggle to break back into the England team as the likes of Lampard & Gerrard held the central midfield positions to dear life, and rightfully so.

He was deemed skilful enough to play on the left wing, but various England managers used Barry's pace against him and he lost out to Joe Cole and Stewart Downing. Anyone remembered if Becks had any pace on the right wing? I guess playing 2 slow wingers on the flanks might have been the deciding factor.

Still, the Villa faithful rallied behind him and the calls for Barry to be recalled to the England team was deafening. It took one Fabio Capello to finally realise his talent and promptly established him as his first team central midfielder, alongside Gerrard and Lampard.

Barry took the chances when Lampard and Gerrard were injured/suspended on occasions and made the position his and from then on, he was undroppable. Even his game for Villa rose and his stock went sky-high. He is easily amongst the top 5 current English central midfielders (others being Lampard, Gerrard, Carrick & Hargreaves) and the only one of them who is naturally left footed.

Though he may be lacking in goals, he creates, starts attacking moves, takes set-pieces and is a willing back-tracker. With the new 6+5(6 home-grown + 5 foreign players) FIFA ruling soon to be enforced, the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal were showing interest in him.

That is why I am disappointed that he has decided to move on to Manchester City instead of deciding on an English top 4 club. Obviously the carrot of a 100k/week salary plus exorbitant bonuses enticed him into moving to Man City where he will definitely force out one of the 3 class midfielders they have over there (Ireland, Kompany and De Jong), and who knows who else they might bring in!

Sure, Man City might be another Chelsea in the making, with riches that seem to eclipse Roman's wealth, but realistically, it would take about 4-5 seasons before they may challenge for major honours and Barry at 28 now, might just regret it.

But make no mistake, Villa WILL suffer without him, even if they have a signing lined up to replace him. From where I see it, Villa might not improve on their 6th placing in the 2008/2009 season, and might just swap places with Man City (10th this season). I guess the only player that might gain out of this would be Nigel Reo-Coker, who left West Ham as skipper, only to arrive at Villa behind Barry, Petrov and Sidwell in central midfield, and also, playing mostly at right-back.

This is our current team without Barry. Doesn't look that impressive huh. Midfield is already lacking without Barry. The full-backs are aging and past their prime. We need a right-back, Shorey to step up at left-back, a first-team central midfielder (as Sidwell and Gardner aren't that great), and another goal-keeper and striker to eventually replace the veterans.

We over-achieved this season and WILL not qualify for Europe with this current squad. It's hard to blame Villa for letting Barry go as 12million is good money for a player on his last year's contract, and it's not healthy to keep an unhappy player. It's also hard to blame Barry for leaving, and eventually, he will learn if Man City really is the right team to achieve honours at.

I feel the loss, and I have a sense of impending doom that Villa will be back to mid-table obscurity yet again unless we make the signings we need. Or there's a Steven Gerrard or Wayne Rooney emerging from the ranks.

So farewell Gareth, it will be weird seeing you in a Manchester City jersey next season. Thank you for the wonderful 12 years you have been around. All the best and I really do hope you get the medals you desire.