Thursday, July 31, 2008

Resurrected?

After yesterday's news that a deal for Gareth Barry was dead and buried, there are reports that the saga may not be over yet. The Daily Mail in England is running a story that says Liverpool missed Villa's 5pm deadline by only twenty minutes and had proposed a deal of £19million and Steve Finnan. Given the injury to Bouma, the Finnan part of the deal seems more worthwhile than ever. While Barry has told the media he wants to move on to Liverpool, he never handed in a formal transfer request because he would have to forfeit a loyalty bonus. It appears Liverpool are now urging him to hand in such a request and for O'Neill's hand. This seems like a pretty backhanded move by Barry. He has stated that he wants to play for Liverpool because of their ability to challenge in the Prem and play Champions League football(soccer), but this makes it sound like his main motivation is money. A similar incident happen with Joey Barton's transfer to Newcastle, where he claimed that he deserved his loyalty bonus because he never asked for a formal transfer. Newcastle ended up paying an extra £300,000 to Man City, which was the exact amount of his bonus. Speaking of Barton, he was charged by the FA today for his fight with Dabo and will surely be suspended for a number of games. The FA are saying they had to wait until all criminal charges were completed, but Newcastle is not happy. I am not comparing Barry to Barton(Barry has a clean rap sheet) but it seems a shame to see a Villain become a villain so quickly. Barry led Villa to their best season in ages last year, and they have built a strong young team. O'Neill and fans must have thought that Barry would help them push for silverware this year, and now it seems that he's not happy enough where he is. Much like a player they recently acquired, Steven Sidwell, he is trying to parlay a good season into a better club. It appears that loyalty is dead. All that remains is the bonus.

One Liners
  • AC Milan say there will be no Shevchenko deal, he will continue to be the best paid sitter in the world
  • Barca deny Trezeguet interest, but say they have lots of interest in Eto'o outside Turkmenistan
  • Man City win 2-0 to advance in UEFA Cup qualifiers, Petrov continues hot streak
  • Luis Garcia moving to Benfica, apparently Tottenham cannot buy everyone
  • Redknapp to coach CSKA Moscow, you can toss that in the rubbish bin