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Wrong Side Of Manchester?
Has Gareth Barry gone to the wrong side of Manchester and has Sir Alex made his first mistake of the close season? Just about every Man U fan after the Champions League final commented on the poverty of the midfield and the lack of a top defensive midfielder in the Roy Keene mould. It looked as though these problems would be solved by the eventual return of Owen Hargreaves but it now seems that his injury problems are more serious than first thought. (A shame for Man U and England.) I would have thought the ideal replacement would have been the man who is directly in competition with him for the England role. Not to mention the rather high wages that Barry would receive.
Just wonderin'.
Andrew, Plymouth
City Are Still Mediocre
I wrote in at the start of last season and got a slating for saying that City simply wouldn't be contenders for anything this season or in my opinion for the next 3-4 at least. They are so far behind the 'big 4' that even spending £150m on players would only bring them up to a similar standard that would be required to compete for the Champions League places.
They have a manager that isn't used to or capable of competing at this level and they don't have the players either. As for attracting the 'right' players, they need to be in the Champions League and they need to have a manager they believe in and at the moment they have neither. In signing Barry they have signed a wannabe big player and I would think most other Liverpool fans would agree with me in saying thanks for making it so he doesn't play for us as I don't think anyone could claim him to be better than Alonso or Mascherano, which brings me onto my next point.
City need to be buying players of the calibre of Gerrard, Ronaldo, Torres, Rooney, Kaka, Iniesta, Messi...ok you get the picture, but even IF these players were wanting to move on not one of them is going to take a backwards step in their careers which at the moment a move to City would be. The only players they're likely to attract are players like Robinho who HAVE to leave their club after causing so many problems, players that would like a sideways move (ie. Barry moving from a chasing side to another chasing side) or players that are simply in it for the money. To this I would ask; do you really want any of these types of players at your club?
Looking through the City team the only players that would stand a chance of playing for any of the 'big 4' (I hate that term by the way!) are Robinho, Ireland and now Barry BUT would you class any of these as being better than the equivalent that are playing for the 'big 4' teams?
I will state again before the big signings fail to follow Barry into the City of Manchester and before the new season, City will simply not be able to usurp the current 'big 4' and I will even go as far as to say that they'll have to go some way before they usurp Villa and Everton as the best of the rest. But I guess I will be slated as I was last time for being a worried and deluded Liverpool fan.
Marcel Guerrier, LFC
...I support neither Villa or Citeh, but I think people are missing the point a bit about Barry's transfer to City. Yes, City's long-term prospects of Champions League football are better than Villa's. But City will not crack the top four next year and probably not the year after that. We're looking at a minimum of three years before they can break the top four hegemony (assuming they break it at all). By that time Barry will be 31. Now if and when City do make the CL, the piñata will well and truly explode and they'll be able to buy the Kakas and Ronaldos of this world. When that happens, do you really think they're going to cling onto a decent, but by no means world-class midfielder like Barry, now past his prime and heading for his mid 30s? Or do you think they'll buy a younger, more expensive, sexier and better player and ship Gaz Baz out to Spurs or some other desperate no hopers? The guy is 28, had one last chance to make a tilt at some trophies in a successful team and probably could have got himself a tidy little contract doing it. Face it, he took the money over the glory and that I find disappointing.
Tim 'Vicar In A Tutu' Stillman
They'll Finish Fifth
Man City will start next season (are we nearly there yet?) with the goal of a top four finish and the tools to do it. Even with Chelsea committing potential hari-kari and appointing Ancelotti (one trophy since 2004? Juande Ramos has a better CV), you'd imagine that the top three are safe, leaving Arsenal to fend off the challenges of Villa, Everton, Spurs and City. If you look at City's chances of coming out on top in that particular five-horse race there's reason for optimism at Eastlands.
As it currently stands, I'd say that City's best eleven looks something like Given, Richards, Dunne, Bridge, De Jong, Barry, Ireland, Robinho, Wright-Philips and Bellamy. Throw Hart, Onuoha, Petrov, Jo, Sturridge, Elano and Caceido into the mix and you have a competitive core of players. Going forward, only Arsenal could definitely claim to have a better team and while the defence is the problem, Arsenal, Spurs (reliant on King) and Villa (without Laursen) also have serious frailties of their own.
What's most important is that City, unlike any of their rivals, it would seem, have a serious stash of money to spend on sorting their weaknesses out. Even if you accept that Sturridge, Elano and Petrov might leave, there's little to suggest that City won't have stronger squad in August than they do now. A high-quality striker - Vagner Love? - will have been signed along with at least one, but probably two centre backs - Hangeland, Toure, Upson, Lescott etc. etc. - and a few more to complete a very good squad.
The other four will make little alterations where they can, quite possibly replacing players City bought off them, but City will, on paper at least, have made up a big chunk if not all of the gap. At that stage only the quality of the manager will be open to question. Moyes, O'Neill and Wenger are undoubtedly among the best in the league, 'Arry's other career as a blinking, disloyal, wheeler-dealer dodgy geezer shouldn't totally mask his achievements. Hughes is definitely good at his job but has he ever had to deal with such pressure to succeed or a group whose talents and egos demand such man management?
I reckon next season's top eight looks like this:
Liverpool
United
Chelsea
Arsenal
City
Everton
Spurs
Villa
Given, Richards, Kompany, Dunne, Bridge, Barry, De Jong, Ireland, Robinho, Wright Philips, Bellamy.
That's something like the best line-up available to Mark Hughes currently. Throw Hart, Onuoha, Petrov, Jo, Elano, Sturridge and Caceido into the mix and you have a core of players to rival Villa certainly. Only Everton's far superior defence (though Given is miles better than Howard)
William O'Doherty
Outside The Top Four Is Nothing
In reading John of LFC's mail about Barry the comment that struck me was 'It's a ridiculous fee for a player with no CL experience...' Now while Barry may not have played in the actual competition he has played against ManU, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal, who are not only in the Champions League (a lot and aren't we sick of the monopoly) a couple of them have won the thing recently, not to mention Chelsea being consistent semi-finalists. How much more Champions League experience do you need? So the factor which is more important is how does he play against those teams? If he and his side get spanked every time they play a CL side then yes he could be considered a pointless purchase, but his performances against those sides haven't been that bad, bar a right spanking from Liverpool of course.
But this really brings up the problem with the rest of the league, the top four and any subsequent Champions League ambitions. If the teams can't consistently beat the current top four or play competitively and consistently against them there really is no point in having that ambition, they will get tonked in Europe. Since the sides which make it to the Europa league/cup or whatever its called can't even take it seriously or win it why should anyone take talk of top four challenge seriously? Didn't Everton do well people say. Did they bollocks. Did they actually win a game against the top 4? How did they do in Europe? Villa?
The answer isn't the disparity in money from the league and Champions League (which doesn't help of course) the answer is to get yourself a billionaire owner with cash in the bank and who isn't total wally. Once they start to plough crazy money into any team no matter what their finances or position in the league things will change.
Carlton, Cambridge
I've Been Dumped By GazBaz
I just thought I'd shed some light on how myself and some of my Villa supporting mates are feeling right now and it's like we've been dumped by the love of our lives (just hear me out). Last year Barry broke out hearts by flirting with someone else in front of our faces, this faded and we were sceptical at first but we let him back in and fell in love all over again. Now, in a matter of hours he's broken our heart by dumping us and going out with someone else because they've got more money and a flashier car. Damn you Gareth, we thought you loved us. So yeah that's how we're feeling.
Phill Richards
Who'll Replace Barry?
I'm not sure if this interest the mailbox but I was listening to Talksport this morning and they were asking whether Villa would have to buy or whether Gareth Barrys replacement was already at the club. The options within are as follows,
1) Nigel Reo-Coker - Whilst on his day he is a good player he doesn't offer the consistency of Hans Gruber, neither can he offer the range of passing and delivery of GB. Only thing he has got going is that he is a leader, you can always hear him talking to the other players and keeping the team going. If he could get some consistency he is a maybe.
2) Steve Sidwell - The back pass that let a poor Middlesborough beat us at Villa Park no doubt knocked his confidence and he spent most of the season on and off the treatment table but it is undeniable that Villa went through our best spell of the season last year when he was in the team. However this was alongside GB and Petrov who seemed to be piggy backing him at fair bit. I was a big fan when he was at Reading but he hasn't the passing or the tackling of GB, more energy and pace is not enough.
3) Craig Gardner - A lot of Villa fans love to see a young Brummie come through the ranks, hence why we thought Darren Byfield, Darius Vassell, Stefan and Luke Moore and Gabby Agbonlahor were good, but as in those examples it's often misguided. This is non more the case than for Craig Gardener, has none of the qualities of GB, squad/championship player, who has a better chance of going for the right back position.
4) Salifou - No
5) James Milner - Okay so he plays on the wing but so did Barry until O'Neil came along, and really when you watch him he rarely beats a man. But he can pass, cross and shoot, he is dynamic in a young Gerrard way and works as hard as Kuyt and Tevez do.
And I think this is the answer, Milner next to Petrov and look to bring in a quick right winger. We'll get five years out of him and a 'bigger' club will buy him.
Philip (too despondent to go through who we could buy) Thompson
It's The Twilight Zone
I might have missed a big news story, but is the Earth passing through some sort of cosmic twilight zone?
I can think of no other reason that would explain the strange goings on this week:
· That ugly woman off of Britain's Got Talent is the most famous woman in the world and is already in the Priory.
· Aeroplanes disappearing.
· Jim Magilton getting the QPR job.
· Tony Adams making up job offers in his own head and going on national radio to talk about them.
· Footballers writing letters to fans to try and prove they're not money-grabbing scumbags.
· Footballers are able to write letters. If Wayne Rooney had done the same when he left Everton would he just have scrawled 'Sorry' in wax crayon?
Has the world gone mad or has it only taken four days for everyone to get bored of the close season?
Adam (disappointed that Barry didn't say he was moving to a 'massive club' in the letter) Graham
The Donkey Lesson
Regarding Philip Cornwall's End of Season Review, I feel that he has slightly over complicated the 'and the moral is...' segment for Portsmouth.
Surely the moral is...'Don't hire an unhinged donkey to be your manager and sell all your best players.'
A moral that (so far) Celtic have adhered to.
Darren (Bored of crap teams buying crap players) Curtis
Loving Weech
Aristotle, Pythagoras, Da Vinci, Newton, Gauss, Einstein, Crick and Watson, Berners-lee etc etc etc..
...to this list can we please add...
Weech of Singapore, who must truly define genius.
Phil Smith, Sheffield
And There's More...
Nice one, Weech from Singapore, but how could you forget the following:
Cristiano 'Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want' Ronaldo
Arsene 'I Keep Mine Hidden' Wenger
Sam 'I Started Something I Couldn't Finish' Allardyce
Alan 'That Joke Isn't Funny Any More' Shearer
Roman 'I Want the One I Can't Have' Abramovich
Harry 'Back to the Old House' Redknapp
and of course
Jamie 'Girlfriend in a Coma B/W Death of a Disco Dancer' O'Hara
Unfortunately, Vicar in a Tutu is continuing to defeat me...
Andrew (I wanted to do the Smiths on Mastermind but they wouldn't let me so I'm doing Ancient Greece instead) Warmington
Poor, Poor Millie...
Not that I'd ever argue with Maggie Gyllenhaal being held in such high regard, but has F365 rather fallen out of love with poor Millie Clode?
Laurie (still rather taken with Kate Winslet, personally) Barton
Truly Mental
Three mentions of the word 'Mental' on the front page this morning and a picture of Gazza and Susan Boyle.
Mental overload
Andy, Spurs
