Mikey

So why did we take 2 months to decide that he wasn't worth £18M then? We asked if he was for sale - they said NO! Barry said "I want to go to Liverpool" - they said "OK we want £18M in cash" 2 months later we said "Thats too much" Not much we don't look f***ing stupid, MoN has come out of this smelling of Roses everywhere except on LFC forums where we're all trying to delude ourselves that we've come out of this looking alright - and we haven't!

Interview on SSN, MoN names Bary's agent and said thatHe (MoN), the club and Gareth's agent (Alex someone i think) were all extremely surprised about the amount of time this had dragged on for, happy about the decision etc, etc, etc........ Can't wait for someone to put a positive spin on this! Like I said I'm not that 'rsed about Barry for that money, but like Heinze last year there is no plan B for when it goes t*** up.

MoN, Villa and Barry's agent are laying the blame for this debacle at our doorstep and rightly so, we have come out of it looking like jokes make no mistake about it. As for players handing in transfer requests to come here, why the f*** would they want to do that now? We've left Barry dangling over this for two months before announcing that he was too expensive, quotes today state Villa's and Barry's surprise at the amount of time the whole thing - which turned out to be nothing - took; and we are now trying to sign Riera for £9M at the last minute - Pennant anybody? - when if we really wanted him and he was anywhere near the top of our list we could have done this back in f***ing June. I don't even want Barry for £18M but its been a shambles, a f***ing World class, league winning shambles from top to bottom.

Well if he was a first choice then what does that tell you about Rafa's scouting and recruiting policy bearing in mind he wasn't actually all that good?

Well thanks to the almighty f*** Up that the Barry saga has been we're never likely to know are we? There's more chance of ONeill shutting up than of Villa selling anyone to us now!

I thought he was talking out of his @rse, same as he has been about Barry all along - why what did you think? I don't get all this "He'd cost £25-30M" to be honest, he's a very good young player, untested at the highest level who doesn't even make what is a very ordinary England squad where Beckham, Bentley and Lennon are getting in ahead of him. He just happens to be exactly what we want to fit into our system as we played last year. Even if he cost £20M would he have been a worse option than Keane? Given that now Keane will get 25 goals this seson and haunt me.

The price for Barry was £18M because thats what Carrick and Hargreaves went for, he's a current England international and Villa's club captain. Young is behind both Bentley and Downing in the England heirarchy, Bentley went to Spurs for £15M and Downing is widely reported to be valued slightly under this. How do you figure Young is worth more than Bentley?

You know the more I think about it the more I think Young should have been our number one target this Summer, We'd have got him for the same money as Bentley, around £15M, he can play in all 3 of the positions behind Torres and is already a top notch LW. He takes the majority of Villa's freekicks and corners, he's fast as f*** and weighs in with his fair share of goals as well. He'd also have been easier to sign than Barry or Agbonlahor(sp?), he's not captain, been there 10 years or a local lad who supported Villa all his life. As it is we're trying to play 4-4-2 to accomodate Keane without the wide players to do it, we're trying to make Kuyt a hardworking, slow RM instead of a hardworking slow striker, and buying Riera(sp?) to play LW at the last minute when Rafa went on record saying that he wanted his business done early this Summer and if he was a first choice there is no reason on Gods Earth why we didn't buy him 2 months ago is there? Same old, same old for me. Got a bad feeling we're gonna spend this season regretting Rafa's deals this Summer.

Could not have put it any clearer myself no matter how hard I tried.

So is your point that as Evra cost less than Dossena its reasonable to expect Dossena to be better than him?

No offence meant but this is utter b******s.

As good as Evra, Clichy and Ashley Cole?

Arsenal have made enquiries about Barry as well and not followed it up after being quoted the price, everyone in world football now knows that you can sign Barry for £18M and no-one has - it looks like eveeryone else apart from Rafa, MoN and a couple on here thinks Barry is way overpriced - so lets start blaming Parry anyway? Would the banks have advised against spending what would amount to £40M on playerS with no residual value at the end of their contracts? Everyone in football now knows that you can get Alonso for £16M but no-one has, looks like only Rafa and a few diehards on here think he's a steal at that money as well!

What you actually read was someone expressing an opinion on a player that I've been familiar with for about a decade, and how he will fit into our lineup, the effect it will have on the rest of the team, and whether in my opinion he is worth the money and also whether it might have been better spent elsewhere. FWIW the owners and CEO of our club have reservations about Barry's price as well, a price that only you, MoN and Rafa seem to think fair. I said that Keane is a good player, also that Barry would perform better in the PL for us than Alonso - so to be fair you can stick your "knee-jerk" cliche up your @rse and swivel on it.

Keanes been bought to play with Torres not to replace him when he's injured/rested.

And this would of course be something that is impossible to quantify, measure or give examples of. Kuyt never seems to posess much game intelligence to me or he'd realise you're supposed to control the f***ing ball when its passed to you by now, and Rafa loves him to death.

From watching him- and he's been mostly gash. Very early days and I'm pretty confident he'll warm to his task but FFS he's been done by just about everybody so far.

I find it bizarre that so many posters post this s**** as an answer to be honest, its like primary school "Why aren't you the manager then? nah nah!" FWIW I don't have complete 100% confidence in Rafa, I don't think Barry is worth anywhere near £18M, I do think Barry would be a better player for us than Alonso. I think Robbie Keane is a good player who we didn't really need, doesn't fit into our most successful recent formation and who isn't worth £19M either. I also think we seem to have spent a fair amount of money this transfer window so far and don't look to be much - if any - stronger for it.

Quite possibly he will, but all that ends up doing is wasting £19M and moving the problem area from the right where Gerrard would easily be the answer, to the attacking midfielder/2nd striker position Gerrard will have left. Seems quite bizarre to me that instead of spending £15M+ on strengthening a weak position we spend £19M and move 2 or 3 players to try and achieve the same result.

To be fair Dossena has looked a bag of s**** so far!

If Rafa's preferred formation is 4-2-3-1 then why have we spunked £19M on Keane who only really plays in a 4-4-2? It would've made far more sense to buy Bentley for £15M and play him in Kuyt's place. As it stands we don't have the wide players on either side to play 4-4-2 and it involves moving Gerrard and possibly losing his 20+ goals!

Garcia played more than both Sissoko and Kewell by the way, and it makes me wonder why we've got rid of 50% of them already, Gerrard now plays as a 2nd striker and we have tried all Summer to flog Alonso as well?

Such a midfield would be so many steps backwards that it doesn't bear thinking about.

After 10 years service at Villa he is entitled to a loyalty bonus plus testimonial, handing in a transfer request was estimated to have been likely to have cost him around £3M in lost earnings - he went as far as any sane person would do. Its very easy to post on here that players should give up this amount of money because basically after 3 months of "negotiating" we can't afford him!

Ayone who thinks its not about the money is delusional, Its always been about the money and us not having enough of it. Weve been scratching round for months now trying to barter the price down, stage the payments over a longer period, include players in the deal, get Villa to take some coupons etc. We've always said on here that we want players who want to play for Liverpool and Barry does, he's come out publicly saying so on more than one occasion and we're still pissing him around - its a f***ing farce. And YES we should pay the asking price if we want him, Villa don't want to sell him, he's their club captain and been there 10 years; they want £18M for him and if we want him we should have paid the money months ago or pulled out back then. Which club looks SMALLTIME in all this - Villa who won't take it up the @rse off us or us for not being able to afford him after all this time? FWIW I think £18M+ for a player of Barry's ability at the age of 28 is FAR TOO MUCH MONEY and would like us to walk away, but make no mistake we are looking more bloody ridiculous over this by the day. Please don't insult me with "Its all a magnificent bargaining ploy by Rafa/Parry" it's a f***ing farce!