h&v.net

Well I was going to do a picture of Barry for this story, but I don’t think he’ll be around much for us to use it again. Although he’s not actually put in a transfer request I understand that he’s told the club he wishes to link up with his mate Stevie at Redscouse.

Now it’s simply down to them to come up with the cash. Now that might be easier said than done. When Martin O’Neill said that Rescouse’s initial offer was a mish-mash of players, we all assumed the likes of Carson, Finnan, Riise and Pennant. Apparently not, if their offer to Newcastle for Milner is anything to go by. The players in that swap deal were players known only to their clubs and mums and dads.

Villa, clearly not strapped for cash, having given up multi-million pound income from shirt sponsorship, have set the price. So can Redscouse come up with the £20M? I somehow doubt it, and wonder if that’s going to leave us with a peeved captain all season. Either way, well done Redscouse, you tossers, for conducting all this through the press. I hope you’re stuck with your Yanks for ever.

Actually, and I’ve been meaning to post this thought somewhere else, this is one of the main things that’s wrong with football these days.

Like Barry, footballers see the Champions’ League as the be all and end all of football achievement (that and their Bentleys).  How can you attract quality internationals without offering them CL?

Money won’t do it alone, because, you need the money from the CL to pay for international stars.  Teams in the CL have the money to buy, not one, but two internationals for every position because of the CL money.  It’s a catch 22.  The rich clubs buy all the players to stop the also rans stealing their place in the CL.

Which brings us back to Barry.  Selling Barry to RedScouse makes them stronger and us weaker.  We can’t buy an equivalent replacement because if there was one, they’d be on their way to a CL team.