drkeene News

The Gareth Barry transfer always seems to be taking a new twist. What part of £18 million do Liverpool not understand? We tell them our valuation is £18 million. They offer £12 million. We tell them our valuation is £18 million. They offer £15 million. We tell them our valuation is £18 million. Liverpool say they're not offering more than £15 million. We tell them our valuation is £18 million. Liverpool offer £15 million plus Steve Finnan. We say ok to Finnan, but it's him plus £17 million, as we value Finnan, who we're not that bothered about signing, at £1 million. Liverpool value him at £2 million. And so it goes on and on and on. Villa's valuation is £18 million! What part of £18 million do Liverpool not understand?

If Liverpool don't offer £18 million we keep Barry. They valued Crouch at £15 million a few months ago; that means Barry's valuation should be £25 - £30 million. So it's not like we're overvaluing him and stopping his transfer from going through, like Liverpool are doing with Scott Carson. Barry's real valuation is £25 - £30 million, but we're prepared to accept less and let him go for £18 million. Liverpool are getting a bargain even at that price.

I don't hate Barry for wanting to leave, or even for his comments critising the club and Martin O'Neill (and I don't agree with the comments). Barry's served ten years at Villa, gone through some really shit times while Doug Ellis was not interested in anything but his own salary, but during these times he shut up and got on with it, while at times other players came out with rants against the way the club was being run.

I'd prefer to remember Barry for the good things he's done for us, but I don't like his latest outburst. Like I said, I don't hate him for this. Maybe he thought speaking out like that would speed up his move to Liverpool. If that was the intention, the complete opposite has happened. We're prepared to let him go cheaply enough as it is, we can't be bullied by Liverpool and allow them to pay less than our valuation. He's our player, if you want anyone's player, that club always has the power to insist that you pay their asking price. Like we had to when we paid £7 million for Stan Collymore. We had to pay Liverpool's asking price. When we bought Dean Saunders we had to pay Liverpool's asking price. When we bought Milan Baros we had to pay Liverpool's asking price. Now Liverpool can pay Aston Villa's asking price. And Barry's going nowhere until they do. The longer they leave it, the longer Barry goes without pre-season training.

Steve Sidwell's on the verge of signing. He's passed his medical, and should be signing tomorrow. That's an English player we sign again. We're losing one, but still continuing our tendency to sign English players. Based on last season's statistics, we'd have won the Premiership if there'd been a requirement to field a minimum of six English players. And Arsenal would have been relegated.

We've still got a few more players we need to buy. Where are they going to come from? Beats me.

Did anyone watch the Wimbledon final on Sunday? What a match! Best tennis match I've ever seen. It's supposed to be close to the one in 1980 between Borg and McEnroe, when Borg had won five Wimbledons in succession. I didn't see that match though. I hope Federer beats the grand slam record of 14 (he's on 12 at the moment), but it's looking more and more tricky as long as Nadal exists, and it could actually be him that goes on to break that record.

Our season starts in twelve days. Probably going to be against Odense. I don't think they're a bunch of part time clowns. I think they may have beaten Liverpool in 1995/96 early on in the UEFA Cup. But then again maybe it was Brondby. But I think it was Odense.