Top Four Part 1: Barry believes we can crack the top four

By: Martini Extra Dry | November 1st, 2008

Well, he didn’t exactly say that, but it’s very refreshing to hear him talking like he likes playing for Villa and giving the fans the hope that he might actually still be with us on the other side of the transfer window.

I suppose it’s fair enough for him to want to go play Champions League football and he obviously didn’t see that happening at the Villa at the time. But the transfer didn’t quite go the way that most transfers do; y’know the type I mean, where the player actually joins the other team! Let’s not get back into the whole who-was-right-and-who-was-wrong-in-the-handling-of-Barry’s-transfer-saga mess but what’s important here is that Barry made it clear that he wanted to move on.

For the first few games of this season, it was still very clear that Barry wasn’t happy at Villa and his game suffered as a result. The man who held our team together last season was gone and a shadow of his former self was running round Villa Park. In many ways it all oddly transpired into a good thing, because with the fear of losing Barry the rest of the team clubbed together and grew stronger as a unit. Petrov finally began to shine brightly and Reo-Coker showed a versatility and consistency that his doubters would’ve sworn he wasn’t capable of. In stepped Steve Sidwell too, who has yet to show his abilities thanks to injury but I think there is some good football in him and a lot of selection headaches for O’Neill. It’s Salifou I feel sorry for, because there’s very little chance of him seeing any action now that we have Petrov, Reo-Coker, Barry and Sidwell all fit and firing on all cylinders. A loan move might well be a good idea for him, because he’s a good player, he just needs to be seeing more first team action.

Back to Barry, his game in the last few weeks (whilst the rest of the team have actually been pretty average) has been excellent, particularly against Blackburn, so things look really good at Villa Park. Barry’s happiness on the picth is also echoed by his recent comments in the Mirror:

“The buzz is back around Villa Park. We are doing well and have climbed into the top four so I am enjoying it again.

“It is good just to get the whole summer episode with Liverpool out of my system and concentrate on what I am doing here.”

“It is certainly more realistic now than last season when we were probably talking about it.

“We’ll fancy ourselves but it is a massive step because that top four has been the top four for a long while.

“The pundits say if anyone can break in it will be us, but they still don’t back us to do it.

“So it would definitely be nice to prove everyone wrong and make it.”

Stay happy Bazza, the Villa fans loved you and will love you again if you show us that you are happy at Villa.