New Manchester City star reveals his fear of “going stale”
Gareth Barry’s open letter to Aston Villa fans, as published in today’s Birmingham Mail, has finally surfaced, and the tone is a lot less apologetic than most of the media assumed it would be.
In lieu of remorse, the midfielder reveals his fear of going stale with the Midlands side. Additionally, he says his move was inspired by a desire to play regularly in his best position, something he apparently wasn’t doing already.
Anyway, here it is:
“AFTER all the speculation over the last 12 months, I want the chance to explain my decision to the Aston Villa fans.
Firstly, I want to thank them for the incredible support I have received over the last 12 years. This football club has been a huge part of my life. I joined a 16-year-old boy and 12 years later I am moving on as a 28-year-old man with a wife and two children.
A lot of things have changed in that time, players, management and a chairman, but every season bar none, whether we have been bottom half, mid-table or challenging for Europe, the support myself and the team have received has been fantastic.
My one huge regret is that during my time at this club we have not brought the fans the success they deserve and I obviously have to take my share of responsibility that we have not been good enough to win trophies.
I feel the club is in the best position it has been in during my time here, I think we have
After his desperate attempts to find some Champions League football last summer, Gareth Barry has finally left Aston Villa, joining Manchester City for £12m. Upon confirming he will now be receiving £100,00-a-week instead of a pathetic £60,000, Barry told the official City website:
“I’m delighted to be joining City. It didn’t take much persuasion from Mark Hughes, they are heading in the direction I want to go.” [Um, isn’t that the direction from which you just came? - Ed.]
Villans have registered their disgust with the midfielder, who appears to have abandoned his agenda of playing with the European big boys (”I’m desperate to play Champions League football and that’s why I have to leave Villa.”) by joining a team who will not even be invited to participate in the Europa League.
As a means of explaining himself, Barry has written an open letter to Villa fans explaining his sideways money-driven move well informed decision, which will be published by a the Birmingham Mail later today.
As soon as we get our grubby little hands on it, we’ll post it.
UPDATE:here it is
A statement on the Everton club website, Thursday March 12:
“We would now expect [Victor Anichebe] to receive a full and unreserved apology from the police - and then both he and the club would then consider the matter closed.”
A statement on the Everton club website, a bit later on Thursday March 12, after the police issue the apology Anichebe requested:
“Whilst I do fully understand Cheshire Police’s desire to tackle the problem of robberies on jewellery shops in the Knutsford area, I remain deeply upset and very angry about the treatment which was meted out to myself and a friend yesterday (Wednesday).”
We can’t figure out what is more shocking - Anichebe’s reticence to forgive the police despite receiving the apology he desired, or the fact that a footballer used the word “meted” in a statement. Did you swallow a dictionary, Victor?
Since being dumped from Arsenal’s losing weekend squad, Whingey William Gallas has reportedly been training “very well” (perhaps he has been running around the cones particularly fast or wearing his bib to an excellent standard), and could be offered a place in the squad for tomorrow night’s match with Dynamo Kiev (against whom he scored a last gasp equaliser in September), provided he apologises to the rest of his team.
So, should Professor Wenger try and reinstate some equilibrium in his side by bringing the Frenchman back? Or will he actually cause more disruption by returning? Votes and comments below, please…
Chelsea crash out, Drog distributes cash to away fans
Didier Drogba’s chances of stealing his first team place back from Premier League top goal scorer Nicolas Anelka appear to be in worse shape than the home unbeaten record that Chelsea were once so proud of.
After scoring against Barnsley in the Carling Cup last night, Didier celebrated by flipping the bird to Burnley fans. When one of the aggravated away fans threw a coin on the pitch, the Ivory Coast man kindly returned it, albeit with a little too much force and velocity.
He has not apologised for the middle finger salute (a gesture worthy of a ban in itself), but has said sorry for whipping the spare change into the crowd via Chelsea’s official website:
“I tried to celebrate the goal and I received some things at me. The big mistake I did was to throw it back so if someone was hurt I just want to apologise for it.”
A club spokesman said the incident will be dealt with in the usual way, which probably means Chelsea will do absolutely nothing and the FA will issue a three match ban, as was given to Jamie Carragher for a similar incident at Highbury in 2002.
Winger vows to stay loyal to current employer for slightly longer
Just about everybody in the world knows that Cristiano Ronaldo has augmented his summer of tanning and love by peppering the back pages with gauche comments about his desire to move to Real Madrid. This morning, however, the Nutella-brown star did his best to put out the fires he has started, with a media savvy apology for his actions and a vow to stay in Manchester for another year:
“I want to say that I was the one who was most responsible for this whole controversy.”It wasn’t their fault because I was the one who showed in public my will to move to Real Madrid.
“I also ended up, even though it wasn’t my intention, the one responsible for all the problems between the two clubs.”
He continued:
“I’ll play for Manchester United with my heart and soul. I will fight and honour that shirt with all the commitment and dedication I’ve always had.”
Some might say he has been forced to make these comments with his tail between his Hooters’ girl legs, yet his self-serving comments throughout the transfer saga seem to have been orchestrated to show his overt desire to move to Spain. As soon as he saw that the transfer was a no-go, he switched to Plan B, delivering his carefully-crafted apology and promise to be at his best for the team he would rather not be playing for in 2008/09. Frankly, we wouldn’t be surprised if he (or his people) had written this ‘admission of fault’ months ago.
Manchester Utd fans, are you feeling a healthy mix of relief, anger and confusion? Let us know with a comment below.
Spoiler Bonus:we called this outcome weeks ago
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