Stiliyan Petrov believes team-mate Gareth Barry is so valuable to Villa he’s worth £25million.
Barry is only still at Villa because Liverpool baulked at their £18million asking price and turned their attention elsewhere. Petrov insists even that amount would not compensate for the loss of the England international.
The Bulgarian international believes his fellow midfielder’s classy performance in Sunday’s draw against his former suitors proved just that.
Petrov said: “Did Gareth perform like an £18million player? Maybe £25million. He played very well.
“You can see why Liverpool tried to get hold of him, because he is an outstanding player. You would prefer to have him in your team than play against him.
“He proved one thing – he is a great player. He was running the show. I think the reception showed all the fans were delighted he stayed.
“He is always the same Gareth. He is confident in his ability, he knows what he can do. A lot of the media focus was on him, but he kept his cool and performed.”
Question marks over Barry’s future will resurface as soon as the transfer window reopens, because the 27-year-old is unwilling to discuss extending his current deal, which ends in 2010, until next summer.
Even if Barry is still a Villa player come the end of the season, their hopes of him agreeing to a new contract are likely to hinge on whether they have finished in the top four.
Petrov added: “I don’t want to see him go. At the end of the day he is playing for us, the fans love him and I hope we can give him the Champions League football he wants.”
13 Comments
i must admit he is a class player and is worth that amount maybe even 30 million. an excellent player who in my opinion is better than overatted gerrad and lampard
Hey who knows, if he’s valued at 25 million, man city might pay 40 for him!
haha yeah course he is.
Aint sure about him been better than gerrard or lampard because barry plays a different game, he calms play with his passing and tries to create. Lampard gets in the box and scores (a bit like platt was)and gerrard just does a bit of it all very well (betcha he ends at city like robinhio did, betcha,betcha )
aidan you do suck up to anything reading your rant about baggies strikers and mowbray and peace i then lost count of all your appologies
Has the world gone mad. The thing is with inflated prices around football now, who is to say who is worth what, the figures are almost meaningless now. However I would expect a £25m midfielder to be proven scoring and creating goals at crucial times, like Steven Gerrard does time and time again. Has Gareth barry ever scored a crucial goal for villa?? One that makes the difference between relegation and survival, champions league or eufa. How can he have done, they have been a mid-table prem team for his entire career. Not saying he cant do it, just that he hasnt yet.
If Barry helps us through Europe and keeps us in it next year with a top 5 place, the money generated from that will far exceed £25 mil, but I do agree with Haggstone wolf, football has gone stark raving bonkers.
how can you say barry is better than gerrard, aiden the more comments i read from you the more you amaze me. There is no comparison. The fact is nobody wanted to stump up 18mil for barry. Do you think if gerrard was up for 18 mil he would struglle to find a buyer. No chance
Barry is well overated IMO and facts are facts villa couldnt find a buyer
Barry’s game is different than Gerrard’s. He may not score the “critical goal” (save the penalty kick at Chelsea last year) but he probably set it up with a great pass. His worth is irrelevant- Villa doesn’t need the money, we need the silverware. Also, he’s not for sale.
UTV
Yes…..In Bizarro world!!!!!….With figures as far out as that Petrov could easily be Chancellor of the Exchequor
Just read an article about David Villa and he comes across so well. Its basically about Robinho, but could easily apply to Barry as well - in short (from goal.com):
“I would never do to Valencia what Robinho did to Real Madrid because I am grateful for everything that the club has done for me,” he told Cadena SER.
“I do not want to criticise Robinho because I do not know his situation, but I would never have done that.”
Real Madrid made two huge bids before the transfer window closed, but Villa stated that he knew he had made the right choice to stay when the club turned them down.
“I was really very happy when Valencia rejected the offer, not because it meant I could not join Real Madrid, but because it was a true gesture of confidence and I felt really wanted,” he continued.
“They preferred me to stay than to take all that money. Valencia valued me very highly.
“My word is worth more than anything else and I accepted the offer of a new contract by telephone at 1pm and by 6pm I have signed it and it was all finished.
“I thought about many things throughout it all, but when I received the offer of a renewal from Valencia I realised how much I was wanted and said yes.
“Of course, I thought about what would happen if they said yes or not, but I was never going to force Valencia to let me leave. I am very happy here and I owe the club a lot for their decision.”
Wouldn’t it be nice if Barry was more like Villa.
Barry`s got no pace and can be anonymous for long periods of the game. He is a £10 million pound at a push and thats only because the markets still overvalued.
Liverpool didn`t buy him because they knew he was overvalued, end of story.
Liverpool didn’t buy him because that didn’t (and still don’t) have the cash.