Same old story for Villa

For Dwight Yorke 1998, read Gareth Barry 2008. Ten years on and it seems little has changed at Villa, writes Tim Nash.When the big boys come calling to cherry-pick Villa's finest, history suggests they usually get their man.

Exactly 10 years ago, Manchester United began their summer-long saga to prise Yorke from Villa's clutches.

An opening bid of £8m was rejected, and Yorke remained a Villa player while subsequent offers from Sir Alex Ferguson were turned down.

By then, Yorke's head had long been turned by the glamour of Old Trafford, and by the time he started the following season still in a Villa shirt at Everton, he was going through the motions before the price finally reached £12.6m and chairman Doug Ellis relented.

Making his second start for Villa on the day of Yorke's final appearance in claret and blue was a 17-year-old Barry, pitched into the side because of injuries to Ugo Ehiogu and David Unsworth.

A decade on - and on the day another stalwart, Olof Mellberg, made his Villa Park farewell - it was Barry whose body language suggested he wanted to be anywhere else but at Villa Park.

Like his team-mates, the captain brought his children on to the pitch at the end as the players saluted the fans.

But Barry seemed detached and possibly embarrassed as he said his goodbyes to the home fans for the summer - and more than likely, forever.

The lure of the Champions League looks like being too good to turn down.

And who can blame him? At 27, Barry is at the peak of his powers and in the form of his career.

As much as he loves Villa - and no one could accuse him of a lack of loyalty after 10 years at the club - Barry is being offered the chance to play for a team hunting for trophies now.

Whatever Villa are - and they are in much better shape under Randy Lerner and Martin O'Neill than when the pair came in almost two uears ago - they are not yet capable of being serious challengers for the game's major prizes.

Sadly, the days of winning promotion to the top flight and immediately winning the League, then the European Cup a year later, as O'Neill did at Nottingham Forest under Brian Clough in the late 1970s, are long gone.

These days it takes major investment of multi-millions over several years to even challenge for Europe.

That's how the 'big four' have managed to pull away from the rest, and, as unpalatable a truth as it is, it's why teams such as Everton and Villa are firmly in their slipstream.

Patrik Berger's comments afterwards won't have pleased O'Neill or the fans.

Berger said: "Gareth knows my opinion - I've told him. It's Liverpool and if I was in his position I'd go there tomorrow.

"Liverpool doesn't come after you every year. It's the opportunity of a lifetime. I'd go and experience it.

"It would be Champions League every year and he'd be challenging to win trophies every year."

In this case, the truth hurts and Villa can't offer Champions League football next season or the next after that. Or probably the next one after that.

Villa are on a steady upward curve of improvement under O'Neill. But they are still a minimum of four years away from challenging for Liverpool's position.

By that time, Barry will be 31 and the chance will almost certainly have gone.

Almost certainly, the time has come for Villa to start planning for life after Gareth Barry.

Another problem for O'Neill is what the fall-out of Barry's expected departure will bring? Will Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor be next?

Perversely, this could be where O'Neill pulls off a masterstroke.

As well as Barry has performed under him, there's a feeling that the Villa manager will back himself to buy a potentially better replacement.

For all Barry's undoubted qualities - and he covers up his lack of an extra half yard of pace with a superb footballing brain - O'Neill would relish a midfielder who can really drive at the opposition and hurt them by changing the tempo of the game.

And once the serious bidding war for Barry inevitably gets underway, he will no doubt have his replacement in mind.

Watching Villa's two longest-serving players from the stands on Saturday was the man who signed the pair and handed them their debuts.

Former Villa boss John Gregory believes the only way the club could have any chance of keeping Barry would be the prospect of UEFA Cup football next season.

Villa's hopes of both look slim, but at least defeat for Everton yesterday at the Emirates kept open the small chance after Steve Bruce's third win at Villa Park in five attempts left things decidedly grim.

Victory at West Ham for Villa and another reverse for David Moyes's side at home against Newcastle is the only scenario that can trigger a claret and blue exodus to Europe.

On Saturday, Villa looked as far away from the continent as the moon.

three wins in a row and 15 goals.

O'Neill was at a loss to explain the below-par dispaly afterwards after his side created plenty of first half chances and could have won without playing well.

Agbonlahor hit the bar with a header while Zat Knight and John Carew forced falling saves from excellent keeper Chris Kirkland.

But it was left to Antonio Valencia to show them how it's done with one fortuitous finish and one clinical one.

The Ecuadorian winger illustrated why he's being eyed by Manchester United with a deflected shot that looped up over helpless keeper Scott Carson on 52.

Eleven minutes later, he bettered it when he showed a clean pair of heels to Wilfred Bouma and Nigel Reo-Coker to beat Carson at his near post after latching onto Emile Heskey's headed flick.

Agbonlahor's late header, tipped over by Kirkland, was the best Villa could muster in reply while Carson smothered a clean-though Valencia's attempt to complete his hat-trick.

It was a poor day for Villa.