What are Aston Villa's chances of qualifying for the Champions League when they are selling their best player to the club they hope to catch? It is an uncomfortable question for Martin O'Neill and Randy Lerner to contemplate as Gareth Barry nudges closer to joining Liverpool. Villa's manager and owner remain united in their quest to gatecrash the top four but Liverpool's pursuit of the England international has added an unwanted dose of reality to the long-term ambitions.
O'Neill was being sincere when he proclaimed "we are not a feeder club", after Liverpool revealed their interest in Barry at the end of last season, yet a different picture has since emerged. Villa, like the 14 clubs who finished below them last season, and Everton who were one place higher, are all part of the food chain when Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool flex their financial muscles and enter the transfer market with the promise of a Champions League sweetener.
Try thinking of a top-flight footballer who has turned down the chance of joining United, Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool in recent times, in favour of remaining with a club outside the top four, and not too many names come to mind. It is far easier to recall how Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick, Louis Saha, Edwin van der Sar, Steve Sidwell, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Nicolas Anelka, Yossi Benayoun and Jermaine Pennant all took the same decision as the Aston Villa captain.
In that sense, Barry's desire to move to Anfield seems anything but surprising, something that seems to have been overlooked by those Villa fans who expected the 27-year-old to resist Liverpool's overtures and continue at a club who could, at best, be playing in the Uefa Cup next season. The latter competition is no carrot to dangle in front of a player who is now regularly rubbing shoulders with international team-mates whose CVs are decorated with Champions League finals.
O'Neill, an intelligent man, would have quickly realised as much, even if Barry's subsequent actions, most notably the decision to air his grievances in a Sunday newspaper, and Liverpool's handling of the transfer negotiations, have left him angry and frustrated. Villa supporters are also entitled to feel more than a vestige of resentment about the two issues; Barry had no need to go public with his criticism of O'Neill while Rafael Benítez might have acted with more tact at the outset.
Some will argue that the Villa manager has also failed to cover himself in glory with his decision to ban Barry from pre-season training and fine the England international two weeks' wages for an "unauthorised interview". While the £84,000 fine did seem excessive, it is understandable that O'Neill could not countenance allowing a player who had undermined him to be around during pre-season, when his presence would have served as a distraction.
Next season, however, it is Barry's absence that promises to be most unsettling. Those Villa supporters who have claimed that Barry is overrated and, at £18m, overpriced are allowing bitterness to cloud their judgement. Anyone who has watched the midfielder over the past two years would recognise that he has been an instrumental figure in the club's renaissance. Indeed no one has appreciated Barry's contribution more than O'Neill, something that will have been uppermost in the Villa manager's mind when Benítez first informed him of his interest.
The call from the Liverpool manager was an unexpected jolt for O'Neill. Until then, O'Neill could reflect on two years of impressive and almost serene progress – Villa had climbed from 16th to 11th to sixth under his tutelage – as the team, freescoring and exciting to watch, showed genuine signs of promise. Further investment was envisaged this summer to accelerate the improvement, but instead the Villa players reported back for duty last week without any new arrivals and minus their captain.
For O'Neill, who could have been forgiven for believing that he was on the cusp of putting together a team capable of asking more questions of the Premier League's leading clubs next season, it has been a sobering couple of months. Whatever the manager's ultimate ambitions about penetrating the top four and breaking their stranglehold, Barry's imminent move to Liverpool has done nothing to raise hopes that Villa might challenge the established pecking order in the near future.
Indeed the outlook is not much better for the rest of the chasing pack. Tottenham Hotspur might feel optimistic about the new campaign but few would bet against Juande Ramos encountering similar problems to O'Neill if the club received firm offers for Dimitar Berbatov or Robbie Keane from, say, Manchester United and Liverpool. Blackburn, who finished seventh last season, are resigned to losing David Bentley and possibly Roque Santa Cruz, Everton have yet to show their hand in the transfer market while Manchester City can expect another transitional season, leaving Portsmouth as perhaps the best-placed club to make an impact.
Competing with those teams, never mind pursuing Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, promises to be a severe test next season for O'Neill, who is expected to get his summer spending spree underway within the next 24 hours with the acquisition of Steve Sidwell from Chelsea. Barry is set to move to Liverpool soon afterwards, a transfer which, in truth, was never in any doubt from the moment that O'Neill heard a Spanish voice at the other end of the phone two months ago.
