We all know by now that the close season means one thing – transfer speculation galore. Throughout the next couple of months, Arsenal will be linked with a host of players, the moves for which will probably never materialise.
This is part and parcel of the media keeping interest in football high when there aren’t many significant games. It starts of as a bit of harmless fun, but when Sky Sports News continue to talk about ‘their sources’, it can get extremely annoying.
Anyway, where am I going with this? Well, it seems we may have some transfer speculation with a bit of substance. Don’t be surprised if it drags on throughout the summer, but unlike so many – this one seems realistic. Gareth Barry is reportedly interested in a move to the Emirates.
The Telegraph wrote a piece this morning which claims that the Aston Villa midfielder is holding out for a move to Arsenal in a bid to participate in regular Champions League football. Liverpool are also tracking his progress after missing out on his signature last summer, but it is being suggested that Barry would rather join Arsenal.
Would we want Barry to join though? It is thought that Arsene Wenger would need to spend around £12m on the England midfielder, who has one year remaining on his contract at Villa Park. Is this a good deal for Arsenal? Personally, I think that Wenger could do a lot, lot worse.
Ever since the departure of Mathieu Flamini last summer, Arsenal have been crying out for a holding and battling midfielder player to do away with the problem of being light-weight in the centre of the park. Barry – who Wenger has watched several times over the few months – could be the answer.
Often when a player is linked, I try to picture what role they would play in the team and Barry fits the bill in my opinion. Playing alongside Fabregas, he would look very much at home. It’s hard to say who he could emulate, but I see him as an Emmanuel Petit type figure.
This is purely me speculating though and I would really like your opinion on this. Is he the type of player you would like to be watching at the Emirates? Could he add something extra to the midfield? Which former player could he play a similar role to?
Looking at this initially though, I think it would be a good signing. A midfield of Walcott, Barry, Fabregas and Arshavin sounds pretty good to me. I guess we will just have to wait and see how this one develops.
ArseSpeak 
yea i think barry would be a good signing he is a good player and will be a solider in the field. 2bh we need someone like him that will run his socks off and wont cry when he gets tackled i say lets do it.
At the very least he’s the best available player in his position with Premier League experience, and he’s definitely better than Song,Denilson and Diaby in my opinion.
So, I’d like it a lot if we signed him.
to be honest i would be happy with barry as one of several incoming players. His distribution is good, he can tackle and will be a good role model for alex song to aid his development. Also he can play left back and in defence in the case of emergencies. I have lost count on how many times we have needed someone with his experience to just tell the defence/midfield to calm down and pass the ball. Plus it will show Villa just how far they are away from being ‘top 4’ team. Would love to see someone come in to partner Toure in defence and a replacement for Bendtner. I am not a big fan. we have 3/4 players that i call dead wood that i would like to see leave – Rosicky (very talented player just always injured) Bendtner (need i say more), diaby (the guys a good player but doesnt get enough game time to justify being an arsenal player) and finally i know he is young but like david james i close my eyes everytime someone shoots at him – Fabianski (i will probably get slated for this, but the price of goalies now surely we can pick harper or someone of that quality for a sub). Would like to see Ettoo (never happen, too expensive) Barry (wise head, good player) Alonso (always get linked never buy) and Hangeland (not sure if he wants to come but very good defender)
More recently I have started to favour Barry over Alonso. He can cut it in the EPL on cold nights up north and at the top European level and would give us a quality bit of “Englishness” to the side. More than this though is that Alonso plays more purely in centre midfield whereas Barry would be happy there alongside Cesc but could also play on the left at times. This means that both Song and Denilson can still get some playing time where a fit Alonso would keep them permanently on the bench. It also allows us to push Arshavin forward in more games. £12m is a bagain. We should snap him up.
barry is an excellent all round footballer!
also he will bring experience and composure to the Dm slot…
Cesc would be more free (when a 4 man MF) to get forward..
there is no other DM avail of the same standard in the prem… the only other option would be to buy abroad and they could take time to settle into prem.. and then are never guaranteed to live up to billing..
Could Veloso stand up and be counted in the prem?.. I’m not too sure…
Barry. Bendtner is class. He played less games than RVP and Adebayor and managed to score as many goals. Give him a chance. What we’ve seen at the back end of this past season tells us he has a lot more to offer. Get rid of Adebayor. That’s dead weight!
As for Barry. He is the type of leader we need alongside Cesc. Get rid of Denilson and Diaby. Song has a future but needs someone better than him that will cause him to fight harder for his place. If Song manages to keep out Barry then Song will be playing brilliant football.
I agree Tennon, Bendtner is 21, vibrant, aggressive and seems to get in the right positions, as a 4th string striker id say he has impressed massivly this season. Adebayor isnt good enough, too inconsistant and all round frustrating to watch…get rid!!
Id love to see Garath Barry at Arsenal. A proven leader with lots of Experience and a desire to do more with his career. Look how well the other experienced player we bought in has played(AA). i dont mind Wengers youth policy but when these young kids dont have anyone to look upto or fight for a place then there performances are inclined to be inconsistant.
I personally think wenger has no more than 15M(unless we get a decent amount for adebayor) to spend in the summer spending 3/4 of his budget on Barry i feel would be a waste.
IMO i thought clinical finishing was one of our major weaknesses as well as our lack of goal scoring wingers in the mould of ljungberg and pires. While the DM and CB need some twicking majority of games tht we drew or lost were down to adebayor and bendtner needing 5 chances before scoring.
The thing is that we have a very good attacking team. We all agree on the same issue which is that we need to i,prove defensively. Barry is 28. He will have at least 4 to 5 years at the club. During those years, we will be developing the good young players that we have. One would be Randall. Song and Ramsey would be improving. This would be a hell good 4 years investment. Who will we sell to buy Barry. Obviously we will be selling Adebayor along with Senderos, and Diaby. We could raise around 32 mils from those three combined. I do not think that we need to replace Adebayor if we have Bendtner along with EDU and RVP. Walcott will start to play upfront. Even NAsri Arshavin and Rosicy could play front and do not forget the ever improving VELA. Simpson will have a future as well. We have a BIG TEAM. i do not think that we are out of options. The issue is that we have so many similar players. We are 2 palyers short of being a dream team. A central defender and a defensive midfielder. By the way everyone is quite on W Gallas. This only mean that he is leaving. mark my words. By the way the Arsenal first ELEVEN will not be so youg next year. Sagna 25 Toure28 Clichy24 Arshavin 28 Rosicky 28 RVP 25 EDU26 FAB23 with adding to defensive players of an average of 26 i think we will be a very mature team. this strong team has only three aresnal academy players. so the Wenger project is far from done. The youngsters that he was always talking about are tstill three years away
I think Barry is a good fit because he is what we need. A true holding midfielder, with toughness and skill. I still think we need to address the striker issue as no one we currently have can play in the 4-5-1 that Wenger seems to prefer. (Actually it’s more like a 4-2-3-1) Arshavin is the best supporting striker we’ve had since Bergkamp but his arrival makes RvP somewhat expendable, since they are both at their best in the same position. I have previously suggested getting Ibrahimovic from Inter for RvP, but I was torn to shreds on another blog, so I am not sure who the answer is.
I would go for Barry, but not at that quoted price. I mean, are we to believe that he’s worth the same as Nasri? Sure, he’s playing in his peak and all, but 12 million sounds like inflation to me. I wouldn’t pay more than 10 million for him.
Having said that, there are other alternatives. Makoun, if we are to believe rumours, can go for around 8 million, and I’ve always been a big fan. But let’s see what Wenger does.
Also, to the douche above who reckons Rosicky should leave, you are, believe it or not, a douche. It’s not his fault he’s always injured. It’s not like he intentionally or out of laziness, screws up his leg or whatever. I really miss Rosicky and if we had him this season, I’m sure things would’ve been a lot different. And, Fabianski’s a young keeper, but he has shown his class, he’s just lacking consistency and experience (the most important aspect of a quality keeper). If you have no patience, then I suggest you quit as a fan. There will be a turn of the tide soon. We will hopefully, have an era of domination, particularly when Liverpool officially become insolvent, Chelsea go into adminstration, and Man Utd gets sold as a loss to someone)
Never 12 million that is laughable when he has only got 6 months to run on his contarct,more like 5 or 6 that would be about right.O`neill gambled in the summer and now he must pay the price, just like we did with Vieira.
HEY THINK HE IS JUST THE TYPE OF PLAYER WE NEED..STRONG,TOUGH,ENGLISH..WOULD PROTECT THE BACK FOUR VERY WELL ,WOULD ALLOW CESC TO GET FORWARD MORE AND GETS A FEW GOALS ALSO..THINK 6TO 8 MILLION COULD GET HIM….GO ON ARSENE GET IN FAST NO MESSIN THIS TIME…
mr rooney i suggest you take another look at the telegraph report they do not add substance to the barry to arsenal piece they only report the ramblings of the daily star and they, do not have one single quote from gareth barry!! silly season is here again. “stop the press” kaka’s granny born in islington, grandson says family ties more important than meeeelan granny says i must be gooner or i’m a goner.
I think Barry would fit in quite nicely with fab.
I know its probably a bag of bollocks but have seen tonight tim cahill of everton interested in a move down south. Has anyone else heard about this or do I have to go kill the git who posted that one.
We have a tight team which just needs abit of a backbone, get Eddie fit up front get rid of ade. Thanks for the memories but f**k off! A decent goalie, sorry he’s done fine but when you have grown up with Davie Seaman in nets he’s hard to swallow. Two centrals, bolocks this is almost half a team.
We have the best team for years to come, just need a bit of age to guide them, its the tweaking we need, no more.
Ps if it wasnt for the money I would go for alonso, he is the silent winner at liverpool.
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Would prefer Denilson actually. Plays better in our set up. Barry wouldnt fit in to the Arsenal way. Would prefer Veloso, Toure and Inler
Toure from Barca would be perfect it would be like having Viera back in his prime..
Barry would fit in well but im not sure if Wenger would go for it considering how old he is and the price.. He only likes paying the big bucks for special talents
If Ade goes we need another physically imposing striker..i’d like to see Edin Dzeko turning out for us.
Barry is just what we need. versatile, great at both defending & attacking. can play across theback if needed. thed best bit?… he’s a wise head on the pitch. someone to take charge when we lose our way, and he is definate champions league class.
Bendtner is not the finished article but he is gonna be a class act. the chamionchip is probably the toughest league (physically) in europe & he shone on loan at birmingham, aged 18. Hangeland, along with barry, and a specialist right winger (push wally down the middle) would see us challenging on all fronts.
i’m with the irishman. 2 (as mentioned above) definately, the 3rd maybe. goalie, not needed.
He’s not a bad choice considering the type of cash that Arsene has available to throw around.