How can Man City move be deemed an enormours step back?

Football FanCast columnist David Mooney reacts to yesterday's breaking news that Gareth Barry has signed for
his beloved City.

Well, I wasn't expecting that. When I woke up this morning… okay, early
afternoon… okay – afternoon… I certainly didn't expect the day to finish like
it has. 

As I sit here typing with my sunburnt face, I am in a state of shock. Well,
I'm not actually typing with my sunburnt face. That would be silly; I'm using
my hands, obviously. It probably wouldn't be this coherent if this was written
with my face. 

But this is all beside the point. I'm quite shocked, and that's as far as
we've got in this blog post and we're already three paragraphs in. At this
rate, it's going to take two sittings to read this. 

Anyway, Manchester City have signed Gareth Barry. I figured the Villa player
was going to leave them this summer, but I expected it to be a top four team.
Not the team I support. Not City. Us. 

I got a text message from a friend – who might actually read this via
Facebook – this morning, saying "Ahhh!
Need to upgrade to Sky for a week. Is it still the Hoff?" Then I realised
he'd sent that message to the wrong person, before he sent another one saying "Gareth Barry in talks with City". 

And I'll be honest, I didn't believe him. He gets quite excitable during the
summer and during January, and so we have to keep him away from the rumour mill
websites for the good of his health. 

I read his text message and I thought: ‘I'll
believe it when I see it'. Then I saw it on Sky Sports News and thought: ‘Well, they did think we were virtually sure
of signing Kaka, so I'll give it a while longer'. 

I turned off Sky Sports News shortly after, because there's only so long you
can watch a 24-hour rolling news channel without being able to recite the
headlines and that can't be a good thing. In fact, I forgot about the story,
busying myself with looking for a Father's Day present, watching re-runs of old
TV classics, and getting my glasses mended, until I logged on to a particular
internet forum to find he'd signed. 

I'll be honest, I was a little giddy. It's the first big move of the summer
and it signals City's intent. Barry was wanted by Liverpool last summer and now
he's a Manchester City player. Mark Hughes is building something at this club
and if we can sort this bloody away form out, we'd be one heck of a decent
team. After all, we've made two top ten finishes in consecutive seasons and
have won six – of a possible 38 – away from home in that time. That says more
about our home form than you'd think. 

Adding Barry to the midfield should make City a better prospect going
forward. I'm not sure who he's going to take the place of: Kompany, de Jong,
Zabaleta, Ireland, Robinho, Petrov, Wright-Phillips, and now Barry, are all
competing for places. But I guess it's a good headache to have and should make
it a more competitive squad. 

I might upset a few Villa fans with this next bit, too. Most of them, from
my experience – and without wishing to make any sweeping generalisations here -
seemed to have accepted that he was going to leave the club this summer. But
the fact that it was to City and not to a side in the Champions League seems to
have had the same effect as a man jabbing a stick repeatedly into a wasps' nest
- on the surface, it's something you'd not expect to see, but the overall
result is that a lot of people get upset.  

I can understand why they're a tad annoyed with him, especially after he
said he wanted to play in the Champions League then came to us, but I don't
quite see why it's being considered as this enormous leap backwards for him.

Okay, so City aren't in Europe next season and Villa are. But what's the
point in being in Europe if you're perfectly happy to throw your kids in the
first team for a crucial match and leave the competition with a whimper? City
just missed out on seventh place, and we also only just missed out on a UEFA
Cup Semi-Final place. Villa made their intentions towards the competition very
clear. 

And that Villa's squad was thin and their season started early with the
Intertoto Cup caught up with them, come the end of the campaign. Their late
season form was disastrous, making their push for fifth place seem like they
were trying to gift it to Everton. But they hobbled into sixth place thanks to
their early season victories, nonetheless.  

So, whether or not Barry joined City because he saw the pound signs is for
only the player to know. But clearly, Hughes and Cook sold City as a much
better prospect in the long run than Villa – and whether or not that is true
will remain to be seen. 

But, somehow, I think it's going to be a
lot of fun finding out.