To be fair to southgate, in his biography he states that the reason he went off to middlesborough was that they were willing to try to make that next level. You can laugh at the fact that they've tried to do it with people like bryan robson at the helm, but you have to say, in comparison to the Villa under Doug Ellis, middlesborough were different class in terms of ambition. No only were they a team with a chairman who was willing to put his hand in his pocket, he was willing to give his managers a really good long stint at building a team, rather than dougs '3 years and old out' policy. They didn't make it to the top, but they did try, something which Doug Ellis's Villa never did, and that was his reason for leaving.
Barry's done a similar thing to Southgate in many ways, he's made himself a hero at the Villa, the difference to soutgate is that the Villa are a team on the up, Liverpool are a team in termoil. There's nothing that Liverpool are achaiving that can't be acheived at the Villa given a bit of time. Liverpool are never going to win a title with the current regime in charge and any success they've had in europe has come with a large chunk of good fortune too. He may win things at Liverpool, he may not, but it's not a move for the long term, it's a move for what he can get his mitts on over the next year or two. I'm sure silverware may figure in his equations, but I think he'd be suprised if he didn't get a considerable pay rise that comes along with champions league clubs too.