Goldenballs

I know you were commenting purely as a fan, and that's fine, but other comments you have made before as a fan have been taken out of context by certain people (lipstick on a pig, etc) which is why I think it's important to be very careful when making comments about players, especially players who play for other teams, which I'm sure you already know. It would be quite easy for someone to take your comments about Barry in a way that you didn't intend, which wouldn't really be your fault, but wouldn't reflect too well on Aston Villa. The majority of the questions you answer here as a fan aren't to do with individual players ability, especially not in a negative way. I'm certainly not asking you to stop giving your opinion though, I was just giving you my opinions. Also, I appreciate that you take the time to answer questions and respond to posts here (even annoying one's like mine), and we're lucky to have a direct link to the club so I certainly don't want to upset you make you leave the site. I don't claim to speak for the mods, or anyone else. I don't post here very much, but I read this thread and it's very useful. Anyway, the bulk of my post was disagreeing with your assessment of Barry's ability as a fan to another fan.

To be honest General, personally I find your comments re. Barry a bit disrespectful. He was a fantastic player for us for over 10 years, long before you were associated with Aston Villa. Did you watch a lot of Aston Villa, and Gareth Barry from 1997-2006? Genuine question. I appreciate you're only giving your honest opinion, but to say: "Let's face it...he could take a penalty kick and could do a good job of distributing the ball but he was not a in the category of a superstar and certainly not a Laursen." is a bit out of order, and not something someone in your position should be saying. Laursen played almost 100 games for us, Gareth played almost 450. He could do a lot more than just take a penalty and distribute the ball, and he was one of our most consistent players for over 10 years, albeit not a superstar. I agree that he's not irreplaceable though, and I also agree that replacing Laursen will be a lot harder than replacing Barry. I also agree that if a player doesn't want to be here, then sell, I've got no problems with that. But I don't think we should be "Forgetting Barry", no matter who we sign. He deserves a bit more respect than that, in my opinion. Some Villa fans seem a bit bitter that he left, and I hope you're not just saying what you think they want to hear by playing down Barry's ability and contribution to Villa? Apart from that, keep up the good work.