catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
Gareth Barry was too slow by the end, and he was part of the reason we finished bottom half twice under Martinez. It wasn’t a popular view then and it seemingly isn’t now but slow players have to be absolutely exceptional if you want to carry them. Pirlo maybe, Messi now, James, or perhaps an outstanding penalty box poacher like Inzaghi. You can carry one maybe in your team if they are brilliant. You can’t carry 5 or 6 average ones all in the same side though. You get ran over and dominated which is what happens to us too often.
I'm not sure I can agree with that mate. I think in that final season Barry was the player who prevented us falling down the league further when everything around him was imploding. Stones behind him, Barkley next to him and Lukaku ahead of him all lost form.