It seems Arsenal aren’t exploding in the transfer market as some predicted considering the amount of money they had to spend entering the summer, and now the underachieving teams shifts its focus to Gareth Barry of Manchester City.
Barry makes £100,000 per week for City, and has been with the team since 2009, signed from Aston Villa for £12 million, one of the more reasonable purchases made since the Middle Eastern take over at Eastlands.
The 32 year has since gone on to play 132 times for City in the Premier League, playing in a more defensive role than he usually did for Villa, but has been mostly very consistent in both his build play and his marking, although signs of slowing down and finding it hard to handle the physicality did show up at times.
Barry has only one year remaining on his contract at City, and there’s a good chance, that with Jack Rodwell and Javi Garcia on the team, not to mention recent expensive arrival Fernandinho, Barry is no longer going to find himself constantly in the lineup, and this summer might be City’s last opportunity to recoup a little bit of his transfer fee.
Arsenal played all of last season with a true defensive midfielder, something Barry has played more and more like over the last couple of seasons, leaving the creative work for others. He shouldn’t cost too much, even if the teams are top 4 rivals – somewhere around £5-7 million, and while it isn’t going to be the “big, bad, physical” defensive midfield Wenger has been dreaming of since Vieira left, Barry is better than what he has right now.
For Barry, it might be a move to a team that is less successful at the moment than his current place of work, not to mention possibly even offering him less money, but if he’ll get a long term contract out of it and knowing there’s a better chance of getting playing time as well, he shouldn’t be against the idea of joining the Gunners.