Barry "Messi" Bannan - again

[TheSandman]

Aye, from everything I've heard Hutton wants to play football. I can't imagine any of them, maybe Ireland aside, not wanting to play football. I don't really see why they are getting demonised when their only crime seems to be not being deemed good enough for Aston Villa. Darren Bent is the best of the bunch and would make an excellent signing for any number of clubs. Yet, he's still here and we've had no firm offers. What chance do the others have if nobody is in that much of a hurry for him?

[eamonn]

From Sandman's link, the pertinent Hutton-Villa quotes:

Wherever it is, they won’t find Villa difficult to deal with. And thankfully for Hutton, he hasn’t found his relationship with fellow Scot Lambert a problem either, despite the footballing disconnect.

But the door is firmly closed for him there nonetheless.

“Oh definitely, a million per cent,” admitted Hutton. “That’s done. I’ve got another year and I’m in no rush. It’s not as if I’ve not got a club.

“But obviously I want to move. Another loan deal would not be ideal. I’ve three kids, two at school now. I’ve been away since January and had other loan moves in the past. It’s not ideal for the family. I’d like a permanent deal.

“There’s never been one problem with me and the manager though. I’ve had many meetings with him and there's no problem there.

‘There are around eight of us that have been told. It is what it is. That’s what the club are doing, they are going in a totally different direction and that’s fine. I just need to move on and play.”

Which leaves the defender needing to choose carefully after so many ups and downs. Despite the move to Villa appearing logical at the time, signing for his former Gers manager McLeish, hindsight tells him a different story.

He said: “I was that desperate to get away from Tottenham that I jumped into something. My first year at Villa wasn’t great. We just missed out on relegation, just stayed up and the following year, it’s a new manager and things changed.

‘I jumped into that one and maybe I should have held off and I think that’s what I’ll be doing this time. I’ll make sure it’s right for me first.

“Hopefully they're not looking for a fee for me – they can’t, really. If they’re telling all these boys to leave they can’t be asking for a figure that’s going to stop you going somewhere.

“But time will tell. It’s very rare that you see people moving this early in the summer though, so there is no rush.”

[Chris Jameson]

I'm managing to get by nicely without £7m. I'm not saying I wouldn't like it but I'm not sure what I'd do with it!

Well, you could adopt me, I'm an orphan. I'd also agree to support Barca or Hull, or whoever. I'd also promise to stop playing that hippie nonsense loudly in my bedroom.

Hold on, Nick, think about it before you commit. Is £7m enough to have to endlessly listen to Josh Ritter? I'd be asking for at least double.

Having barely survived my elder daughter's Mariah Carey monomania, I will take your advice. There are some thing money can't buy.

Ha! It's all mine, haven't played any Josh Ritter in a while, Chilean psych is where it's at these days. I wouldn't take any notice of white socks Kelly, he's not bought anything since 1989 unless its some dodgy 'nu soul' type.

[pauliewalnuts]

Paulie,depends on your philosophy in life, you don't get the days back

That's it in a nutshell, John.

It depends on your philosophy in life. Personally, I place more emphasis on quality of life than I do pure financial considerations. In my life I was better off 10 years ago when I was working for someone else and coining it in than I am now that i work for myself.

My point isn't that one is better than the other - some people will be all about money, some will be all about not caring too much about money, and some will be somewhere in the middle.

The point was that people say "why don't they just go somewhere they can get games and not worry about money" without thinking that it's a totally different scenario for these people, with the sums involved, and they each have to make their own decision.

Ultimately, we told Shay Given (randomly selected unwanted player) we'd pay him 70k (or whatever) a week for five years.

If he opts to sit back and take the cash, then frankly, I don't blame him. It's a choice he has. I'd understand if he took the cash, I'd understand if he opted to go somewhere for much less money where he'd get a game.

I just don't think we can say it's an easy or simple choice either way when we just don't know what it's like to have that sort of decision to make.

Ultimately, I guess, the people we should really raise an eyebrow at are those who decided to offer a 37 year old that sort of money for so many years, but that's a different argument.

[Dante Lavelli]

Surely there's a point at which a footballer will tip from one choice to another.

So, someone like Given would have this choice:

Option A: Stay at Villa, aged 37, on 70k a week for the next 3 years
Option B: Leave Villa, play somewhere else, almost certainly at a lower level, for a lot less money.

Obviously, he'll want to play, given the choice, but the money is certainly going to soften the blow of not playing. 70k a week for three years is the best part of £10m. He could go somewhere else for, say, 20k a week, and it is still £3m.

That's a lot of money, too, but he has to decide whether to forego £7m just to play every week rather than not get to play. Maybe he wouldn't do it for a loss of 7m, but he would for a loss of 1 or 2m?

As Dave said, it's dead easy to say you'd make the life quality choice and go and play actual matches when you're almost certainly never going to actually find yourself opting to do without a sum like £7m. Regardless  of whether or not you have loads in the bank already.

I'm not sure in that instance that Given would.  Normally they'd get their loyalty bonus (or whatever it's called).
I've read on here that it is typically anywhere between 2/3 of the remaining cash on his contract and the full amount.  That might reduce if the club take a lesser fee and the new club pay the "bonus".

I have no idea of the details, but I'm pretty sure that Given, Hutton, Ireland and Bannan would not walk away with no cash for the remainder of their contracts.

[TheSandman]

I think Given and Hutton both definitely want to play and as the window goes on may get increasingly desperate to move and may accept a big cut. Hutton at least seems willing to forego a loyalty payment to get his move. I think Bent will be of the same mind. Bannan has a genuine affection for the club, in spite of his attitude problems, and has been with us since he was 14 and he may find it difficult to leave which is something a lot of people on here forget. Ireland presents the biggest problem. Nobody wants him and as I've said before I think he isn't a big fan of playing football. He sees it as a job and a way of securing his family financially. So I find it difficult to see him foregoing £40-50K per week just to play football for somebody like Doncaster.

[tomd2103]

I think Given and Hutton both definitely want to play and as the window goes on may get increasingly desperate to move and may accept a big cut. Hutton at least seems willing to forego a loyalty payment to get his move. I think Bent will be of the same mind. Bannan has a genuine affection for the club, in spite of his attitude problems, and has been with us since he was 14 and he may find it difficult to leave which is something a lot of people on here forget. Ireland presents the biggest problem. Nobody wants him and as I've said before I think he isn't a big fan of playing football. He sees it as a job and a way of securing his family financially. So I find it difficult to see him foregoing £40-50K per week just to play football for somebody like Doncaster.

The plight of Rangers has impacted on us with Hutton.  Had Rangers not have had their problems, I'm pretty sure he would have been back up there by now.  Unfortunately he's never going to play for the only other Scottish team who could afford his wages. 

[sid1964]

Im sure I heard on SKY that Bannan's agent wanted to much money from Blackburn for his share of the deal ...if I were Bannan i would tell his agent to do one...because he is not going to be playing for Scotland when he is not even in our reserve team (same goes for Hutton)

The only positive is that both players only have a year left on there contracts...i wonder who will want them next year! when they have hardly kicked a ball in anger for a year.
 

[Tuscans]

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11677/8849612/?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=twitterfeed_AstonVilla

[robbyfvillain]

Can't help but feel that Barry is at a crossroads in his career. At the moment the only club apparently interested is a lower championship level club. In 12 months time not having played for 18 months he will certainly be looking at a level lower than that.

At the age of 24/25 having a poor off field reputation with no outstanding first team football to his name his value in the market place will be pretty small only interesting possibly 1st or 2nd division teams at probably less than 5k per week. It will also be difficult to climb the rungs from that level as his age will start to come into it

On the other hand if he can join a championship side for next season and do well he could easily get picked up by a higher championship or lower level premier league team.

I guess we'll see if he has any real ambition or whether the money today is of more importance.

[VinnieChase84]

I know it's not his fault he's been gifted 17k a week but he has done next to nothing to justify being on money like that. If it is his agent being greedy that's scuppered the deal then I agree that he should get shot of him ASAP. At his age he needs to be making a move to cement a regular place and build his career again. Now is certainly not the time for him to be none negotiable on his salary.
I have been told that Blackburn offered him 13k a week. He wants 18-20k

[john e]

The most ridiculous thing about us all going on about this for so long is that 'nobody knows anything'. For all we know, the Bomb Squad might agree with john e and others and be prepared to take a financial hit for the love of the game, but nobody's offered anything like reasonable terms. Having seen some of them play close up, I must say that were they with other clubs and we were after them I'd be pissed off. For instance, I wouldn't pay Ireland in washers. Who's to say that other clubs are not thinking the same?

don't be surprised to see how quickly they get a new club when there contracts run out

[supertom]

I know it's not his fault he's been gifted 17k a week but he has done next to nothing to justify being on money like that. If it is his agent being greedy that's scuppered the deal then I agree that he should get shot of him ASAP. At his age he needs to be making a move to cement a regular place and build his career again. Now is certainly not the time for him to be none negotiable on his salary.
I have been told that Blackburn offered him 13k a week. He wants 18-20k

In fairness to Barry, in regards to the state Blackburn are in, it makes sense to hold out for a higher fee. If it's a more stable club coming in and offering him 13k, he should probably take it though. He'll struggle to get better and it's a bloody good wage as it is.

[Vancouver]

I know it's not his fault he's been gifted 17k a week but he has done next to nothing to justify being on money like that. If it is his agent being greedy that's scuppered the deal then I agree that he should get shot of him ASAP. At his age he needs to be making a move to cement a regular place and build his career again. Now is certainly not the time for him to be none negotiable on his salary.
I have been told that Blackburn offered him 13k a week. He wants 18-20k

We can all speculate on the wages offered and asked

[VinnieChase84]

I know it's not his fault he's been gifted 17k a week but he has done next to nothing to justify being on money like that. If it is his agent being greedy that's scuppered the deal then I agree that he should get shot of him ASAP. At his age he needs to be making a move to cement a regular place and build his career again. Now is certainly not the time for him to be none negotiable on his salary.
I have been told that Blackburn offered him 13k a week. He wants 18-20k

We can all speculate on the wages offered and asked

That's direct from an agent (pm me if you want me to expand further)