Sweden Villan On Gareth Barry Boo Boys

C&B all the way from Sweden on the Gareth Barry situation ... which gladly is now almost all but done and dusted!

Don’t take it personal.... personal

To make a few points clear, I wasn’t at the game yesterday simply because I live in Sweden, and as a student I’m pretty much limited to one trip to Villa Park a year.

However, after supporting Villa for most of my life in an extremely top four dominated area, I think I’m just as passionate about my club as most local Villa fans.

Now this article won’t be about me, but my view on the Gareth Barry boo boys in yesterdays encounter. Now generally I’m a non booer, I haven’t and will never boo my team or any players currently playing in it. Now obviously old players are a very different thing, but my pre-match view were that had I been there I would have cheered the lad considering all great things he have done for the club over the years.

But when the game kicked off, I somehow got a very different feeling. Seeing him, on Villa Park, on the wrong side not wearing or lovely claret and blue shirt blew all those memories out the window. The fact that he lost the duel against Dunne made the goal even better, seeing people waiving money at him made me feel good, hearing the booing when he controlled the ball, and cheering when he missed or got tackled gave me a funny grin on my face. Now Barry has been one of my biggest idols for many years, one the most important players for our club and a player that really made me proud. I don’t know how many times I’ve said “Well, at least we´ve got Gareth Barry!”

So what created the disgust yesterday, this joy of seeing him getting booed and feeling good over his misfortune? Now many of you probably won’t share my view, maybe you just never liked the lad or simply hate him for what he did this summer. That’s not the case for me.

Now imagine yourself and the love of your life, or at least a person whom you’ve had a long and serious relationship with. As time goes on you rely more and more on this person, and often you imagine that this person will never leave you. But then you discover that she´s been flirting with someone else, and things change. You go through a rough couple of months but eventually things go back to normal. But the signs are there that she has second thoughts, and eventually she leaves you for something “better”.

This rich cheesy foreigner driving a brand new Mercedes, with greasy hair and a disgusting tan, has just ripped your world apart. It’s a tough couple of weeks but you convince yourself your better off without her and eventually things go back to normal. Now maybe you are better off without her, or maybe you’ve found someone better, but until you do, it’s impossible to forget her.

So when you happen to bump into her and her new lover in the supermarket you once again feel the sting, you realizes that you do miss her, and you try to melt that she actually chose this greasy dude over you. But instead of showing that, you try to ignore her, or give her a hard time over some meaningless thing she still owns you for.

Now this story might not fit perfectly with the Villa-Barry-Me situation, but it is a good metaphor for the feeling I felt last night. And I don’t think I’m alone.

I didn’t booed Gareth Barry last night, but I probably would have if I were there. But not because I hate him for leaving and have forgot all the things he have done for our might club, but because seeing him in that ugly City shirt against our men was too hard to melt, it really upset me.

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