Liverpool's bid for Gareth Barry and modern management mores

There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about 'how Liverpool used to do things' with plenty of misty eyed recollections about thirty years ago.  Fundamentally this has revolved around doing things quietly and confidently and only allowing the press a sniff of news when the deal has been done.  This hasn't sat well with modern management mores though - where the press is often used a psychological weapon by Rafa Benitez.

Whether it is galvanising public support against meddling owners, calling for bans on Manchester United players who brawl with groundstaff or starting to lever Gareth Barry away from Aston Villa, Benitez is not a shy man.

Whatever protestations that Martin O'Neill makes about how much Gareth Barry respects contracts (are we still in 1950?) or that the offer from Liverpool shouldn't have been made public or that 'a mish-mash of nameless player exchanges' wasn't worth the reported £10m the desired impact has been made.  Barry made no impact on a limited Wigan side yesterday and the £10m that O'Neill quoted is surely part of the dance that will eventually lead to the Aston Villa captain being wheeled out at Anfield I'd guess for around £10m - probably in a swap including Scott Carson or Peter Crouch.

The teams that currently have the money to threaten the 'big four' - Everton, Tottenham, Villa, Man City, Portsmouth and Newcastle are all prone to have their best players poached this summer; Dimitar Berbatov will no doubt be on Man United's list, Joleon Lescott or Micah Richards may solve a problem at Arsenal, Chelsea may fancy Michael Owen and so on.  And this poaching does have the effect of making the big four a self-fulfilling prophesy.

The 2007/8 season isn't yet decided but the first exchanges of the next campaign are already being made - and the net result will no doubt be to entrench the advantage currently enjoyed by the likes of Liverpool.