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Back Page Betting: What a fine mess Gareth Barry has got himself into

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Ralph Ellis talks us through the Gareth Barry saga which tells us as much about Martin O'Neill as it does about Barry himself. But to what extent has all this commotion affected Aston Villa's chances against Odense in the Intertoto Cup?

Gareth Barry will look back on this summer and wonder quite how he managed to get himself in the middle of such a mess. Aston Villa's former captain has always been a dedicated, one-club professional with the highest standards of conduct on and off the field. Now he's found himself in the centre of a row that will take some healing.

Martin O'Neill is not a man to fall out with, as Barry has discovered. Quite what his genius of an agent thought he was doing when he organised an interview for the News of the World a few weeks back and encouraged him to make a personal attack on his manager you can't imagine.

Presumably the idea was to make O'Neill so angry he'd have knocked a few bob off his price and let Liverpool take his best player away. If you'd known anything of the Irishman's character, however, you'd know that was exactly the way to make Villa's manager, with the complete support of his billionaire owner, dig his heels in even deeper to get the £18million fee he's always insisted on.

O'Neill feels he is fighting a bigger war than just keeping Barry. He's trying to prove that the manager of a club still has control over his players. And at the moment it looks like he's winning.

Barry is back in training, and it is beginning to look more likely that his dream move to Anfield won't happen. This morning's Daily Express says Liverpool have switched their priority to luring Robbie Keane from Tottenham, and don't have the cash to get Barry as well after Xabi Alonso's proposed move to Juventus has fallen through. Meanwhile Arsenal have asked Villa about Barry, but have yet to follow up the enquiry.

What won't happen, however, is the instant return of the England midfield man to Villa's team to play in Odense in the Intertoto Cup on Saturday night. As if being two weeks behind in training wasn't enough reason to be left at home, Barry then took a kick on the foot during his first workout yesterday. No wonder he looks so miserable in the pictures of him driving away from Villa's training ground that appear both in the Express and the Daily Mirror.

The irony is that Villa urgently needed Barry to return to their ranks. In fact they need anybody right now. Steve Sidwell remains the only significant signing of the summer, and as John Wragg reveals in the Daily Express, Villa's squad now has only 14 senior players. That has shown up in their pre-season games. On Tuesday night they lost 3-1 at mighty Lincoln, their second defeat in three games. And they will travel to Denmark to play their first competitive game with no recognised right back in the squad, doubts over the fitness of left back Wilfred Bouma, as well as the continued uncertainty that the Barry situation will be causing in the dressing room.

All of which makes the chance to lay Villa anywhere between [2.12] and [2.5] in Saturday night's game too good to miss. The Danes have ten full internationals in their squad, are further ahead in preparation after already winning a round of the Intertoto, and will relish the chance to put one over on a Premier League team. Odense are [3.3] to win, and it's [3.3] the draw.

Five things you might not know about Gareth Barry

1.He and Gareth Southgate played in both the final international match and final club match at the old Wembley stadium

2.Born in Hastings, he went to school with Sussex cricketer Michael Yardy

3.He's a keen golfer and plays off a handicap of three (he's had plenty of chance to perfect his swing in the last two weeks!)

4.He and David Beckham are the only players to have been picked by every England manager since Kevin Keegan

5.He's one of only 13 players in Villa's history to have scored more than ten times from the penalty spot