Former Aston Villa hero Gareth Barry has revealed that the worst part of his career came when there was speculation surrounding a high profile move to Liverpool in the summer of 2008, with the huge uncertainty of which path to take making the whole situation difficult to deal with.
Ultimately, he stayed at Villa for one more season before eventually joining Manchester City in 2009, but credits the whole 2008 saga as being an important 'learning curve' in his career.
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"It was a really tough decision, and the speculation towards the end of that 2007/08 season when I nearly joined Liverpool, that was the most uncomfortable and the part of my career I didn't enjoy," Barry explained to former Villa colleague Ian Taylor in an interview for Sky Sports.