I think the majority of city fans truly appreciated Barry and his game. Nige was a much more ‘entertaining’ player imo but two completely different footballers who both served the club well.
Also thanks for the response to the question. Seems a bit odd though. If you don’t like bluemoon then move on. I think blue watch was his preferred area of debate at one point if I recall correctly. Whatever happened to that.
The thing with Barry is, it was never he wasn't great. It was just people definitely had a preference for De Jong, and as such Barry's talents went ignored. Since De Jong left, that feeling hasn't been there and it's been easy in retrospect to acknowledge the talent.
I understand we'll likely disagree, but I feel that's how it is with Rodri. Fernandinho has been a superstar and a half for City, especially at our height of glory between 2017-2019. I think a lot of people assume that the way Fernandinho plays is the one and only successfsul way to go and as such hold Rodri against those aspects, and ignore the things he actually does really well, such as being a league leader in progressive passes, pass completion, passes completed under pressure, and the ability to receive passes from defence with his back to play. They're just a few reasons why Pep loves him and why he's going to continue to get picked and is likely going to be remain a big part of our successes.
I really believe that when Rodri goes, unless his end spell here is disastrous, will be looked back at far more fondly than he is now. Just like Barry.
Even if you don't like him, you can't in good faith ignore the things the team has achieved with him in the team since he arrived. He's played just as large a role as many others in our latest triumphs.
He's not long turned 25 too, which is still a relatively young age for a position which requires as much intelligence as it does. As brilliant as Fernandinho has been, I don't think it's farfetched for me to say that the 25 year old version of him from 2010 wouldn't have been as good, nor the 2008 version if we're comparing them at 23 (age of Rodri when he showed up).
To be clear, I'm not saying Rodri is anywhere perfect. Nor am I saying he'll go on to be better than Fernandinho was. But I am saying I think he's far better than he gets credit for and comparing him harshly to Fernandinho at this stage of his career is equally a little bit unfair.
