Football: BARRY BACKS UGO RECALL; ENGLAND ACE COULD TEAM UP WITH OLD MATE.

Byline: Graham Hill 

VILLA'S Gareth Barry reckons he could team up with Ugo Ehiogu again this season... in the England squad.

Ehiogu returns to his old Villa Park stamping ground next Saturday as part of a Middlesbrough team rejuvenated under Terry Venables.

Wrong

And Barry believes Ehiogu will be determined to show Villa boss John Gregory he was wrong to let him go to the Riverside earlier this season.

Ehiogu left Villa under a cloud in an pounds 8 million move to Teesside when Bryan Robson was pulling the strings at Boro.

The former Albion player spent 10 years at Villa but never saw eye to eye with Gregory after he accused him of feigning an injury before last season's trip to Coventry.

'I will never, ever be able to forgive that remark, I'm not a cheat,' said Ehiogu at the time.

It soon became obvious that Ehiogu wanted to go, despite not making an official transfer request.

But his departure was made more drawn out by the fact that a large percentage of the fee received for Ehiogu would go to West Bromwich Albion as a sell-on fee.

Once that was sorted out, Ehiogu headed for Boro even though he had said he wanted to play for a club with Champions' League ambitions. But this week his new boss, Venables, suggested that Ehiogu was playing well enough to earn an England recall under Sven Goran Eriksson.

And Barry admits his former back-three colleague at Villa must stand a chance, particularly now that Tony Adams has quit international football.

'It's a new manager and a clean slate,' said Barry.

Influence

'Ugo hasn't played for England for a while, but that wouldn't influence the new manager.

'As far as he's concerned, he's been watching Ugo's form and will see him as a fresh player. He'll stand as much chance as anyone else of being picked, including me.

'But it's good that he's playing for Terry Venables who's a well-respected coach who's turned things around up there.

'That was what they needed and as it was Venables who gave Ugo his England cap, his recommendation might count for something.

'Whatever Venables has done has worked. Players like Ugo are bound to react.

'There are a lot of centre-halves around at the moment, but this is a good time to hit form with the new England manager taking in all the games he can.

'Ugo must have a chance to get back in if he keeps playing well.'

But Barry hopes that Villa, in need of a good run of results, will not be made to pay for losing Ehiogu.

'I'm sure Ugo's really looking forward to next week's game,' he said.

'He did well for Villa. The fans loved him and I think he's like to put one over his old team if he can.'

Barry, who is currently in the middle of negotiations with Villa over a new long-term deal, hopes that the club's poor run of form, and a couple of sloppy goals given away, will not stand in the way of Eriksson's squad selection.

'Fingers crossed, I'll be keeping my place but the new manager may want to do things differently,' he said.

'But this is a big time for us at Villa. All of our League games this month are going to be massive.

'We have to cling on to some kind of target otherwise the season is over.

'And we know that if we can repeat the run of three years ago when the boss first arrived, then we could still get something out of it.

'That season, we were stuck in mid-table and ended up fighting our way into Europe.

'We have to look at something similar this time. It won't be easy.'

CAPTION(S):

ACCUSED... Ugo Ehiogu left Villa Park under a cloud DETERMINED... Villa defender Gareth Barry