Villa have told Liverpool they are under no pressure to sell skipper Gareth Barry until the price is right - in the region of at least £18 million.
Manager Martin O’Neill has no need to offload the England midfielder on the cheap, because it is understood the deal will have no bearing on his own spending power during the summer.
O’Neill, currently working as a TV pundit at the Euro 2008 finals, is believed to be aware of the funds he has at his disposal from club owner Randy Lerner.
Reds manager Rafael Benitez has already had three bids rejected by Villa for 27-year-old Barry, who O’Neill has valued at £20m.
While it appears inevitable that Barry will move to Anfield, O’Neill will not give the green light until his value of the player is met by Benitez.
A source close to Villa said: “The sale of Barry will have no effect on the plans Martin has in place for the summer.
“Any deal for Barry will be on his and Villa’s terms.”
Benitez is expected to make a fourth offer during the coming week for Barry.
The expected sale of Xabi Alonso to Juventus for a reported £14million may pave the way for what Villa will regard as a more realistic offer for Barry.
Brighton are likely to be kicking themselves if the move goes through.
They could be set to miss out on around £3million if and when the Barry deal goes ahead.
They had a sell-on clause inserted into the deal which saw Barry transferred from the Seagulls to Villa a decade ago.
But is believed the clause was cashed in when Albion were suffering financial problems for around £500,000.
3 Comments
the big picture in this saga is not if barry goes to liverpool, its when there is only 5 weeks to go until our inter-toto game why haven’t we bought anyone and why is our manager doing pundit work for the bbc when there is huge amounts of work to be done at villa park.
so far three players have left, none have come in so surely the smallest squad in the premiership has got even smaller.
this is typical of villa, leave everything until the last minute and then blame everyone else (prices, agents, players not being available) COME ON O’NEILL!!! start getting players in now, we have a chance of making europe through the back door, dont throw that chance away for a bit of extra cash from the license payers.
Gareth Barry is the perfect example of an English footballer - overpaid & overated!
Someone please tell me what this bloke does - he doesn’t drive the team on like Gerrard, he’s not tenacious like Hargreaves, he doesn’t score many goals like Lampard, he’s not as good a passer as Carrick! He’s got one foot, no pace, and only ever does the simple thing. Liverpool must be mad to spend £20m on a “7 man” (meaning he never gets more than 7/10 for a single performance)
Take the money and run Villa. To be fair you can do a LOT better.
Though I cant agree entirely with Wednesbury Albion, he does have a point. Barry is overpaid, but so are all premiership players, Albion included. He doesn’t have great pace, just like so many others in the premiership, Albion included.
His right foot may not be great but he does use it, how many right footed players do you know that can use their left, not many but every club has them, Albion included. We all need left sided players able to use their right foot or not, Albion included.
Hargreaves tenacious, do me a favour, he’s ordinary. Carrick a better passer than Barry, go and stand in the corner you dunce. Lampard….Ok I’ll give you that one and Gerrard, well without the service of players such as Barry, how good is he?????
Barry may not be all you might desire in a footballer, but then that depends on who he plays for, I wonder what comments you would make if he played for the Baggies, come on Wednesbury throw the sour grapes away, none of us like losing our best players, Albion included.