Gareth Barry has told Martin O’Neill his heart remains set on a move to Liverpool despite Villa’s insistence the deal is off – and the dispute could come to a head in the UEFA Cup qualifier in a fortnight.
Villa announced Barry was staying put on Wednesday after the Reds failed to respond to the club’s 5pm deadline to meet their £18m asking price. The club have confirmed no bid was received before or after the cut-off point.
Now it is understood Liverpool do have the money in place to finance a deal and it is that which has dismayed Barry, who feels the club jumped the gun by announcing he was staying just minutes after the deadline.
Villa face face FH Hafnarfjardar in the UEFA Cup second qualifying round, with the first leg at Villa Park a week on Thursday. O’Neill is sure to be keen to field Barry, currently his only option at left-back.
UEFA have confirmed to Expressandstar.com that Barry’s inclusion would leave him cup-tied until the Champions League knockout stages, which would surely ruining any lingering hopes of a move being resurrected.
Yet Liverpool would be allowed to register three more players before the February deadline, but only one can have played for another team in Europe in the same season.
O’Neill and Barry held talks yesterday, where the possibility of a new £70,000 a week four-year contract came under discussion.
The chances of Barry putting pen to paper, despite the inclusion of a get-out clause, appear remote.
Villa are also set to hear the outcome of Brad Guzan’s work permit hearing, which will determine whether the American goalkeeper’s transfer from Chivas can go through.
See Also:
9 Comments
If Gareth Barry still has his heart set on joining Liverpool, then he should ask for a transfer, It is the only way to resolve this farce sooner rather than later.
Liverpool want him, Barry wants Liverpool, Villa want £18 Million, Liverpool now apparently have the money, for heavens sake do the deal.
Report abuse
Forget barry, Buy David Silva. silva should be our no1 priority
Report abuse
If this is how Villa reward Barry after 10 years service its no wonder no one wants to play for MON. Egomanic comes to mind when ever I see or hear him
Report abuse
As left winger Liverpool needs Vary for big muches against the three and for Championship. Liverpool still short of real right winger to be complete team.
Report abuse
i dont know if anyone else agrees but this barry thing is getting very boring now. i dont know if anyone else agrees but if liverpool really wanted him they would of come up with the money and brought him by now they found £20 million for robbie keane the real truth is benitez dont really want him there gerrard does and when he does go to liverpool he wll have to fight gerrard,alonso,mascherano,lucas and benayoun for a place so let him go and sit on the bench cause with villa’s really lacksy daisy approach in the transfer market weve got no chance of finishing in the top 6 let alone the top 4
Report abuse
If Barry asks for transfer in writing then Villa save another 3 million. That makes the transfer at least a 22 million deal for Villa. And, they have the balls to criticize Liverpool about money! ha ha ha fools!
Report abuse
magnumopus,
How does it make the deal £22 million ?
Barry gets 10% of the final transfer fee.
I take it you worked that one out on Benitez’s calculator !?
Report abuse
I am amazed how the press in this country (I am not referring to the E&S here) get away with printing such blatant lies as ‘fact’. All this talk of Liverpool missing the deadline by 20 minutes is a complete fabrication. Villa had not received an improved offer from Liverpool in over a month and there was NO offer made shortly after the deadline expired.
Report abuse
Villa should snatch Liverpool’s hand off for this deal and throw Petrov in for free.They will never get another chance to get anywhere near this much for Barry.Nobody else is interested in him and I can understand why.He is too slow to be effective as an attacking midfielder and is not a ball winner to defend the back four as holding player.As we saw with England he is hopeless when faced with skillful quick opponents.John Gregory had him bang to rights a long time ago and not much has changed.I thought MON had seen the light with the beautiful game in Vienna but obviously not.
Report abuse