Striker Gabby Agbonlahor has admitted Villa’s players remain in the dark over skipper Gareth Barry’s future at the club.

Big question marks again hang over where the England star will be playing his football next season, with Liverpool widely tipped to make a fresh bid for the player.

Villa will try to tempt the 28-year-old, who has one year left on his contract, into signing a lucrative new deal.

But, should Barry opt against that, they are prepared to risk him leaving for nothing next summer just to hold on to him for another year.

Agbonlahor revealed the claret and blue dressing room are united in their desperation to see the midfielder stay, but insists the players are none the wiser over his intentions.

The forward said: “Everyone knows about Gareth, but it’s football and he’ll do what he feels it’s right to do.

“He doesn’t tell us anything. It’s his business. It would be great to keep him and it would be great to keep all our quality players but it never happens like that, does it?

“We’ll wait and see. I’m quite close to him but he doesn’t really talk about what’s going to happen to him, so I’ll just leave it to him.”

Agbonlahor insists Villa, who again ended the season in sixth following Sunday’s 1-0 win over Newcastle, have proven they are now a force to be reckoned with.

He added:“We’re disappointed that we didn’t finish higher than last season, but we still got more points than last season.”