O’Neill stands firm on Barry
Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill has hit back at wantaway captain Gareth Barry, admitting he has been left with little choice but to accept the England midfielder’s decision to leave for Liverpool.
No-nonsense O’Neill fined the 27- year-old a reported £100,000 and banned him from the club’s training ground after Barry told a national newspaper that O’Neill had failed to make any contact with him over the proposed transfer. Indeed, the Villa boss responded angrily to the claims, insisting Barry’s intentions to leave for Anfield had left the club with little choice but to keep him away from Villa Park.
Villa have angered Barry after turning down three offers from Liverpool in the hope of holding out for an estimated £17m.
But O’Neill blames Barry for the internal bust-up and denies that either he or owner Randy Lerner had done anything to prevent the deal from going through.
“When somebody says they want to leave a football club there’s not much else you can do about it,” O’Neill said.
“We’d had a meeting a few weeks before that, Randy, myself, Gareth and his agent and he said that Champions League football was what he wanted to do.
“So this idea that we have not done anything in our power to keep him, I’m afraid I totally and utterly disagree. Why on earth would we not want to keep our very top player at the football club when we’re trying to improve? Gareth has made his position clear and after that it’s straightforward.
“We’ve put a valuation on him and Liverpool value him differently at the moment. That’s what the stalemate is, it’s nothing else.
“Gareth has pointed out he wants to go and if Liverpool come up and meet our valuation, he will go.”
Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez is expected to meet the asking price for Barry in the next couple of days in the hope of linking him up with England colleague Steven Gerrard in the centre of the Reds midfield.