Barry waits for next Reds move

10:11am Friday 4th July 2008

The cat and mouse game between Aston Villa and Liverpool over the signing of Gareth Barry appears set to continue as Rafael Benitez ponders an improved bid for the England midfielder.

Reds boss Benitez has made four separate bids for the player, the latest reputed to be around £15million, but still £3million short of O'Neill's valuation.

"Gareth has made his position clear and after that it is straightforward," Villa boss Martin O'Neill told his club's official website, www.avfc.co.uk. "We have put a valuation on him and Liverpool value him differently at the moment. That is what the stalemate is, it is nothing else."

He added: "Gareth has pointed out he wants to go and if Liverpool come up and meet our valuation, he will go. That has been the case since the beginning of June when Gareth said he definitely wanted to go to Liverpool.

"We put a valuation on him and we have based this valuation on a number of straightforward issues, not least that he is actually a top-quality player."

The saga took a another bitter turn on Wednesday when O'Neill fined Barry two weeks' wages - around £80,000 - following a Sunday newspaper article in which the player severely criticised his manager's handling of the situation, claiming he had not made enough effort to keep him at the club.

Then Barry was told he was not welcome at pre-season training. That situation is unlikely to change until Villa have left for their training camp next week.

O'Neill said: "When somebody says they want to leave a football club, there is not much else you can do about it.

"We had a meeting a few weeks before that, (owner) Randy (Lerner), 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 am 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?"

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