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Aston Villa open talks with skipper Barry

14/05/2008

Aston Villa have opened talks with team captain Gareth Barry over his future amid firm interest from Premier League rivals Liverpool.

The England international enjoyed arguably his best top-flight season to date as he led the Villans to sixth place in the table and with a realistic chance of qualifying for Europe next season through the Intertoto Cup.

But his future at Villa Park has been cast into doubt after Reds manager Rafael Benitez confirmed to the press last week that he is interested in buying the player this summer.

Barry himself has remained quiet on the rumours that he may seek to join the Anfield outfit, although speculation suggests his head has been turned by the more realistic prospect of silverware on Merseyside.

However, Villa manager Martin O'Neill has repeatedly expressed his desire to keep Barry and build a team around him that would be capable of challenging some of the biggest sides on the continent.

"We've spoken to Gareth and our situation remains the same - that everyone at Aston Villa Football Club wishes very strongly that Gareth will stay," O'Neill told the club's official website.

"Obviously he's at a big stage of his career. He's 27-years-old and he's been here almost ten years. He's due a testimonial and if he sees the club continuing to progress we definitely want to keep him."

O'Neill admitted the situation surrounding Barry is "very much up in the air", especially since he had received a firm offer from Liverpool as a starting point for negotiations.

"The main aim for the chairman and myself is to try and keep him at the football club. That's what we're trying to do," he continued.

"You can make people see out their contracts but in essence we would want a pretty amicable solution to all of this and we're still hopeful that things can be resolved in favour of Aston Villa.

"I think Gareth sees the club progressing - he sees that every day. He sees how he is valued at the club. That's something that is important and not something you can demean.

"I understand a career only spans a certain amount of time and you want to get as much as you can out of that.

"But Gareth has played for England because he plays regularly for Aston Villa and his England place is not in jeopardy because he's playing for Aston Villa at the moment - frankly [national team manager Fabio] Capello does not need to see him playing in a Champions League game to be convinced."

O'Neill added Barry "has not expressed his unhappiness" at the club but, ominously, he admitted he is "never overly confident" when it comes to negotiations of this kind.

"Anything can change at the drop of a hat… but what I would say to the fans is that we're doing our utmost and we'll continue to do so. We want to show Gareth that we mean business," the manager concluded.