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Villa still waiting for improved Barry bid

04/07/2008

Martin O'Neill has reiterated that Gareth Barry will not be leaving Aston Villa unless Liverpool meet the club's asking price.

Liverpool have had a £15 million offer for Barry rejected already, with Villa holding out for at least £18 million.

The 27-year-old's move to Anfield has seemed inevitable ever since the England midfielder told O'Neill he saw his future away from Villa Park.

Speaking to the club's official website O'Neill said of his captain: "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. That has been the case since the beginning of June when Gareth said he definitely wanted to go to Liverpool."

O'Neill said he was really disappointed" with Barry's desire to swap the Villans for the Reds, which he first expressed after returning from England's friendly with Trinidad and Tobago.

"When somebody says they want to leave a football club there's not much else you can do about it," the manager continued.

"We'd had a meeting a few weeks before that, [Villa 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'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?

"I think we have made steady improvement - we've gone from 16th to 11th to sixth in the league. This season we're going to try to push on from there. So the one thing you want to do is keep your best players."