Liverpool FC will not match Aston Villa’s £18 million price tag on the head of Gareth Barry.
A stalemate has been reached between the clubs with Liverpool refusing to increase an offer of £14 million plus Steve Finnan for Villa’s want away midfielder.
Gareth Barry has returned to training with Aston Villa but the captain has made it clear he wants a move to Liverpool, and Benitez has already signalled his desire publicly to bring the player to Anfield.
Villa are facing an European Inter Toto game this weekend, but interestingly Villa will not be selecting Gareth Barry, their captain, to take part in the fixture.
{Article amended:} Barry will not be cup-tied if he plays for Villa in the Inter-Toto cup.
Villa fans are deluded they will never ever finish fourth except in the championship
We need barry!
Gareth is a good player but not yet in the striking class as torres, pool has always been a fantastic club and will keep being even without the likes of Gareth so i think villa fans should hold their peace.every good coach makes a star out of any of his player and i think mon is scared to lose his best foot knowing he may not have the capacity to breed another.if he is a good coach as claimed then i think he can raise 11 Gareth if he likes.at pool our season will always be great with the legs that we have and that point benitez would be out to prove.watch out villans.
Aren’t most of you forgetting that next year Barry can buy his way out of the contract for far far less than MON will get on a sale this year? There is no such thing as “has to serve out the last two years of his contract”. It is only one year, at which point MON proves that as far as he is concerned, his personal pride is worth at least 10 million pounds. Of course I realize that this is nothing compared to what Fergie thinks HIS pride is worth.
Now THAT is narcissism.
why would liverpool want to pay 18mil for barry, when we have alonso, who is pritty much exactly the same player
Rafa concentrate on buying keane, barry comes second
im a liverpool fan,and yes,gareth barry is a very good player,and i can see why mon wants to keep him. but i have to say this,is he worth 20 mil? thats around the same price for fernando torres that we payed for him.im not sayin gareth barry wont be as good as that if he moved to anfield,but fernando torres is one of the best players in the world atm,and gareth barry probarly aint at that level yet (sorry if any offense taken)
If Villa finish 4th this season (miracles do happen!) it will be at Man United’s expense and they’ll be looking 3 places above the eventual winners – Liverpool.
If Stevie me me me wants to play with Gareth Barry so damned much why dont he come to the Villa and have his wish? After all we will be in that 4th place next year, with or without Mr Barry and then lets see how much he wants the champions league!
seriously, u villans are taking this too far. whats the difference between sneijder saying he wants rafael van der vart at madrid than gerrard saying he wants barry at liverpool.barry is quality but martin o neill is just big timing himself.id love to have barry at pool (same goes for R Keane). we need players with desire to bleed liverpool red. players who -risking fines and getting slammed by their own fans – publicly coming out and saying they want to join the greatest club in the world.and i think benitez knows this. the other theory is that we need players who are used to the drastically cold during winter apparently. i tell you what will be great – week 3 of the EPL at villa park.
But is he injured?????????????????????????? Or does he not want to kick another ball in a villa shirt. Mmmmm me thinks it could be the latter. Mon doesnt know what he’s doing. Mind you he must do cos he’s had success in Scotland. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.
This is becoming a battle of wills between two managers. If they do not want to sell im, leave im there to fart around a pitch on his own. We should not have offered Finnan. We have not seen the best of him yet. leave Barry to understand that we only want loyal players.
I think you would be fooling yourself if you thought that Barry would be ‘devastated’ if he had to stay at Villa. He has been there 10 years and loves the club in spite of his desire to play in the champions league, so his staying wouldn’t be as big a problem to him as some would like to believe.
He isn’t playing in the game on Saturday because he picked up a foot injury in training yesterday, although of course it is debatable that MON would have picked him anyway.
If Barry wants to go that badly he should put in a transfer request.
I’d rather see him play for the reserve team than go to liverpool .
‘Secondly, are you Villa fans really prepared to keep hold of a player who doesn’t want to be there?’
I’d rather have the ridiculous amount of cash, but if no deal is done then fine. He’s a good player and will still be a good player.
‘Why isn’t he playing in the Inter Toto cup?’
Injured in training today.
its not the point if villa fans want to keep him. personally i cant wait to see the back of him after what he said, but every player has a valuation and Barrys is £18m. Id rather we kept him in the reserves than bow down to another clubs demands. No offense Liverpool, but Villa are no longer a selling club.
He’s not playing because he’s not fit and because he picked up a slight angle niggle today in training which will rule him out of Saturday’s game.
As for the sale (and I openly admit to being a Villa fan), unlike Liverpool we’re not strapped for cash, so to be frank I don’t care if he sits in the reserves next season. I know the obvious thing would be to let him go for say £15 million now rather than keep him unhappy at Villa for another season and then sell him next year for half the price as he’ll have just a year left on his contract, but the big picture here is that if we back down now then we set a precedence going forward, and we can’t do that if we want the club to be percieved as growing and going places.
The football fan in me also hates how Liverpool have tapped this one up (not to mention over valuating their own players like Carson and Crouch), almost to the point where I’d rather let the gunners have him for 20 quid rather than sell him to Liverpool. Pool fans must feel concerned now that nobody wants to do business with Benetez, who has clearly shot himself in the foot with several clubs now and is obviously a desparate man with no cash (because he spent so much last year and produced nothing) and therefore he’s being given no more now without selling first. If you ask me he’s a desparate man who knows he’ll be sacked next season if he doesn’t bring in trophies. I don’t deny that he has achieved at Liverpool, but like boxers, football managers are only as good as their last fight in the eyes of greedy owners these days. Damn it, greedy owners and even more greedy players (Barry, Lampard, etc)…what happened to football?!?!?
O’Neill has consistently said Villa don’t want to sell him. Benitez can play chicken with O’Neill but he will lose and Villa will be happy to have Barry again next season and will be more likely to displace L’pool for 4th place with him. $18M to make sure Villa are less competitive. Might be worth it for L’Pool.
O neil thinks he is Cloughie by treating his players like its 1970. Barry is de motivated £60k poorer and out of the squad. £18m is too expensive, oneils ploy has back fired,he has alienated his best player and got no money for his trouble. Villa state they dont need to sell Barry but they forgot they needed to keep him sweet incase the sale didnt go through. Now they are a man down and no better off. All he had to do was talk to Barry but no he is young Cloughie so he shunned him instead fined him and banned him – genius.
We will sign Barry I’m convinced of that, we must remember that the window is open till the 31st of august so there is a long ways to go, I see a lot of you are indifferent towards Barry, a mistake as I for one will be glad when the deals done as Barry is one of the best box to box players we have in the Prem and I see him giving us more consistency, he and Gerrard work well when with England so why not with L’pool. The asking price must drop, a bit of reality is needed by O’Neil just look at one sale today for 11 mill (Hleb to Barca)so it makes the asking price for Barry look silly and he his being priced out of a move he wants so get real Martin and take whats on offer which is more than fair, 14 mill + Finnan in fact you are getting more than you should do so take it and put it to bed….
He’s injured apparently
Barry is not playing in the Intertoto because he is not match fit, has not been training and picked up a knock on Wednesday on his return plus AVFC don’t need a moaning tart in the middle of the park when there’s a football match on.
If anyone really thinks that Villa are particularly bothered about whether Liverpool will pay the money or not does not know what the manager and owner are like these days. If as is intimated the fee is 18 mill then Lerner and MON will not sell under that. Barry has 2 years on his contract left which he will see out unless someone comes in for him. Anyway Barry now has a foot injury so thats even more time on the sidelines
Barry did his knee in training, not serious but out for a week.
I think most Villa fans and MON are upset at Liverpool making a laughable bid (That let be honest was NEVER going to be accepted – it was just to stir things up.) 4 weeks before the end of the season (EIGHT weeks before the transfer window opened) and RIGHT before an important game. And *regardless* of who leaked it Gerrard was ALWAYS going to confirm it true to Barry to try and unsettle him. And it worked.
And because of that most Villa fans would rather he went to Arsenal or stay and run down his contract than move for even £20m.
We don’t need or want your money.
Wants the point in playing him when he is clearly lacking match practice. You may be right that he isn’t worth £18m but if MON doesn’t want to sell why should he make it easy? If he sets a precedent of letting any player go then who next, Young, Agbonlahor??
The thing thats has annoyed everybody is that Benitez has gone around unsettling players left,right and centre and it’s looking questionable whether he actually has the funds.
Very underhand indeed in my opinion.
Because he’s going, that’s why.
What’s the issue and why do you not accept that the price is the price. How refreshing to see MON and AVFC make a stand. If you’re honest, you have to accept that the way things have been handled by Mr Benitez and Mr Gerrard is disgraceful and to be honest if Barry sits in the reserves for the rest of his contract then it would not be a bad thing for the game in general. Before you come back with the response that if Villa don’t accept then he won’t play and will be sold in January for half the price so what’s best for Villa” get real and accept that it ain’t going to happen. We all know he will be gone by KO time and if there is any justice then he will be at Arsenal and not with you. The irony is that a Manure fan at work (who has never been to The Theatre of Screams) thought it funny and stated that “as a small club you must expect your best players to want to move on to better themselves” to then be faced with the same issue over Ronaldo. Poetic justice or what?
It’s not that Villa are being unreasonable but someone, sometime has to make a stand and well done to MON and Randy L! I agree with the earlier comments made that when Liverpool start acting without respect and dignity then it’s an indication of just how much of a sorry state the game is in. Come on Arsenal, buy yourself a real good player and I’m sure the price is negotiable if the approach is as it should be.
He is not playing because he will not be fit enough. The players have been back 2 weeks & had 3 friendlies already while Barry has been night clubbing in Brighton.
Do we want him, does’nt matter what we want. Its down to the manager & chairman & it appears they are not going to be bullied by a much poorer Liverpool board.
I’m a Villa fan and to be honest, yes I would rather have a player on the bench unless someone can match our offering. If Barry wants to go that much why doesn’t he hand a transfer request in? There’s the additional £3mil. Simple. If you buy a tin of beans for 50p at Tesco, do you try and haggle with the cashier saying you think their only worth 40p? Its simple economics, we want £18mil, therefore we will wait till we get that offered! UTV
Great!
Then he remains a Villa player, we dont need the cash
You have no cash, and any you have goes straight to the states.
lol….jokers
Because we do not need the money therefore if he leaves at the end of two years for nothing so be it. The valuation stands take it or leave it, it matters not to us.
Something tells me he needs first team football or he wont get his desire of a move in any case particularly if this goes on beyond this window.
The reason “us” villa fans want to keep him is pretty obvious from performances last year… we for the first time have the necessary financial backing (thank you mr.lerner) so why do we need to sell our prized -formerly loyal captain/ lynchpin…? we are trying to break into what you pool fans take for granted- top four finishes…
for all the abuse he has got from liverpool fans being “average” and “not as good as alonso” etc… I am surprised he isn’t going to stay… but that is the modern day footy player… loyalty – pfffft.
whatever happens M O’N knows what he is doing…
BRAAAAP- up the Villa!
He is not playing in the Intertoto cup because as you may have missed he has been suspended and has not trained.
Yes, I am perfectly prepared for him to stay. If he really is as ambitious as he says he will want to retain his England place (If Capello will have him after this outburst)and if he is a professinal he will get his head down and work. If he sulks and plays up he wil NEVER get his wish for Champs League football
Silly me, I always thought that transfers were had via negotiating prices. Perhaps this is the Villa way of doing things once the manager gets pissed off and acts like a child!
Firstly apologies for stating he would be cup-tied. I forgot that UEFA had indeed changed the rules across different competitions.
Secondly, are you Villa fans really prepared to keep hold of a player who doesn’t want to be there? Why isn’t he playing in the Inter Toto cup?
UEFA rules have changed and you cannot be cup tied between different competitions this season I.E.champs league and UEFA cup
He wouldn’t be cup tied. New rules allow transfers different European competitions without ‘cup tying’ a player. i.e Barry could play in the UEFA Cup and then the Champions League with a different team in the same season.
Not correct….
UEFA have changed the rules enabling players to play in more than one competition. You should really check your facts.
Get the facts right please. If he plays in the Intertoto he is NOT cuptied.
Barry has said he wants Champs League Football so if Liverpool won’t pay his worth to allow it he will have to consider options such as Aresenal who are selling Hleb as we speak.
The fee has been set from the beginning if Pool don’t want to pay and someone else does fair enough. If no one pays he still has two years of a contract to see out.