Benitez resolute in pursuit of Barry

Jun 14 2008 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

RAFAEL BENITEZ is prepared to dig in and play a waiting game with Aston Villa in order to sign Gareth Barry.

Villa rejected a third Liverpool bid for their captain on Thursday, believed to be in the region of £15million but with manager Martin O’Neill admitting that the England international has his heart set on a move to Anfield, Benitez is in no rush to push through the move this weekend.

The Spaniard is away from the club until next week and although he realises that Liverpool must now make a fourth offer for Barry, he is willing to bide his time to capture the player he knows is craving Champions League football.

An irate O’Neill, who is unhappy with the way Liverpool have publicly conducted their attempts to pursue Barry, has broken down all direct contact with Benitez and is also at odds with their valuations of Peter Crouch and Scott Carson who are possible makeweights in the deal.

Although O’Neill has conceded that Barry’s desire for a move will now mean that his club football now lies away from Villa Park, he and owner Randy Lerner remain determined to get as large a fee as possible for their prize asset who they value at £20million.

Benitez is also willing to wait on Barry because any potential exit from Anfield for Xabi Alonso is not likely to be completed until after the European Championship finals.

Reports in Italy yesterday suggesting that Liverpool had agreed a £14.2m fee with Juventus for the Spanish international midfielder are wide of the mark.

Although Liverpool have had lengthy talks with the Serie A club, who are now believed to be eyeing Bayern Munich’s German international Bastian Schweinsteiger as possible alternative, they have still yet to receive an official bid for Juventus for Alonso, whom they value at £16million.

Financial constraints at Anfield mean that Benitez will have to offload several players this summer to balance the books for big money purchases like Barry and as well as the aforementioned Crouch and Carson, the likes of Steve Finnan, John Arne Riise and Jermaine Pennant could all be heading for the exit door to help raise funds.

One player who will not be leaving Anfield this summer is top scorer Fernando Torres.

Some speculative reports yesterday suggested that Benitez could be tempted to cash-in on the freescoring Spaniard if Chelsea were to offer them a world record fee but Liverpool’s stance on the player remains the same in that he is happy at Anfield and is not for sale.