Liverpool yet to make new Gareth Barry offer

Jul 1 2008 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

LIVERPOOL have still yet to make an improved bid for Gareth Barry after Aston Villa manager Martin O’Neill admitted that his unsettled captain could move to Anfield if Rafael Benitez met their valuation for the England midfielder.

An increased offer of around £18million is now expected to be enough to end the long-running transfer saga and prise Barry away from the Midlands club but despite Benitez and several members of his squad returning to Melwood yesterday, Liverpool are still plotting their next and likely to be decisive, move.

O’Neill has hit back in his row with Barry and told him he is free to join Liverpool – for the right price – after the 27-year-old claimed the Ulsterman had not done enough to convince him that he was wanted.

However, O’Neill responded to his player’s verbal attack yesterday by saying: “The chairman and I were surprised at Gareth’s comments.

“Contrary to what he said, we desperately wanted to keep him – and he knows that.

“We asked both Gareth and his agent to consider what had been discussed at our meeting which included a variety of options to incentivise the player.

“But Gareth came back from England international duty in June and reiterated his intention to join Liverpool and he told me so.

“Liverpool’s valuation of Gareth has been consistently well short of our own and at the moment remains so.

“But if they meet our valuation, Gareth will get his expressed wish to leave. Until then, he remains an Aston Villa player.”