The cat and mouse game between Aston Villa and Liverpool over the signing of Gareth Barry appears set to continue as Rafael Benitez ponders a fifth bid for the England midfielder.
Reds boss Benitez was challenged by Villa counterpart Martin O'Neill on Thursday to meet his asking price, after revealing he has long accepted his captain will leave the club.
Benitez has made four separate bids for the player, the latest reputed to be around £15million, but still £3million short of O'Neill's valuation.
The Villa boss told his club's official website: "Gareth has made his position clear and after that it is straightforward.
"We have put a valuation on him and Liverpool value him differently at the moment. That is what the stalemate is, it is 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.
"We put a valuation on him and we have based this valuation on a number of straightforward issues, not least that he is actually a top-quality player."
The saga took a another bitter turn on Wednesday when O'Neill fined Barry two weeks' wages - around £80,000 - following a Sunday newspaper article in which the player severely criticised his manager's handling of the situation, claiming he had not made enough effort to keep him at the club.
Then Barry was told he was not welcome at pre-season training. That situation is unlikely to change until Villa have left for their training camp next week.
O'Neill said: "When somebody says they want to leave a football club, there is not much else you can do about it.
"We had a meeting a few weeks before that, (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 am 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 have gone from 16th to 11th to sixth in the league. This season we are going to try to push on from there. So the one thing you want to do is keep your best players."
Barry's position at Villa is now clearly untenable, with no prospect of him ever pulling on the club shirt again and fans turning against him as the transfer battle has escalated into bitter recriminations.
Benitez, in the circumstances, would feel O'Neill will have to give way at some stage and he need not match the £18million asking price.
But if that is the Anfield strategy, it is going to be a long drawn-out affair and could go to the last day of the transfer window at the end of August.
That would not suit either club or the player and would cost Villa six weeks of wages for Barry that they could save by allowing the deal to go ahead.
Liverpool insist they are still talking to Villa and they have not made a final offer.
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Comment 1 - 14 of 14
just accept 15 million and get him out im sure randy can stand to lose 3 million otherwise barry will buy himself out and we will get sweet fa for him 15 million should still get us bentley but dont bother with sidwell hes another player who read all his own press and let it go to his head just like dwight yorke and now barry forget about robbo and buy rob green
he's not worth 18million after five offers..keep alonso or sell him and get a right winger instead. JUAQUIN, JESUS NAVAS, BENTLEY or SCHWEINSTEIGER are good canditates coz i think KUYT still feels akward there as it's not natural for him. let LUCAS play in the middle with GERRARD and MASHCHERANO
barry not worth more than 10 million tops. some great talent was on show at the euros alot of them would love to play at liverpool alongside torres, lets get some fresh premiership talent in;after all barry's hardly set the prem alight....
they should get villa or silva there much better than barry.
i RECKON lIVERPOOL SHOULD SIGN GUIZA OR SENNA !! THEY WERE GREAT IN EURO'S !!
I think alonso should stay and liverpool should put bids in for better players like silva , xavi , sergio ramos or kaka . And we should keep Alonso ! HE'S BETTER THAN BARRY !!
this is now more boring than the ronaldo - real madrid thing now. i think barry is not worth any were near that much and liverpool should be aiming for better players like silva.
i cant believe that once again liverpool are doin wots best for gerrard not the club, gerro wants barry at club not the club itself, get some1 better, like keeping xavi would be a good start!!!!
yeh well ges wat ur all gay but me
whats going on who nows but i will tell every liverpool fan out there that we should keep alonso. (what vision this player has) alonso is are player maker and he does do a better job then most.
steven gerrard what a player but he is the one who wants barry at the club.
all liverpool will be doing is losing 18 million on a player that is woth 8 - 10 mill
at the most. if you are going to spend 18 mill atleaqst get a better player then barry.
example freddy adu
If Barry is valued at 18 mill, Alonso must be in the 20 mill + category . Alonso is a much better passer of a ball is strong & has an eye for goal from 45 + yards. Dave true red
barry is not worth 18 million keep alonso he is ten times the player barry is
i still think if this affair being draged further and further liverpool will be the last winner.both villa n barry will suffer a lot.
I totally fed up with this saga...please find something more interesting going on in football to write about as all this story does is bring a wide yawn to most fans!
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