Liverpool's £10 million valuation of Gareth Barry is considerably less than Aston Villa believe their international midfielder is worth, even if they were thinking about letting him depart this summer.
Martin O'Neill, the Villa manager, is still unhappy at the way Liverpool have conducted themselves in expressing their interest in his captain. "I must clarify this point," he said yesterday, "as we speak we are a million miles away. "It would be like me offering £20 million for [Lionel] Messi. Barcelona would say, 'So what?' That's not saying that Messi would want to come."
Asked whether he thought £10 million was less than Villa valued Barry, O'Neill said: "Absolutely. Without question. This lad's playing for England. I have to say the way the whole thing was mentioned, it was hardly worthy of answering."
Besides, O'Neill said: "Obviously, trying to keep Gareth will be the most important thing we try and do in the summer time."
O'Neill said that he had spoken to Barry, but would sit down once the season finished at West Ham on Sunday, and discuss an extension to a contract that has two years to run. "He felt he got a bit affected by all the speculation," O'Neill said. "Up until the story broke in the newspapers, I hadn't heard about Barry being unhappy at the football club.
"We shouldn't be surprised that football clubs are interested in him. But being surprised at clubs being interested and us wanting to do something are two different issues.
"We're attempting to get [up] there with those teams. The whole idea is that in the not-too-distant future Aston Villa are up alongside Liverpool."
O'Neill has talks planned next week with Randy Lerner, the Villa owner. The Barry saga has been muddled by comments that General Charles Krulak, Lerner's right-hand man, suggested he should be allowed to go if he was unhappy.
O'Neill said: "The person I would be speaking to is Randy. He was disappointed to hear the way it was handled. His view is that we're looking to move on, that was why he took the club over in the first place."
