O'Neill Deepens Rift With Barry As Villa Hold Out on Transfer Fee

Gareth Barry's relationship with Aston Villa deteriorated further last night when Martin O'Neill ridiculed claims he had done nothing to keep his captain at the club. The Villa manager confirmed the midfielder's career is effectively over in the midlands, and he will be free to join Liverpool the moment they meet the £18m asking price.

Liverpool had a fourth offer for Barry, of £15m, rejected by Villa on Wednesday but are hopeful that, with the England international fined and ostracized by O'Neill, a compromise deal can be reached within days. The 27-year-old has been fined two weeks' wages and ordered to stay away from Villa's Bodymoor training ground indefinitely for criticizing his manager and attempting to accelerate a move to Anfield in an interview last weekend. Though Villa's double punishment may represent a breach of Barry's contract, the player and his representative are reluctant to appeal or involve the PFA in the hope that O'Neill will negotiate with Liverpool.

O'Neill though, is determined to hold out for his asking price: "We've put a valuation on him and Liverpool value him differently at the moment. That's what the stalemate is, it's nothing else," O'Neill admitted. "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 . We put a valuation on him and we have based this valuation on a number of straightforward issues - not least that he's actually a top quality player."

Liverpool may attempt to end the impasse with an offer of £15m plus additional payments this weekend. But O'Neill's anger has deepened following Barry's claim he decided to end his 10-year stay at Villa only when the club failed to offer him a new deal.

The Villa manager added: "You can talk and you can talk and talk but the bottom-line was that when he came back from the England game in Trinidad and Tobago he told me he wanted to leave. When somebody says they want to leave a football club there's not much else you can do about it. We'd had a meeting a few weeks before that, 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'm afraid I totally and utterly disagree."