Martin O'Neal is trying to frustrate the move, but he's ended up and made Barry an adversary in the process.

first off: 18 Million is a greedy sum to ask for a player not worth that much;

Secondly, Villa are not gonna play in the champions League in the Next 5 years, why hold these players back?

Posted by: da soloist | July 2, 2008 7:34 PM

I totally agree with all the above except I am not a big fan of MON - in my opinion he is over-rated as a manager (yes he was good in the SPL, but doesn't cut the mustard down south). His man-management skills leave a hell of a lot to be desired, as demonstrated by the Barry saga - the original post puts it very well. Instead of throwing his dummy out of the pram, he should get on with it, accept that Barry is leaving for a bigger club, take the money and invest it wisely in one or two quality players.

Posted by: mike | July 2, 2008 7:34 PM

well he has been with villa a long time and they show him no respect in his hunt 4 a beeter life at liverpool he should by out his contract and move on if he dose not want to do this he should stay were he is snd we should keep alonso

Posted by: james (i would die 4 liverpol) jenkins | July 2, 2008 7:35 PM

well he has been with villa a long time and they show him no respect in his hunt 4 a beeter life at liverpool he should by out his contract and move on if he dose not want to do this he should stay were he is snd we should keep alonso

Posted by: james (i would die 4 liverpol) jenkins | July 2, 2008 7:35 PM

"O'Neill (who I have to admit I am a fan of) can't handle it. Come on Martin, grow up, you're better than this!"

Actually, no he isnt. O'Neill when he was manager at Celtic was asked about poaching players from the small Scottish clubs and said "I dont need to apologise. I do my best for my (me) club".

On another occasion rumours suggested he had been approached by Rick Parry to replace Houlier. Parry asked him to release a statement denying it and O'Neill refused.

He is a self-centred git and is only making a bad situation worse.

Posted by: Edinburgher | July 2, 2008 7:41 PM

are you a complete numpty? Barry had an unauthorised interview with notw, which he slated the manager and clearly lied (they met after start of june not 7 weeks previous & he was offered a better contract). Barry doesn't want to play for the club so why should he train with the team. You can't mess o'neill around. I know your seeing it from a pool perspective, but its just a daft opinion

Posted by: aron | July 2, 2008 7:42 PM

Maybe he isn't bigger than what his actions are showing????? Perhaps we will now call him Baby O'Neill for his pram tantrums...

Posted by: magnumopus | July 2, 2008 7:43 PM

Barry is clearly not world class and never will be. How he's worth as much as Mascher i'll never know, and honestly believe This move is aimed at the premiership title. Same as Keane. Proven players who can help us not loose/win some extra points against the lesser teams in the EPL. Keane and Barry will bring that, with epl experience and not needing to settle either. Rafa is clearly going for the league as a priority. These kind of players, however, will not help us against the top 3 in england or europes top dogs. For that we need the villa's, silva's and alvez's...which we obviously can't afford!
Are Barry and Keane any better than Momo, bellamy and pennant or just more on form this past season?

Posted by: rowan | July 2, 2008 7:45 PM

O'Neill was right on to ban Barry from training. O'Neill is at least partly responsible for Barry's current place in the England squad and the way Liverpool and recently Barry have behaved regarding this transfer is atrocious. Good for MON for sticking to his guns and not taking any sh*t.

Posted by: Mark | July 2, 2008 7:59 PM

I say don't sign him!!!! we already have a good player that plays at the same position. XABI ALONSO is a great player he just had a bad season. He is better then Barry. Please understand that Barry costs a lot. Buy players that you need not players that you already have.

Posted by: al | July 2, 2008 8:01 PM

Suspending Barry makes every sense. MON wants the focus on upcoming tasks like the Intertoto cup and getting into the top four. Having Barry around would be a negative influence on all the players and media hypo would be focussed on him not on the team.

He will never wear a Villa shirt again so he and the team need to get used to it. This is just the start of the post Barry era.

When he sits on Rafa's bench a few times perhaps he will realize that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

Posted by: kigr | July 2, 2008 8:20 PM

waste of money, could get someone alot better for 10 mill.

Posted by: john | July 2, 2008 8:22 PM

Agree ... I'm a little gobsmacked by this and have to say my high opinion of MON is now being questioned ... this is NOT about football, this is about attitude/emotion ... yep u got it spot on MON needs to grow up bigtime, as this could backfire on him. I also feel for the villa fans, this must be very frustrating, like us, if someone wants to go, get rid so u can bring in a replacement asap ... the better players will start to get snapped up over the next week, so MON needs to be sorting now and not playing games as they are risky!

great season ahead guys

Reikirebel :-)

Posted by: reikirebel | July 2, 2008 8:23 PM

I think Rafa should let villa come to him now, after all villa are going to have a very unhappy player on there hands especially now that he has been fined and suspended from training.
Rafa should now be looking at the likes of david silva etc etc and if villa do come back to liverpool saying ok we now want to sell i hope rafa lowers his price

Posted by: Red Machine | July 2, 2008 9:05 PM

Oh dear another lfc fan who has misread the situation.No Villa fan is begrudging Barry the chance to play CL football and MON has conceded that Barry is going and that LFC can have him if they come up with the same fee as the mancs paid for Carrick and hargreaves- 18mill -the going rate. Barry has been fined for slagging off MON and then claiming that MON didnt try to keep him even though Barry and his agent had earlier requested a move because his 'heart was set on it'. Fairplay on MON and Villa for holding out. If Benitez and Barrys boyfriend Stevie G tap up players that they cant ultimately afford( as you did with Milner and now keane) then it doesnt say a lot about Lfc and it wont be making you many friends away from home next season.

Posted by: chrisb | July 2, 2008 9:29 PM

No, that's not it at all. I think MON is setting a precedent--IT'S NOT GOING TO BE EASY TO PRISE OUR PLAYERS AWAY!!! I don't really think he feels THIS strongly about Barry--he just wants to give Ashley, Gabby, et. al. something to think about, along with all the other teams of the world who may be interested in these guys.

Posted by: bizriak | July 2, 2008 9:46 PM

don't sell barry, let him rot on the bench at villa for the 09-10 season!

villa fan

Posted by: nick | July 3, 2008 1:31 AM

Forget about Gareth Barry and Robbie Keane, both are over rated and near 30s

Posted by: Joseph | July 3, 2008 2:09 AM

O'Neill suspended him because of speaking to the press without club consent.

I'm a Liverpool fan, but even I dislike the way we've set about luring Barry to us. You see the true face of the modern footballer when a 'name' club comes in for him.

If it was Everton or Manchester City, he'd stay where he was, but mention Liverpool or Manchester United and suddenly the player sings a different tune.

Posted by: Sherief Razzaque | July 3, 2008 5:09 AM

Gareth Barry has NOT been suspended from training for " questioning his gaffer's refusal to discuss his much-publicised transfer situation"
,he has been suspended for I quote "been disciplined after giving an unauthorised interview to the News of the World" - which is a breach of contract. The fashion of his critisism of the Manager and the Owner was engineered to create the maximum
damage for the faith of the Aston Villa fans towards their hierarchy, which I'm afraid has backfired.
If Barry has a grievance, then he should see the Manager personally which he could have done today in training or even hand in his transfer request -thats my advice but I'm not his agent.

Aston Villa don't mind players leaving for their goals if players acts in a more dignified manner such as Olaf Melberg who left for to play CL football at Juventus - still a Villa hero.

Its interesting to see what Alex Ferguson would do if Ronaldo behaves the same way.

Aston Villa has an interesting season ahead, their season starts in 3 weeks time in via a Intertoto match to qualify of the UEFA Cup, and to press on to the next level in the Premiership and do not need this type of distraction and publicity.

Posted by: Will | July 3, 2008 10:49 AM

As much as I think Barry would be a great addition and a great link up with Gerrard. He is simply not worth £18 Million. If they pay £15 Million it is still too much. I'd say Scott Carson packaged with lets say £9 Million would be a good deal.

I like Barry but he is 29.

I think with the supposed last offer of around £17 Million they would be better spending it on Podolski or Bentley. Or better, both.

With Lucas and Plessis showing a lot of promise last year it seems as if the Reds won't be short on skilled holding midfielders. I know another reason for the Barry acquisition is the lads will be off for the Olympics.

I mean imagine the 4-2-3-1 Rafa had enjoyed employing last year with the two players I think that would serve Liverpool best.

Reina
Dossena-Agger-Carragher-Degan
Masch-Alonso(if sold Lucas)
Podolski-Gerrard-Bentley
Torres

That right there is a great lineup..

Posted by: Matthew | July 3, 2008 1:26 PM