Fri Jul 4 22:31:16 2008

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Villa coach O'Neill won't budge on Barry

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Birmingham, England (Sports Network) - Martin O'Neill again warned Liverpool that Gareth Barry will not be leaving Aston Villa unless they match the value of the wantaway midfielder.

The Villa boss has now rejected three bids from the Reds from his unsettled skipper, who has set his sights on a move to Anfield in a bid to play Champions League football.

But despite telling the 27-year-old to stay away from preseason training and disciplining Barry for an outburst in a Sunday newspaper, O'Neill has reiterated his claim that the club captain will not be sold for anything less than his value.

O'Neill has reportedly placed a nearly $35 million price tag on the head of the England international.

"We're really disappointed that he's not going to be with us, he's made his mind up to go to Liverpool," O'Neill told the club's official website. "When somebody says they want to leave a football club there's not much else you can do about it.

"I think we have made steady improvement - we've gone from 16th to 11th to sixth in the league. This season we're going to try to push on from there. So the one thing you want to do is keep your best players.

"But Gareth has made his position clear and after that it's straightforward. 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.

"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's actually a top-quality player."

(Courtesy of sportbox.tv)