ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE:MARTIN O'NEILL faces a major test of his powers of persuasion after he confirmed Liverpool have made an offer for Gareth Barry, the England international he has sought to build a team around.
Liverpool's interest has been mooted for some time but the Villa manager is deeply upset that details of the bid, which values Barry at around €12.8 million, have been leaked on Merseyside.
More worrying for O'Neill, however, is that Barry is likely to be attracted to the prospect of moving to Anfield.
O'Neill, who has aspirations of breaking the big-four stranglehold, insisted Villa are "not a feeder club" although he will also be aware that, at the moment, he cannot offer Barry the Champions League football he craves.
Two years ago the Villa manager was able to persuade Barry to stay at the club, when the 27-year-old was on the verge of joining Portsmouth after becoming disillusioned with the previous regime but this time, with Liverpool in pursuit, the task appears more difficult.
Liverpool have offered cash plus players for Barry, although it's highly unlikely Peter Crouch's name, a Villa target, is among those made available. Rafael Benitez, the Liverpool manager, would not comment on the offer for Barry yesterday but he did confirm Crouch has been offered a new contract. The makeweights in the deal are more likely to include Scott Carson, who has been on loan at Villa this season, and John Arne Riise, who will leave Liverpool in the summer.
Neither player would be of great interest to O'Neill who, even if Crouch became available, would be reluctant to sacrifice Barry for the England striker.
"Liverpool haven't made a straight cash offer," explained O'Neill. "They have made an offer involving a mishmash of nameless player exchanges. I'm particularly disappointed to hear that business is being conducted in public and I just want to be clear on this in that we're trying to build a side here and we're not a feeder club."
"We want to be trying to challenge," continued the Villa manager, whose side could move up to fifth with a victory over Wigan at Villa Park this afternoon.
"At some stage we want to get to the position that this football club once held. That will demand an awful lot of effort. It will take a supreme effort and it will take very, very good players.
"I don't want to be in a position of letting really good players go. Gareth Barry is a really good player who still has two years left on his contract."
Villa will seek to improve Barry's current deal, something that was planned before Liverpool tabled their interest, although the talks will now need to focus on much more than a pay rise. Barry is expected to seek assurances the club will recruit players capable of propelling the club into the top four and, even then, there can be no guarantee he would reject the chance to join Liverpool.
"A couple of weeks ago Gareth said he would prefer to wait until the end of the season before we start discussing things and I think that would be the right thing to do," Villa's manager said.
"It's particularly disappointing to find out that Liverpool have carried the story in their local paper. It's certainly not the way that the Liverpool of old conducted business. I prefer to do things with a bit or privacy and a bit of confidentiality. That's particularly disappointing, especially at this time."
O'Neill has played a key role in resurrecting Barry's career. The player's return to form coincided with O'Neill's arrival at the club, with Barry since going on to regain his England place and be touted as a future captain of his country.
