areth Barry is to be offered the ultimate bargaining tool after Martin O’Neill told his star player that Aston Villa will forsake the £12 million transfer fee they could hope to extract from Liverpool this summer if he wishes to run down the final 12 months of his contract.
On the day that Stiliyan Petrov committed himself to the club by signing a new four-year contract, O’Neill, the Villa manager, confirmed that he is ready to offer Barry a lucrative deal but would settle for another season of the England midfield player’s services even if it meant losing him on a free transfer next summer.
However, should Barry opt to leave the club where he has played for the past 12 years, O’Neill will honour his pledge not to stand in his way.
Barry had his heart set on moving to Anfield last summer, but, with Rafael Benítez’s desire to make a final £20 million bid thwarted by Liverpool’s owners, he knuckled down to maintain his outstanding form for club and country. He has regained the Villa captaincy since Martin Laursen suffered a career-ending knee injury at Christmas and knows he could increase his £47,000 weekly wage to £75,000, as well as being granted a testimonial, by staying at the club.
Liverpool would be willing to match his salary but could not guarantee him a starting place and may wish to play him out of position on the left.
Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham Hotspur manager, is also believed to be back in the hunt for Barry. When in charge of Portsmouth, Redknapp almost signed Barry for £5 million in 2006 before O’Neill’s arrival prompted the player to stay and sign a four-year contract.
With Villa having secured another top-six finish in the Barclays Premier League before Sunday’s final game at home to Newcastle United, Barry has still not made it on to the Champions League stage he craves, but he has mended relations with O’Neill since last summer’s acrimony to the point where the manager is content to leave all options open to the player.
“With Gareth, you do accept, having spent 12 years at the club, he would be wanting to have a look at other particular things. Are Villa no longer a selling club? At the moment, we are pretty vibrant. It will be up to us to try to maintain that.”
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