"I'm good friends with Gareth off the pitch and I'm desperate for us to sign him.

”He's a good player and, when you talk about strengthening the team and the squad, Gareth would certainly help Liverpool be a better team next season. He's been a fantastic servant for Aston Villa but, in football, sometimes opportunities come along where you can better your career. Gareth is 27 now and I think he needs to be playing Champions League football. In my opinion he can do that.

"He's quite an easy player to play with - he keeps it simple, is quite easy to read, and I've certainly enjoyed playing with him because we've got a good relationship on and off the pitch. I've been asked a lot of questions this year about Fernando Torres and the simple answer is that it's easier as a player when you're playing with quality players. Gareth comes into that category."

Steven Gerrard taps up Gareth Barry.


“My mind's made up, I want to join Liverpool.

”There's no going back, it's time for me to move on. I'm desperate to play Champions League football and that's why I have to leave Villa.

”It's seven weeks now since the season finished but while the gaffer's found time to be a pundit for the BBC at Euro 2008, he hasn't found the time to speak to me. But Liverpool boss Rafa Benítez has shown how much he wants me at Anfield."

Gareth Barry.


"Gareth will not be returning to training tomorrow and he has been disciplined after giving an unauthorised interview to the News of the World."

Villa statement 3 July 2008.


"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 . 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."

"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."

Martin O’Neill pre-match.