Former Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill has revealed he was left “irritated” by Liverpool’s botched attempt to sign Gareth Barry – with the manager claiming the Reds were unwilling to stump up the cash for the England midfielder. Barry joined Villa in 1997 after coming through the youth ranks at Brighton & Hove Albion and was a key player for the West Midlands club, helping them to a top six finish in the 2007/08 season.
Under the stewardship of Rafa Benitez, the Reds were widely known to be interested in bringing the midfielder to Anfield, with Barry himself publicly criticising O’Neill and vocalising his desire to play European football.
“My mind’s made up, I want to join Liverpool,” Barry said in the summer of 2008. “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.”
The midfielder was subsequently fined by his club for giving an authorised interview and no move materialised, although he did eventually end up on Merseyside when he joined Everton in 2013 after a spell with Manchester City. Lifting the lid on the failed transfer on The Football Authorities podcast, O’Neill told football commentator Clive Tyldesley that Steven Gerrard had pushed to bring his England teammate to Liverpool.
“Liverpool wanted to buy Gareth Barry,” he said. “Gareth was a good friend of Steven Gerrard, and I think Steven Gerrard wanted him to come as a soulmate as much as anything.
“It was the manner of the approach as much as anything else which probably irritated me. Probably because I didn’t want to lose Gareth Barry.”
O’Neill explained it was while he was on punditry duties during the 2008 European Championship that he found out about Liverpool’s attempts to buy one of his star players. “I’m alerted to this article in the newspaper that’s appeared, with Gareth Barry’s been very, very annoyed that me being out there while I’m not conducting his supposed transfer to Liverpool,” he said.
“I thought, ‘Wow, this is it.’ And so, yeah, I get on the phone to Gareth and said, ‘Where’s this come from?’ And I’m not happy with him, and I’m certainly not happy with Liverpool, because Liverpool have put the story out.”
Shedding light on what prevented the move from happening, O’Neill said: “Mr. (Randy) Lerner and myself put a price on Gareth, and if Liverpool wanted to meet it then that would be fine, he could go. But Liverpool did not meet the price, and obviously it befuddled everyone. They said they could only go to a certain amount of money. I think we were looking for £10m for him – I think they went to £8m but wouldn’t go any further.
“And then it all got rather messy, and Liverpool pulled out leaving an unhappy player – unhappy with us, unhappy with Liverpool for not perusing it to its bitter end since they were the ones that started it.”
The former Villa boss added: “Liverpool then promptly, about a week later, bought Robbie Keane for £20m. So, that was annoying, and certainly Gareth got really irritated with Liverpool for not, as I say, pushing it through.”
