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O'Neill: Desperate for Barry stay

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Martin O'Neill believes Gareth Barry should resist the urge to move to Liverpool because he is held in higher regard at Aston Villa.

England midfielder Barry's proposed move to Liverpool has become one of this summer's ongoing transfer sagas as Villa hold out for an £18million asking price.

The 27-year-old has admitted a desire to join the Reds and was recently booed at a pre-season friendly with Walsall, but he received warm applause when replacing the injured Wilfred Bouma in Saturday's Intertoto Cup victory over Odense at Villa Park.

And with Liverpool having failed to make contact for seven days, manager O'Neill feels Barry - who is eager for UEFA Champions League football - should be in no doubt about how highly he is valued in the Midlands.

Message

"Having not heard anything from Liverpool for some time it is clear we value him more than they do," said O'Neill. "The fact they have not answered us for a week sends out a real message.

"We obviously don't want him to go, so the price we are asking is a fair and realistic one for a player who is so good. In fact I think it is really cheap.

"He has been with us for 10 years and the crowd reaction was really strong in his favour.

"I don't think there's any doubt about what we all want at Villa Park. We want him to stay at the club.

Terrific

"I am not in the habit of encouraging players to talk to me after games but I told Gareth he had been terrific. We need him at this club. He would be a terrific loss for us."

And O'Neill - who steered Villa to a sixth-placed Premier League finish last season - is eager for Barry to stay in order to witness further improvements.

"My own view is that he should hang around for another year and see if we can make further progress as he would want," added O'Neill.

"Gareth is still only 28 next year - if we don't get where he wants to go, everybody would wish him well."