BARRY`S FUTURE REMAINS UNCLEAR
Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill still has has no idea if Gareth Barry will be at the club next season.
In one of the longest running transfer sagas of the summer the England international had been expected to complete a big-money move to Liverpool.
However, despite tabling numerous bids, the Reds have failed to match Villa's valuation of their skipper and appear to have cooled their interest in the 27-year-old.
O'Neill concedes that negotiations between the Premier League rivals have stalled and has not ruled out the possibility of Barry remaining at Villa Park next term.
"We haven't heard back from Liverpool," he told Sky Sports News.
"We asked them for some written confirmation for something that was put to them at the time, which they asked for, but we haven't heard back.
"I don't know what their position is, whether their chase for other players has overtaken everything, but it's preventing us from getting on and we want it sorted as soon as possible.
"But if it means Gareth remaining as an Aston Villa player then that's something I wouldn't be too unhappy about."
O'Neill refused to set a timescale in which he wants the matter resolved, but admitted that the sooner it is sorted the better it will be for all concerned.
"I'm loath to put down markers early on and then find out that we're unable to meet them," he added.
"But at some stage we do have to know, and the player will want to know his port of call.
"If Liverpool are unable to do it then the sooner they let us know the better."
O'Neill also refuted suggestions that he had fielded Barry in a friendly date against Walsall on Tuesday, where the midfielder was roundly booed, in an attempt to humiliate him in front of the club's supporters.
"First of all Gareth wanted to play in the game against Walsall and I don't think anyone was setting out to humiliate him in the game," said O'Neill.
"He's in the right frame of mind and he'll be in the squad for the game tomorrow (against Odense in the Intertoto Cup).
"He's our player. A fortnight ago we were shunning him and now we're being criticised for playing him a game in which he wanted to play."
