The Villa boss attacked Benitez when he was told the Spaniard
had claimed to have had "prolonged discussions" with him about
Barry, even though Benitez had never been quoted as saying that.
Liverpool's manager has staunchly defended his actions, saying: "I
think the right approach when you want to sign a player is to talk
to the manager.
"I was talking to Martin O'Neill. I said we would like to sign
Gareth Barry and asked what the situation was. "He just said he
needed to talk to the owner and I said okay. He will not have any
problems with his supporters because he never said to me he wanted
to sell Barry.
"We were also talking about (Liverpool goalkeeper) Scott Carson
because they have the option to sign him. "We were just talking
about football so why he was so angry, I do not know. "I have been
very clear. The player had said before that he wanted to play
Champions League football. We knew that and so tried to sign a good
player. It is that simple.
"If your captain wants to leave, it is a problem, but that's
football." O'Neill and Lerner will make one last bid to keep hold
of Barry in the next 48 hours. O'Neill said: "I wouldn't want to be
saying how confident we are (of keeping Barry). It's a different
era we live in. We will see.
"All I know is he has never expressed one iota of unhappiness in
my time at Villa Park. He might not have stayed that long had he
been really unhappy before. "We are going to be sitting down very
shortly and discussing Gareth's future. We won't let this lie.
"I am going to see the chairman in the next couple of days and,
with a bit of luck, the two of us together might be able to
persuade him to stay. "I say persuade him - but he still has two
years left on his contract."
Barry admitted he had been affected by all the speculation over
his future but was outstanding Sunday's 2-2 draw at West Ham which
secured an Intertoto Cup spot for Villa. O'Neill said: "Gareth
might have been affected by the speculation last week but I thought
he was back to his best at against West Ham.
"He did splendidly for us. You would not have thought he had
anything else other than a win on his mind." O'Neill also
criticised Benitez, suggesting Liverpool had leaked their initial
bid for the player to the media. But Benitez said: "We made an
offer but I think we were straight. When you make an official
offer, you do so by fax. Some people see the fax and you cannot
control everything.
"The Birmingham press found out about the offer and it was not
our fault. They were very clever and used that information. "I was
talking with Martin O'Neill 20 days before that and nobody knew. We
were doing things properly. We are waiting now to see what happens
next."
