Exclusive: Benitez and O'Neill come face-to-face over Gareth Barry
Published 00:00 02/08/08 By By David Maddock
Rafa Benitez and Martin O'Neill came face to face last night - but still couldn't settle the cold war over Gareth Barry.
The Liverpool manager and his Aston Villa counterpart - who have been squabbling over the England midfielder - gave each other a distinctly frosty reception.
The pair were forced to wait in the same room at a work permit tribunal in Sheffield as both clubs applied for visas for their players. Nothing more than grim acknowledgments were offered as the stand-off over Barry grew ever more acrimonious.
Benitez was there to talk in support of an application from his young Argentine winger Sebastian Leto, and was left fuming not only by the presence of O'Neill but also the Department of Works' refusal to grant the permit.
The two Premier League coaches refused to speak to each other, instead preferring to wait until the drama is eventually settled, suggesting that it could be some days before Barry's future is ultimately decided.
Liverpool thought they had finally signed the Villa skipper on Wednesday, when they had an £18million offer accepted, but failure to swiftly agree payment terms led the Midlands club to pull the plug on the deal.
That has left Barry fuming, and in a meeting with O'Neill he accused the club of betraying him. He also suggested that his current mental state will make it difficult for him to train and play for the club.
O'Neill believes Benitez has acted improperly throughout the saga, and that has led to Villa's unyielding stance.
Benitez has revealed privately that there is no love lost with his counterpart, and that is why there was such a frosty exchange between the pair.
Villa will have to back down from their insistence on Wednesday that a deadline has passed and the player will now stay at the club, if Barry is to be put out of his misery.
The player himself is praying that O'Neill and Villa owner Randy Lerner will see sense and allow the deal they have already agreed to proceed.
That is unlikely to happen until next week at the earliest, with Liverpool ready to approach their rivals once more to resurrect the deal.
Barry will have looked on enviously yesterday as the draw was made for the Champions' League qualifier, with Liverpool offered the relatively easy task of a tie with Belgian champions Standard Liege.
Even if the midfielder is allowed to move to Anfield, he will not now be signed in time to play in the qualifying tie, and must instead hope that his intended new club reach the group stages.
Benitez said: "I'm pleased we don't have to go too far, especially when you look at some of the teams we could have drawn."
