O'Neill warns Reds to hurry

6:59am Friday 25th July 2008

Martin O'Neill has warned Liverpool he is ready to set a deadline for them to meet his valuation of want-away Aston Villa skipper Gareth Barry.

O'Neill insists Villa cannot continue to be at the "behest" of the Merseysiders who have failed to offer the £18million he is seeking for the England midfielder.

He said: "At some stage or other there will have to be a timescale on it because we cannot just keep going on like this."

The former Celtic boss is aware he has to make his own plans for the new campaign and needs to know whether he will have the services of Barry.

Already O'Neill is considering using the 27-year-old in Saturday's home Intertoto Cup clash with Odense BK.

But that would not make Barry ineligible to play Champions League football if he eventually moved to Anfield.

O'Neill, who has rejected four bids for Barry from Reds counterpart Rafael Benitez, said: "It's been unfortunate. We don't know where we stand at this minute.

"Liverpool have not officially come back to us in any form of writing. It is a really awkward position here at this minute.

"We have got our own plans to make - and we shouldn't be at the behest of Liverpool Football Club.

"We have to pick up the pieces and I could go on for forever and a day talking about it. It doesn't really matter. We have to see what develops."