Milner Tempted By UEFA Cup?

The England midfielder responded with applause of his own as he turned in his usual measured performance after replacing stricken Dutchman Wilfred Bouma at left-back.

The news from Birmingham is simple - if Barry goes to Liverpool - Villa will pay Newcastle's asking price of £9m, and the youngster is said to be keeping his options open, as Villa look like competing in the UEFA Cup this campaign.

And with Liverpool still to come up with an offer approaching the £18million Villa are demanding, O'Neill, who banned Barry from the training ground after his newspaper sideswipe at the Northern Irishman, is hoping his star man will stay.

"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.

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

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