Liverpool's Barry bid angers Villa boss

(CNN) -- Liverpool have made a bid to sign England midfielder Gareth Barry, according to his manager at Premier League rivals Aston Villa.

Martin O'Neill confirmed the news after being angered by continued reports in the British press about Barry's future, with the 27-year-old also linked with Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez is believed to want Barry to form a midfield partnership with his longtime friend and England colleague Steven Gerrard, while O'Neill would reportedly want striker Peter Crouch to move to Villa Park as part of the deal.

Reports said the Merseyside club had offered $20 million for Barry.

"Liverpool haven't made a straight cash offer. They've made an offer involving a mish-mash of nameless player exchanges," O'Neill told Villa's Web site.

"I'm particularly disappointed to hear that business is being conducted in public, and I just want to be clear on this -- we're trying to build a side here and we're not a feeder club.

"I don't want to be in a position of letting really good players go. Gareth Barry is a really good player who still has two years left on his contract.

"I haven't discussed these things with him yet. At some stage obviously I will do, but the day before probably our most important game of the season is not the time to be discussing it."

If he does move this summer, Barry could make his final home appearance against Wigan on Saturday -- nearly 10 years and almost 400 appearances after making his debut for the Midlands club.

Villa need to win to have any chance of pipping Everton to fifth place and a UEFA Cup spot for next season.

Barry has resurrected his England career since O'Neill took charge at Villa in August 2006, winning a recall from then manager Steve McClaren and continuing to feature under his replacement Fabio Capello to take his international caps tally to 17.

"A couple of weeks ago Gareth said he would prefer to wait until the end of the season before we start discussing things, and I think that would be the right thing to do," O'Neill said.

"It's particularly disappointing to find out that Liverpool have carried the story in their local paper. It's certainly not the way that the Liverpool of old conducted things. I prefer to do things with a bit of privacy and confidentiality.

"That's particularly disappointing, especially at this time -- we've got two important games coming up.

"Liverpool's season might effectively be over as they've qualified for the Champions League and their interest in this season's Champions League ended a few nights ago." E-mail to a friend

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