Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Liverpool FC To Concede Defeat Over Gareth Barry

Rafael Benitez will step up his efforts to bring in midfield reinforcements – and finally concede defeat in his pursuit of Gareth Barry.

The Liverpool manager is determined to strengthen his left side and is set to make this his priority in the remaining two weeks of the transfer window.

Although the Spaniard still holds out hope that he can complete Barry’s move from Aston Villa, there is no sign from owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett that they will buckle from their refusal to meet the £18m asking price.

And that is likely to remain the case even if Liverpool raise more transfer funds from selling players on.

Time is running out for the likes of Xabi Alonso, Andriy Voronin and Jermaine Pennant to complete moves away from Anfield, as no official bids have come in for the players.

A scenario which further limits Benitez’s spending power as he continues to search for a left-sided attacker at the end of a summer in which Valencia’s David Silva, Newcastle’s James Milner and Albert Riera from Espanyol have all been considered.

Ryan Babel’s imminent return from the Olympics after his Holland side were knocked out may provide one solution to the current lack of width, but he is not a natural midfielder.

Benitez has already revealed he will make one more signing with the cash he currently has available.

But his chances of landing his top target Barry have rapidly deteriorated in the past few weeks, with Liverpool’s hierarchy publicly stating that they are unwilling to match Villa’s asking price for their captain.

The Midlanders then ensured the would be cup-tied in Europe until the new year when they fielded him in their Uefa Cup game with FH Hafnarfjordur last week.

Barry hit the net in the game and played a major part in Villa’s 4-2 win over Manchester City in their opening Premier League game on Sunday.

Liverpool will be the next visitors to Villa Park on August 31, and despite opening their campaign with an away win at Sunderland, centre-back Sami Hyypia is demanding considerable improvement.

“The first half in particular was not good enough, we know that,” he said. “It was tough for us at the start of the game. They came out of the blocks really quickly and set a really high tempo, which you’d expect because it was their first home game of the season.

“They put us under a lot of pressure and maybe we were a little bit slow to get going.

“It was certainly not the best game we have played but the important thing was that we got better in the second half and at the end Fernando popped up with a goal and that was enough to win the game.

“The most important thing is that we got the win. We have had pre-season and that was our first game in the league so it was good to get three points on the board and keep a clean sheet.”

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