Rafael Benitez, the Liverpool manager, has further fuelled his war of words with Martin O'Neill by claiming the Aston Villa manager should come to terms with the prospect of losing Gareth Barry.

The pair have clashed over Liverpool's interest in the Villa captain, and on the day that O'Neill said he and Randy Lerner would make a last-ditch attempt to keep Barry, Benitez has fired his latest volley claiming "If your captain wants to leave, it's a problem, but that's football."

The Spaniard's latest comments are bound to anger O'Neill, who was furious last week at the manner of Liverpool's approach for the England midfielder. The Villa boss attacked Benitez when he was told the Spaniard had claimed to have had "prolonged discussions" with him about Barry, even though Benitez had never been quoted as saying that.

Liverpool's manager has staunchly defended his actions, saying: "I think the right approach when you want to sign a player is to talk to the manager.

"I was talking to Martin O'Neill. I said we would like to sign Gareth Barry and asked what the situation was. He just said he needed to talk to the owner and I said okay. He will not have any problems with his supporters because he never said to me he wanted to sell Barry.

"We were also talking about Scott Carson because they have the option to sign him. We were just talking about football so why he was so angry, I do not know. I have been very clear. The player had said before that he wanted to play Champions League football. We knew that and so tried to sign a good player. It is that simple.

"If your captain wants to leave, it is a problem, but that's football."

Earlier today, O'Neill has said he is preparing to make one last bid to keep his captain. O'Neill said: "I wouldn't want to be saying how confident we are (of keeping Barry). It's a different era we live in. We will see. All I know is he has never expressed one iota of unhappiness in my time at Villa Park. He might not have stayed that long had he been really unhappy before. We are going to be sitting down very shortly and discussing Gareth's future. We won't let this lie.

"I am going to see the chairman in the next couple of days and, with a bit of luck, the two of us together might be able to persuade him to stay. I say persuade him - but he still has two years left on his contract."