Martin O’Neill has delivered the strongest possible message to Liverpool and Gareth Barry that he believes the England midfielder will remain at Aston Villa for at least one more season and that he will be better served by committing his future to the Midlands club.

Having let it be known that the protracted transfer saga, which began prior to the end of last season, must come to an end, the Villa manager revealed that Liverpool have not responded for the past week to Villa’s demands for an urgent resolution.

“Obviously we value him more than Liverpool do,” declared O’Neill, buoyed by Villa’s progression to the Uefa Cup second qualifying round and by the Villa crowd’s support for Barry in the victory over Danish side Odense BK. O’Neill has refused to compromise on his £18m valuation of a player whom he regards as one of the best in Europe. Having finished sixth in the Premier League last season, the Villa manager and his chairman, Randy Lerner, are striving to break into the top four and losing their best player to a club which is part of English football’s Champions League cartel would be a devastating setback at this stage of O’Neill’s rebuilding of the club.

With Liverpool either unable or unwilling to pay the £18m transfer fee which would secure Barry’s move to Anfield, O’Neill has made it clear Barry would be better off staying at a club where he is clearly loved. Barry came off the substitutes’ bench in the 15th minute to replace Wilfried Bouma, who suffered a badly dislocated right leg, and was met by a thunderous reception from Villa supporters, some of whom were among the 5,000 who subjected him to chants of “Judas” and “You’re not fit to wear the shirt” in a friendly game at Walsall on Tuesday.

“It was a fantastic reaction by the fans today, really great and there is no doubt we would all love him to stay,” O’Neill said. “The price we are asking for Gareth Barry is a true and realistic valuation of a player of his outstanding quality. He is a top-quality European player. In fact, [£18m] is cheap for a player of his quality and please don’t read the wrong thing into that. I do not want him to go, far from it and Liverpool not answering us for a week on certain things sends out a real message.

“This player has been great at Aston Villa for 10 years and the crowd have come out strongly in his favour. That is what they think of Gareth after this length of time and I would not expect it to be any different.”

The sound of silence from Anfield over this long-running affair, which has seen O’Neill and Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez clash openly and has caused arift to develop between Barry and the club he has served for 10 years, is in sharp contrast to Benitez’s public courting of the player. With the collapse of a deal that would have allowed Liverpool to bring in £16m from Juventus for Xabi Alonso and the £20m transfer fee Liverpool have committed to paying to secure Robbie Keane from Tottenham, the Merseyside club do not appear to have the funds available to make the Barry deal happen.

Having missed the first leg of last weekend’s 2-2 Intertoto Cup game in Denmark with a foot injury, Barry began the second leg against Odense on the bench. He was warmly applauded by Villa fans in the Trinity Road End when he came off the pitch after the warm-up - a gesture which he reciprocated - and as he took his place among the other substitutes. Then a freak injury to the unfortunate Bouma prompted O’Neill to introduce Villa’s prodigal son into the game. As he took up his position at left-back, Villa fans rose to their feet and chorused, “There’s only one Gareth Barry”, and although short on match fitness he lacked nothing in class or commitment to the cause.

“The unfortunate thing was the circumstances in which he had to come into the game. The initial word from the doctor is that Wilfried has suffered a dislocation of his right leg, which is still a bad injury, and it’s in plaster at the moment,” said O’Neill. “He’s a good, strong character, I’m hoping he will come through and I’m sure that he will.”

Villa triumphed in yesterday’s Intertoto Cup game thanks to a goal by Ashley Young after Baye Djiby Fall had hit the post for Odense. Nigel Reo-Coker spotted Young in yards of space on the left, passed him the ball and the 23-year-old did the rest. The Odense defenders’ decision to give ground rather than try to halt his run made up Young’s mind that he would come inside and shoot, which he did, beating former Aston Villa player Eric Djemba-Djemba before unleashing a fierce drive from outside the penalty area into the top left corner of the net.

Star man:Ashley Young

Scorer: Aston Villa:Young 50

Referee:C Cakir (Turkey)

Attendance: 35,000