Martin O'Neill has told Liverpool that they are undervaluing Gareth Barry, the Aston Villa captain, after last week's £10million, cash plus players, offer.

The Villa manager has spoken to Barry and agreed that detailed talks over the England midfield player's future should be delayed until after the season finishes on Sunday, when Villa could qualify for fifth place in the Barclays Premier League.

“At the moment it would be like me offering Barcelona £20 million for Lionel Messi. They would say, ‘So what?'” O'Neill said. “We're absolutely millions of miles apart, although we want to keep Gareth here and build a team around him anyway.This lad is playing for England. But the point you're leading me to is if they meet a certain valuation, then we'll do it and that's not the case.

“First of all he has two years left to run on his contract and secondly you don't want to be keeping unhappy players. But at this minute, until the story broke in the newspapers, I hadn't heard about Gareth being unhappy. I've spoken to Gareth and we'll have further discussions after the season's over.”