Rafael Benítez labelled Gareth Barry a “100 per cent” mercenary yesterday for joining Manchester City last month. The Liverpool manager also adopted a hostile position with regards to the increasingly uncertain futures of Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano.

Benítez condemned Barry’s £12 million move from Aston Villa to City and declared that Alonso and Mascherano “owe” it to Liverpool to stay at Anfield as reports grow of their possible moves abroad.

Glen Johnson, the £18 million acquisition from Portsmouth, was praised by Benítez for his desire to play for Liverpool when other, larger, financial packages were available. City and Chelsea were eager to sign the 24-year-old — for considerably more than his new £90,000-a-week deal — but the right back insisted that Liverpool were his first choice because he believes that he can improve more under Benítez’s tutoring.

Liverpool courted Barry last summer before negotiations broke down, primarily because Martin O’Neill, the Villa manager, insisted that he would not allow the midfield player to leave the club. Benítez thought that he had his man again this summer but Barry, despite earlier protestations that he only wanted to leave Villa for Champions League football, decided to join Mark Hughes’s side instead.

“He [Johnson] was always thinking about Liverpool so for us to sign a player who wants to come, an England international with experience of being at a big club, is really good, because of his desire to be successful here,” Benítez said yesterday. “In this market, money is not the main thing because everyone at this level earns big money. If it’s just for money sometimes you make mistakes, like Barry.

“I won’t say too much but that was clearly for the money, 100 per cent. It is not a bad thing to miss out on him. The most important thing is the passion of the player.”

Benítez received a boost yesterday with Steven Gerrard signing a new deal worth about £26 million that will keep him at Anfield until 2013, but the Spaniard grew riled by the questions regarding the future of Alonso and Mascherano amid suggestions that neither will be at Anfield next season.

Real Madrid have not hidden their desire to attract Alonso to the Bernabéu and Mascherano continues to be linked with Barcelona. If the pair leave, they will do so without Benítez’s blessing because he feels the players should reciprocate the loyalty that Liverpool have shown them.

“Both are under contract with long-term agreements,” the Liverpool manager said. “Alonso came from Real Sociedad and nobody had heard much of him outside of Spain. He did well and we renewed his contract, and Mascherano came from West Ham, where he had not been doing well. Both players owe a lot to Liverpool.”

Johnson revealed that he was a boyhood Liverpool fan and insisted that Benítez’s promise to “make me a better player” was central to his move. He said: “There were other clubs in for me but I didn’t come close to going back to Chelsea. Once I spoke to Rafa and knew what he wanted from me, it was an easy decision.

“The key was that he was keen to help turn me into a better player. I kept hearing and reading about other clubs interested in me and Manchester City was one. City are buying good players, but you can buy good players and not necessarily buy a good team.

“Once I’d heard about Liverpool, and realising I would be playing with some great players, it was an easy decision. I want to do what I did last season, play regularly, play well and improve as a player.

“It is a big season, with the World Cup next summer and my ambitions to get there with England. But for now I am concentrating on showing my best for Liverpool. Everything else will follow from that.”