Angry Villa boss Martin O'Neill fires off at Liverpool counterpart Rafa Benitez over Barry transfer saga

Aston Villa's boss charged the Spaniard with being insincere and failing to understand the concept of respect as a war of words intensified.

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O'Neill was already upset last week after the news broke in Liverpool of the Anfield club's player-plus- cash offer for the England midfielder but yesterday he found it difficult to contain his emotions.

'Apparently I spoke to Rafa 20 days ago,' said O'Neill. 'I never denied that conversation — actually, I pleaded the Fifth Amendment — but we have had no prolonged conversation since.

'Benitez is quoted after that as saying he knew my idea and I knew his. What idea was that? The only idea I had was to get him off the phone and say "No". He spoke to me about Gareth Barry and I told him I was not interested in selling but I would put it to my owner who deserved to be told about these things. But I said to him I would assume Randy's (Lerner) viewpoint would be concurring with my own. That was the case.

'The next time I spoke to Rafa was last Friday when he rang me to ask if I'd seen his faxed offer. I told him I had seen it. It was only after I put the phone down that I realised the story had broken in Liverpool.

'He was on the phone to cover his backside. I phoned back immediately to say I was amazed to find out the story had appeared in the local paper.

'So, all this about a prolonged conversation with him about Gareth is simply untrue. It's disingenuous of him and he knows that.

'He's said something about wanting to respect our viewpoint by waiting until the end of the season. In my view, Rafa does not respect anything.'

He added: 'I read Benitez puts a £15m price on a player (Peter Crouch) with one year left on his contract because he is playing for England. Gareth Barry is playing more regularly for England but he then talks about £10m which includes cash and players.

'It just makes him a laughing stock going by what he's said before. I could not be more angry. It's a long time since I've been this angry.

'He said maybe his English wasn't the best. I don't know about my accent but my English is pretty clear. After getting an A' Level studying Thomas Hardy I know I am usually grammatically correct.'