Villa captain Barry will be a Liverpool player at the weekend

Barry, thought to have already found a house to rent in Cheshire to be close to Melwood training ground, trained with Villa yesterday but did not figure in a behind closed doors friendly against Notts County.

Optimistic: Gareth Barry believes he will finally conclude his drawn out transfer to Liverpool at the weekend.

However, despite Villa's public insistence that he will be staying, the England international is confident his protracted move is imminent.

Villa accepted Liverpool's bid of £17.5m plus £1.5m-rated defender Steve Finnan on Wednesday but after a bank guarantee failed to arrive at the agreed time they told Liverpool the deal would have to be paid in two instalments instead of the originally agreed three.

Liverpool, who will find out their Champions League opponents in today's draw in Switzerland, have since been working with their banks to make the deal happen while friends say Barry, 27, is furious with Villa's attitude.

Villa boss Martin O'Neill has been angered by the manner of Liverpool's approach and is determined to put up a fight, though.

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez made his interest public in May and Barry's outburst in a Sunday paper, attacking Villa boss Martin O'Neill and confirming his desire for Champions League football with Liverpool, inflamed the situation.

Benitez, who has raised £20m from the sales of Peter Crouch, John Arne Riise, Scott Carson and Danny Guthrie, believed he would have to sell again to finance any other buys. But owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett authorised more borrowing to secure Barry. He will, however, raise a further £5m by selling Jermaine Pennant to Blackburn - failing any last-minute intervention from Portsmouth. Pennant, 25, joined Liverpool from Birmingham for £6.7m two years ago.

Blackburn boss Paul Ince, meanwhile, confirmed a season-long loan deal for YouTube sensation Carlos Villanueva.

The Chilean Footballer of the Year could wrap up a permanent £4m move from Audax Italiano if he impresses at Ewood Park this term. And Ince admits that Villanueva's skills have already been spotted on internet site YouTube by his new team-mates.

Ince said: 'Some of the lads have been watching him on the internet. He looks different class on there.'

Ince also insisted it was time to look to the future after giving the green light to David Bentley's sale to Spurs.

He said: 'I've got fed up with talking about David Bentley. For everyone's sake, I think it was best to get it out of the way. The transfer window is a bit of an inconvenience when clubs are trying to nick your players!

'It's bang out of order and it winds me up.'