Aston Villa FC

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Barry opens talks with City

02 Jun 2009 - 12:34:52

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England international midfielder Gareth Barry looks set to leave Aston Villa this summer having opened talks with Manchester City.

The 28-year-old, who was linked with a transfer to Liverpool last summer, has 12 months left on his Villa Park contract but has spoken in the past about being keen to play Champions League football.

Although City will not be playing in Europe next term, a brief statement on Villa's official website read: "Aston Villa can confirm today that Gareth Barry is in talks with Manchester City."

With Villa once again missing out on a top-four finish in the campaign just ended, boss Martin O'Neill accepted recently that Barry could be leaving the club this summer.

He said last month: "We'd like him to stay, but we understand that he's been at the club for 11 years. If someone came in with the offer of the Champions League, then that's something we'd look at.

"Even if he ran his contract down I don't think that's something that would concern us greatly and that might show that we'd like him to stay.

"It isn't a matter of us wanting to cash in because he's in his final year. If he said he was going to run it down and see it through, I'd be delighted.

"I've told him that there's no need to rush into anything. He's got two England international matches in June, and I'm sure he won't be able to get his head around anything until they're over with."