Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill has launched a scathing attack against Liverpool counterpart Rafael Benitez for stating "prolonged discussions" had taken place between the pair over the possible move of skipper Gareth Barry to the Reds.
O'Neill insists the only contact regarding England midfielder Barry had been two phone calls made to him by Benitez - the first three weeks ago and the second last Friday.
And O'Neill claimed the second of those by Benitez was "to cover his own backside" after Liverpool's £10million cash-plus-players bid for Barry was leaked to the local Merseyside media.
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The former Celtic boss described Benitez's behaviour as "disingenuous" and questioned whether the Spaniard was "trying to make a fool out of us all" over his campaign to try and sign Barry.
O'Neill said: "I have never denied we had a conversation - but we have not had prolonged discussions. Benitez is quoted as saying 'he knew my idea and I knew his.' What idea did I have? I didn't have an idea apart from saying 'Gareth Barry is not for sale.'
"He spoke to me about Barry, about being interested. I told him I would obviously put this to my owner (Randy Lerner) who I think deserves to be told about any of these things.
"I said to him I would assume Randy's viewpoint would be concurring with my own - and that was the case.
"The next time I spoke to Benitez was last Friday morning. He called me, to ask had I seen the offer for Barry which had come to us on the Thursday.
"I told him I had seen it. Again our viewpoint wasn't going to change and that it was only after the phone went down that I realised the story had broken already in the Liverpool media.
"Rafa was only on the phone to me to cover his own backside. That is all. I phoned him back immediately to say I was amazed to find out this should appear in his local paper.
"That is the last time I spoke to him. This 'prolonged conversation' over a period of three weeks is not prolonged at all. It is simply untrue and it is disingenuous of him to say we have had prolonged discussions.
"We have not and he knows that. He knows that clearly. It is not true."
O'Neill added: "Is Benitez playing you for a fool? Rafa said something about 'we will wait until the end of the season because he respects our viewpoint.' Rafa doesn't respect anything. That would be my view.
"In the last two years we have tried to conduct our business in a proper fashion and we have succeeded in doing that and I find myself here going down the Liverpool way of conducting business, the modern Liverpool way of conducting business through the press.
"I felt today I had to answer him because it kind of gets out of control.
"Villa fans are very anxious for us to try and keep Barry and they would be more than disappointed to find out we have been in 'prolonged discussion' with Liverpool. That is not true.
"Any phone calls between us have come from Liverpool. The way Benitez is portraying it is as if I am in agreement. It is not true."
O'Neill is also baffled at how Benitez can put a £15million price tag on Peter Crouch and then makes such a meagre offer for Barry when he is playing more regularly for England than the former Villa striker.
He said: "I am not here to promote a price for Barry. It is not on the agenda but it is interesting to note that Benitez can put a price on a player (Crouch) who has got one year left of his contract because he plays for England.
"I think he must have forgotten that Barry is playing more regularly for England than that player and yet he can come up and talk about a £10million offer which includes some money and some unnamed players which would make Gareth worth about £2 million.
"It does make a laughing stock of what he was saying beforehand. Maybe he is trying to make a fool of us all. It is incredible. I couldn't have been more angry this morning."
O'Neill also reiterated his desire to try and break into the top four and challenge the likes of Liverpool.
He said: "I would say at this minute Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and then Liverpool are very strong - and so they should be. They've spent enough.
"At the end of it all, that is where we are trying to get to. That is our aim. Why shouldn't we have that aim because it is a half decent football club here?"
A GUARANTEED PROFIT OF AT LEAST £41.20 ON PORTSMOUTH v FULHAM
Did you know that it is possible to win money on Sunday afternoon's Premiership clash between Portsmouth v Fulham, whatever the result?
The game kicks off at 3.00pm and we can guarantee you a profit of at least £41.20, whatever the result of the match. All you have to do is follow the simple instructions below and then sit back and enjoy the game. At full-time, you will be at least £41.20 better off, whatever the result of the match.
We must point out that if you want to take this bet, you should do it now because if the odds change, then the figures here will be invalidated. If they have changed, let us know and we will rework the bet for you.
You can still do this if you have a Betfair account but your overall profit will be reduced by £25.00 as you won't receive the £25.00 cashback as an existing account holder.
If you are unsure about this bet, you are most welcome to call us on 01642 223229 and we will help you as much as we can.
We're going to lay out a total of £71.00 on the Portsmouth v Fulham match and we will collect £115.00 if Portsmouth win, £112.20 if Fulham win and £114.13 if it's a draw. That's a minimum profit of 58%, a much higher interest rate than you will get in any high street bank.
Here's how it's done. Just follow these simple instructions.
1. Open an account with Coral. It is really important that you enter the bonus code of CORALTD when prompted. This is to ensure that you receive your bonus.
Open an account with Betfair. It is really important that you enter the promotional code of BFB425 when prompted. This is to ensure that you receive your bonus.
Place £20.00 on Portsmouth at 3.00 (2/1) with Coral.
Coral will now add a £10.00 bonus to your account. Place this on Portsmouth as well. You will now have £30.00 riding on Portsmouth.
Back the draw with £25.00 at 3.7 (11/4) (or higher if available) with Betfair.
Place £26.00 on Fulham at 2.2 (6/5) with Extrabet.
Extrabet match your first bet up to £25 so you will now have £51.00 riding on Fulham.
The £25.00 matched bet will not show in your account but you can read all about how it works on the Extrabet site. It's the purple box that says '£25 FREE BET FOR NEW CUSTOMERS' on the top right hand side. Click here to visit the Extrabet site.
If you are unsure about placing these bets, please feel free to mail us or call us on 01642 223229 and we will talk you through it, no problem at all. There is no such thing as a stupid question.
You have temporarily laid out a total of £71.00 on the Portsmouth v Fulham match. I stress, temporarily... Now sit back, crack a beer open and enjoy the match.
4. Here's what happens at the end of the game.
If Portsmouth win, you collect £115.00. That's £90.00 from Coral plus a £25.00 cashback from Betfair.
If it's a draw, you collect £114.13. That's £89.13 from Betfair plus a £25.00 cashback from Betfair.
If Fulham win you collect £112.20. That's £87.20 from Extrabet plus a £25.00 cashback from Betfair.
5. This means that the worst case scenario on the Portsmouth v Fulham match is Fulham win and you make £41.20 profit. However, if it is a draw you make £43.13 and if Portsmouth win you make £44.00. That's a minimum profit of 58%, a much better rate of interest that you would get at any high street bank or building society.
6. It is absolutely vital that you click on the links on this page to open the accounts with the two bookies and enter the correct bonus codes or you may not qualify for the bonuses.
Also, before you place your bets, you should check that the odds haven't changed. If they have, let us know by mail or phone us on 01642 223229 and we will rework the bet for you.
Please feel free to contact us or phone us on 01642 223229 if you have any questions at all about this bet and we will help you as much as we can.
Please note that the bonuses are valid for new customers only so if you already have an account with one or more of the bookies we are using, you won't be able to do this. If that is the case, mail us or phone us on 01642 223229 and we'll create an alternative bet for you using different bookies.
This method of betting was used very successfully during the 2006 World Cup and you can read all about how it was done right here.
We guarantee this bet
It's understandable that some people will not believe that it is possible to do this. "What's the catch?" I hear you asking. My answer to that question is that we have been publishing arbitrage bets for four seasons now and literally hundreds of people have profited from following the advice on these pages.
Only twice has our refund guarantee been triggered and that was when we did all the figures wrong and sent refunds out to those who had followed our advice and made a small loss.
Our refund guarantee works like this. If this bet doesn't work like we say it will and you end up out of pocket, we will refund your losses. Simple as that.
That means that you simply cannot lose on this, whatever happens and even if we messed up the numbers.
The only stipulation here is that you must click on the links on this page to be eligible for the refund guarantee, not that you'll be needing to claim anyway. Just enjoy the profit and stay posted for many more of these throughout the season.
