"I don't want to be in a position of letting really good players go. Gareth Barry is a really good player who still has two years left on his contract."

O'Neill added: "I haven't discussed these things with him yet. At some stage obviously I will do. But the day before probably our most important game of the season is not the time to be discussing it."

He said Gareth himself did not want to rush things.

"A couple of weeks ago Gareth said he would prefer to wait until the end of the season before we start discussing things and I think that would be the right thing to do," he said.

"It's particularly disappointing to find out that Liverpool have carried the story in their local paper. It's certainly not the way that the Liverpool of old conducted business. I prefer to do things with a bit or privacy and a bit of confidentiality."