I was 100 per cent joining Liverpool – but I ended up snubbing them and Arsenal

Gareth Barry has given his side of the story about his failed move from Aston Villa to Liverpool. The former Everton midfielder was the subject of intense interest from Anfield in the summer of 2008.

He made his desire to play Champions League football publicly known and criticised his manager Martin O'Neill for not trying to keep him. But Villa knocked back multiple bids from the Reds, leaving Barry out in the cold.

"It was a tough period of time," he reflected on All Out Football's In The Mixer. "[I] fell out with Martin O'Neill for a period of time. It leaves a sour taste because you're getting told they're 100% going to get the deal done.

"And this was my first real experience of a transfer. I was an experienced football player but transfers, I didn't really know how they worked. It leaves a sour taste when you get told that the deal is going to be done.

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"[You] start looking at houses, start looking at schools for your children. You're thinking, 'Wow, this is serious. I'm going to be leaving Aston Villa and playing for another football club.'"

Barry eventually patched things up with O'Neill and regained the captain's armband he'd been stripped of during the transfer saga. But once his exit did materialise the following summer, it wasn't to Merseyside.

"There was still interest from the same teams - Liverpool, Arsenal," he explained. "And then all of a sudden Man City came from nowhere.

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"[The] Liverpool deal was still there. [And] Arsene Wenger was saying, 'Listen, we're still interested, but can you wait?' [He] obviously had other targets and that wasn't the way I worked. I wasn't going to wait around for Arsenal.

"Liverpool, they were talking about me playing sometimes left midfield, sometimes left-back, and there was no talk of replacing [Xabi] Alonso. A lot of people, Liverpool fans, always come up to me and say, 'It's your fault Alonso left!' No, it wasn't. There was no talk about Alonso leaving.

"Then Man City just came in and mentioned players they were going to be signing, and the whole feel of City not having won a trophy for a long period of time. You know, something about me being part of that just thought, 'You know what? I'm probably more of an underdog player, rather than going and joining a team that had been there recently and done it.'

"So everything just was there to go to Man City. New challenge. Obviously a massive risk. And that's where my head was at the time."

The £12million move raised eyebrows given City, who'd just finished 10th following their takeover by Sheikh Mansour in September 2008, weren't able to offer him European football.

Unsurprisingly, Barry faced accusations from disgruntled supporters of simply following the money. Yet he maintains he had identical financial offers on the table at both Anfield and the Emirates.

He continued: "People say Man City, you went for the money, the contract. The conversation I had with Liverpool and Arsenal at the time, the contracts were exactly the same. 'The contracts are fine, we can pay that, we can do this.'

"It wasn't a case of joining Man City for the money. Liverpool and Arsenal both were saying we can match the contracts. So yeah, it was Man City that excited me more, that probably would help my England career, and [I was] going to be playing regularly rather than a bit. Looking back, it was a risk but the right choice."

Barry went on to spend four years at City, claiming the FA Cup in 2011 and the Premier League title the following season. He then went on to join Everton, initially on loan.

He finished his career with 53 England caps and the most Premier League appearances of any player in history. That record stood until James Milner surpassed it last season prior to his retirement.

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