"Gareth has pointed out he wants to go and if Liverpool come up and meet our valuation, he will go. That has been the case since the beginning of June when Gareth said he definitely wanted to go to Liverpool," Martin O'Neill told Skysports.com.

Liverpool have reportedly made four bids and they were all turned down.

Villa want £17million while the Reds' offer was £3million lower.

"We're really disappointed that he's not going to be with us, he's made his mind up to go to Liverpool.

"You can talk and you can talk and talk, but the bottom line was that when he came back from the England game in Trinidad and Tobago he told me he wanted to leave," concluded O'Neill.