Martin O'Neill tonight spoke of his delight that Gareth Barry will not be moving on before the transfer window closes next week.

After a summer of intense speculation, Barry's agent Alex Black yesterday confirmed the England midfielder would be staying at Villa Park.

A delighted O'Neill reflected: "I'm very pleased and mightily relieved. I genuinely couldn't be happier. We've still got a class player in our midst and I'm pleased with that.

"I think Gareth's efforts for the side, going back to the Icelandic game a couple of weeks ago, I think his intentions were pretty clear. But it was still quite nice to hear.

"It's big news for us. A couple of weeks ago I feared this situation wouldn't have materialised. Now we're absolutely delighted.

"Getting a player to replace Gareth Barry is a difficult enough task in itself - doing it so late in the transfer window would have been even more difficult."