Rafael Benitez has admitted that Liverpool were negotiating the sale of Xabi Alonso to Arsenal and insisted he was not invloved in talks to bring Aston Villa captain Gareth Barry to Anfield.

Benitez said today that move for Barry fell through because the main negotiators -chief executive Rick Parry and his Villa counterpart - failed to reach an agreement.

The Anfield boss, preparing for tomorrow's Premier League opener at Sunderland, has privately dismissed as unimportant the fact that Barry is now cup-tied for the first phase of the Champions League, having played for Villa in the Uefa Cup this week.

Benitez surprisingly turned the spotlight on Parry and the club's owner - he specifically only used the singular - to mastermind a way out of the saga that has rumbled on all summer.

Benitez said: "I will try to be very clear over the (Barry) situation. Everyone has been talking and it seems that the blame is put on me.

"I get blamed for everything, for global warming to high petrol prices.

"But in this case I want to be very clear. Since I talked to Martin O'Neill about the situation in April, I have not talked to anyone at Aston Villa.

"All the talks have been between our chief executive Rick Parry, the owner and the chief executive of Aston Villa. And those talks have all been pretty good.

"So if anyone wants to talk about Barry in the future they must talk with the owner, Rick Parry or the chief executive of Aston Villa. And as I have said, those talks, I understand, have been good.

Of course, the talks have been anything but "good", given the public falling out between the two clubs.

"I was not involved in the talks about Barry," he continued, "I was not involved in the talks about Alonso and Arsenal. If you want to talk about these players you must talk to the chief executive of our club who was handling the discussions.

"If you want to talk about football, then you talk with me."

Parry made it clear last weekend that the club were not happy with the €22million price tag for Barry, his age or length of contract, but Benitez clearly still wants Barry in his team to solve his left-sided problems.

He said: "The squad is better but we now have problems on the left because we have lost (John Arne) Riise, (Harry) Kewell and (Sebastian) Leto.

"We will see what happens in the future with that situation, but clearly our squad is better."

The fact that Benitez has now specifically linked Alonso with a possible move to Arsenal underlines that he would have been happy to sell the Spain international to the Gunners for the right price.

Whether Benitez eventually gets Barry is still open to debate, though it is possible a lower fee could be agreed given he is now cup-tied.

Benitez also revealed that captain Steven Gerrard is fit to lead Liverpool out tomorrow.