The Liverpool manager had witnessed his side beat Lazio 1-0 in a friendly at Anfield, with Andriy Voronin scoring an injury-time winner.

But all the questions afterwards were about whether the Barry deal was dead, following speculation that Liverpool's American owners had not come up with the money and were doubting the wisdom of the £18million price tag.

But Benitez said: "(This deal) is not about money."

That suggests that he can find the cash, but the doubts at Anfield are now about the merits of the transfer fee, the length of the contract and the player's age.

The situation was complicated further by the outstanding performance of Xabi Alonso on Friday night and the backing he got from the Kop who clearly do not want to see one of their favourites sold to buy Barry.

But all Benitez would say was: "We have a good player (Alonso) and we have another good player coming in soon.

"We can improve the squad, so we will try to do that. We will bring in one more player if we can.

"I do not know when. But clearly we have problems on the left, Kewell has gone, Aurelio is injured and Leto cannot get a work permit.

"Babel is away in the Olympic Games. Maybe he can come back and fill that role, but I know we can improve in this area.

"Who comes in? It could be another left-sided player rather than a central midfielder.

"Maybe he can play in three different positions, that is a positive thing. I am talking about one player, but I won't say the name."

He added: "I will try to improve the team and the squad if I can. I am pleased because we have not lost again, I will try to do my best to improve the squad.

"The situation is not a question of money. He is English and he can play three different positions, but I am talking about someone who can play on the left."

It was lost on no-one that Barry can play central midfield, on the left and left-back.

And Benitez refused to end the speculation by saying that the Aston Villa man was no longer on his wanted list.