Premiership: Barry to repay Villa with new deal

Gareth Barry is confident he will have agreed a new five-year contract with Aston Villa by the end of the week.

Barry is due to have further talks in the next 48 hours after flying back from England Under-21 duty in Albania.

But the 20-year-old does not foresee there being any problems in putting pen to paper.

The former Brighton trainee defender wants to repay the faith shown in him by Villa, who he joined just over three years ago.

Barry said: "There will be more talks before the end of the week and I'm pretty confident that things will be sorted out.

"We have not come to an agreement yet but I am sure it will all be tied up properly.

"I'm very happy with Villa. They gave me my chance and I want to win things for them and with them."

Barry has two years left of his existing deal but Villa manager John Gregory wants to reward him for his level of performance since he broke into the side at the start of the 1998-99 season.

Barry has played in England's last three Under-21 games after being a regular in the senior squad for the first four internationals of the campaign.

But he insisted that it was all part of his learning curve and believes Howard Wilkinson's squad can now qualify for next year's finals.

The 1-0 win over Albania, courtesy of a penalty from Jonathan Greening, means England have taken eight points from their opening four games and are on course for at least a play-off spot.

Barry said: "Things started a bit slowly for the Under-21s but we are now back in contention to qualify and it's a happy squad who flew back home after taking six points from two games in the last week.

"We were a bit disappointed that, with the possession we had, we did not score a few more goals in Albania, but to get three points was the main objective."