The Liverpool manager is continuing to ask Tom Hicks and George Gillett to relent on his summer transfer priority, despite their insistence it is Barry's price-tag and not the financial situation at Anfield that has stalled the four-month transfer saga.
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Even with success on that front, however - and Liverpool are currently in receipt of no firm offers for any of the four players - Benítez will need Hicks and Gillett to sign off an £18m deal that neither believes represents good value for the 27-year-old Villa captain. Without a U-turn from the Americans, and they are wary of another public spat with the popular Spaniard, or Villa reducing their valuation on a player who is now cup-tied for Europe until February, the damaging impasse will continue at Anfield.
Benítez increased the pressure on his employers over the weekend by going public with his frustrations and attempted to blame the club's chief executive, Rick Parry, for the failure to complete the Barry deal. His initial efforts on Friday were overshadowed by revelations he had considered quitting Anfield in the immediate aftermath of the Americans' joint decision to veto Barry's transfer, but he elaborated further following Liverpool's win at Sunderland, claiming he had the support of one owner, Hicks, who had admitted money was available to sign Barry.
Hicks and Benítez have formed an unlikely alliance at Anfield since revelations that the Texan had approached Jürgen Klinsmann about replacing the Spaniard as Liverpool manager, with both blaming Parry over transfer dealings and enduring fractured relations with Gillett.
Both Liverpool owners, however, vetoed a short-term loan to complete the Barry deal a fortnight ago and backed a statement that denied they had undermined the manager's judgment on a player whose price was "too high".