Spanish powerhouse Valencia have reiterated that their star striker David Villa is not up for sale anytime in the near future. The 26-year old has been in persistent links with moves away from the Mestalla but those links have been vehemently downplayed by the club.
On this particular occasion of denial, it is the club’s sporting director Juan Sánchez who makes all the noise. He states quite clearly that Valencia are in mood to sell the player although he shrewdly refused to make any concrete comment on whether any offers in the future would be considered or not.
Juan Sanchez said:
“We are reassured regarding Villa - there is no news.
“Hopefully he can keep on scoring goals [for Spain].
“He’s a player under an enforced contract and today we aren’t asking for anything regarding him. We hope that he has a great Euro 2008.
“The coach took him because he is a very important player and one like him is tough to find.
“Will an offer come in? You never know. We are reassured - he’s a great young player and the longer he plays at Valencia, the better.” There’s no question of us thinking of one figure or another - we just know that he is ours and nothing else.
“What comes in the future will be assessed in due course, but ket’s not think about the numbers now.”
Yet somehow you do get the feeling that David Villa is not going to linger on too long at Valencia who only secured safety in La Liga in the last few weekends of the 2007-2008 season. Chelsea, Real Madrid and FC Barcelona all are in the hunt for the signature of the player who scored the first hat-trick of the Euro 2008 finals when he netted three sensational goals against Russia in Spain’s opening Group D fixture.