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As the rest of the Premier League waits for Manchester City to open their cheque book, Valencia have admitted that their precarious financial situation means they would be forced to consider any offer for David Villa, one of City's potentially most expensive targets, in the January transfer window.
Valencia's sporting vice-president, Fernando Gomez Colomer, refused to rule out a sale. He said: "Whatever offer comes in we will have to study it, although the idea is not to have to sell David Villa or David Silva. It would have to be an exorbitant offer."
City's ambitions for the remainder of this season will be measured largely by which striker they buy this month. A Jermain Defoe or a Craig Bellamy would be expected to pull them clear of any relegation battle but signing the winner of the Golden Boot at Euro 2008 would signal their intentions of moving to another level.
Having scored over 100 goals for Valencia in just over four and a half seasons, Villa is the club's prized asset but they remain in severe financial difficulties, having been denied any more credit by their bank, Bancaja. They are still unable to close a deal on the sale of the site of their Mestalla stadium and are supposed to be moving to a new stadium on the outskirts of the city next year. Sale of land for apartments at the Mestalla was supposed to finance the new stadium.
"We will fight to give the club the economic stability that it needs. Right now that is the most important thing," said club president Vicente Soriano.
Valencia have in the past fended off interest in Villa from Chelsea and Liverpool, aided by the striker's preference for staying in Spain. They were also on the brink of accepting a bid from Manchester United for Silva last northern summer. The versatile left-sided attacker rejected the chance to move to Old Trafford because, like Villa, he wanted to remain in La Liga.
Ultimately, Valencia's need to cash in on players this month may depend on whether they succeed in selling their current stadium and gaining an advance on the estimated 300 million ($720 million) price. Soriano says he has a buyer, but the purchasing company does not want to want to pay up front for land it will not be able to use until the middle of next year when Valencia finally move into their new stadium.
While Valencia do their best to keep their top names, Real Madrid's interest in signing Wigan's Antonio Valencia has increased after their extraordinary transfer-window error.
Winning the Champions League is now seen as the club's best chance of a trophy this season and Real's sporting director, Predrag Mijatovic, whose job appears to depend on it, has busily added Lassana Diarra from Portsmouth and Klass-Jan Huntelaar from Ajax to the side on the understanding that both would be eligible for the Champions League, having not played in the competition this season.
However, the rules of European football's governing body, Uefa, also state that a club can register only one player who has already played in the Uefa Cup for the Champions League in January. Now Real must pick between Diarra and Huntelaar.
The Real coach, Juande Ramos, is now understood to want Valencia, although the clubs are light years apart in valuation, with Wigan rating the player at 15 million ($38 million) and Mijatovic keen on taking him on loan.
Barcelona are, understandably, enjoying watching their great rivals suffer. Only David Beckham's move to join Ronaldinho at Milan being dubbed "los Galacticos to los Geriatricos" has caused more amusement than Real's misunderstanding of Uefa's transfer regulations.
- INDEPENDENT