Valencia ponder sale of Silva and Villa

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Valencia president Vicente Soriano has again admitted that the club's financial position is very tight, but he refuses to walk away from the Mestalla just yet.

A major meeting at the club on Wednesday saw a new chief executive appointed, with Los Che accepting that the sale of several star players remains a probability.

Soriano said: "My function is to be president, which is not easy and I will continue to work hard without any doubts.

"Over the past seven months, we have worked intensely on all fronts but there's still a lot of work to do at Valencia and it is worth the effort to keep working on this club.

"It would have been easier for me to say my job is done and just go back home. But the question of resigning never crossed my mind."

Meanwhile, Soriano has brought in Javier Gomez as the club's chief executive, with the new appointee aware of the challenges ahead.

He admitted: "The club is in a very delicate situation. The club has to control spending, grow income and sell assets.

"Selling David Silva and David Villa? Obviously we will consider that type of action.

"We have to control costs and the biggest cost in a football club is maintaining a team."

Meanwhile, Manchester City have rubbished rumours linking them with a £100m summer bid for Barcelona's Argentinian superstar Lionel Messi.

A report in The Sun newspaper suggested that the Citizens had made Messi their top transfer target, but the Premier League club have robustly denied such talk.

A statement on the club's official website read: "Following an article in The Sun newspaper which claimed that Manchester City are preparing a £100m bid for Lionel Messi, the club would like to make the following information clear.

"The story is untrue and this fact has been accepted by the newspaper in question.

"General comments about Lionel Messi made by Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim, who holds no position at the club, were mistakenly linked to Manchester City."