Aston Villa boss leaves door open for Christian Benteke exit as Liverpool rumours continue

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Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood has admitted that the club won’t be able to stand in the way of striker Christian Benteke if he decides that he wants to move on during the summer transfer window.

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We picked up on a report from The Metro earlier this week, in which it was suggested that a £30m deal to bring the Belgian to Anfield could be possible.

However, the player’s agent – Eris Kismet – moved quickly to dismiss such rumours. In quotes taken by the Daily Mirror, he insisted that his client remained fully focused on helping Villa ensure Premier League survival.

“At the moment, there is no interest,” said Kismet. “Every player and staff member is concentrated on avoiding relegation, anything else is just a distraction.

“I know everyone wants the same thing because I watch the games and I think Aston Villa are playing the best football in England right now.”

The saga has now taken a fresh twist, with the Mirror reporting these latest comments from Sherwood, who seemingly knows all too well that interest is likely to be high in a player who has scored nine goals in the last eight games.

He said: “If a player doesn’t want to play for the club any more and the club he wants to go to meets the valuation, it’s best to let them go. It will be just a market value – what’s out there.”

Nonetheless, he has insisted that it would take a major offer to convince him to sell. He added: “I don’t want to talk about selling Christian when I’ve got no intention of doing that. So it would have to be a lot of money for someone to get him off us.

“We are looking for players ourselves, so we know how much other clubs are looking at [as fees] for their players. He’ll be too expensive for a great deal of people in the Premier League. We want to keep our best players – and he’s certainly one of those.”

Considering our problems in front of goal this season, could £30m prove to be a price we’re willing to pay…?

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