Real Madrid will no longer pursue Villa's transfer

Real Madrid executive director Jorge Valdano has revealed that his club will no longer pursue the transfer of David Villa, and that it is now up to Valencia whether or not it wants to proceed any further with the transaction.

Los Che, who had looked set to cash in on "El Guaje," have made a sudden U-turn over the past few days by declaring their star striker is "indispensable" after failing to receive any official offers to their liking.

"There is no possibility of negotiating with Valencia," Valdano told Radio Nacional de Espana. "For the signing to go through, there has to be an agreement between three parties and Valencia has now changed its mind and it does not want to sell. If this is the case, then we have to respect its decision.

"I know [Valencia president] Manuel Llorente and how he defends the interest of the club. The same thing happened to us with Roberto Ayala. In the last day of negotiation, we were ready to pay what they had demanded from us, but they backed down. And because of that, we had to play a full season without a central defender.

"We are not going to face another full season again without a footballer. We will sign Villa if there is an agreement, otherwise we will look for another option," he added.

When pressed if Diego Forlan, Karim Benzema or Zlatan Ibrahimovic are part of the alternative plan, Valdano replied cagily, "They have enough quality to play for Madrid, but I will not say if we are talking to them or not."

The Argentine director general then admitted that the gargantuan transfer fees involving Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo has come back to haunt the club for the remainder of the summer trade period as they have now gone cold following a $223 million spending spree in a space of a week.

"Kaka and Cristiano are incomparable players and we have paid exactly what they are worth," he explained. "But now, clubs are coming back to us and demanding ludicrous amounts of money for their players because of what we paid for the Brazilian and the Portuguese.

"What we will do now is wait for the market to cool off because we are not willing to simply accept just any conditions," he stressed.

Finally, Valdano rejected Barcelona president Joan Laporta's notion that the Merengues will be under intense pressure to succeed next season following their massive reinforcements.

"Barca will have more pressure because of all the titles they won last season and because they have now set the bar very high," he reasoned. "Madrid, however, is in a rebuilding phase and the team will only be guided by the motivation to win every game. Our main challenge is the Champions League and it will be an even bigger target with Kaka and Ronaldo. In that sense, yes, we will be under pressure."