Valencia committed to holding on to Nicolas Otamendi

Valencia sporting director Francisco Rufete says defender Nicolas Otamendi has not expressed a desire to leave the club. However, officials at the La Liga side are eager to secure the center-back for the long term with the likes of Manchester United expressing an interest in the 27-year-old.

Otameni has enjoyed a solid debut season with Valencia since arriving at the Mestalla after spending the previous four years with Porto.

Los Che are on the verge of Champions League qualification and would like to keep their squad intact for next season.

Last week, Valencia extended their agreement with 19-year-old defender Jose Luis Gaya until June 2020, in order to ward off interest from Real Madrid.

Gaya’s previous contract had a release clause of £18 million. But now it is understood that the left-back’s clause has been increased to close to £40 million.

Valencia would like to do something similar in the case of Otamendi, since the centre-back is being tracked by a number of big European clubs – most notably Manchester United.

Otamendi’s current deal runs until 2019 and contains a £36 million buy-out clause – which United are reportedly willing to pay after having a January bid rejected.

With that in mind, Valencia officials are eager to sit Otamendi down to hear his thoughts regarding the defender’s long term future at the club.

“We are very clear about Otamendi,” Valencia sporting director Francisco Refute said. “We want him to play for us for a long time to come.

“Nico knows that and so far he’s not come to me to say he wants to speak about things being different from that.”

“As soon as the season is over we’ll be talking to him about staying for longer.”