Valencia remain hopeful of tying up a deal for Portugal international Simao Sabrosa.
Valencia remain hopeful of tying up a deal for Portugal international Simao Sabrosa.Valencia's director of sport Amadeo Carboni travelled to Lisbon on Monday to meet with Benfica officials regarding a transfer and held talks late into Tuesday night.
The Italian gave an upbeat bulletin about the state of negotiations and clearly feels Valencia have a good chance of landing their man.
"The night went well," Carboni told reporters after leaving the Lisbon hotel where his meeting with Benfica president Luis Felipe Vieira and Sabrosa's agent Jorge Mendes was held.
"The important thing is that the player, his club and Valencia should all be satisfied."
Benfica have thus far remained steadfast in their ‚é¼20 million (£13.5 million) valuation of the player and insist they have no intention of letting Simao go unless their demands are met.
Carboni is understood to have offered a number of players (Marco Di Vaio, Pablo Aimar, Patrick Kluivert and Marco Caneira) as make-weights in the deal, but Vieira is adamant only a straight cash deal will cut the mustard.
"Benfica know what we want and will not be compromising," he stated. "We will only be talking about money and not about players.
"If players are mentioned it is nothing to do with us but Valencia, they might be interested in offering us players but we are not."
Carboni's original offer for Simao was understood to be around the ‚é¼14 million (£9.5 million) mark, but Valencia are thought to be ready to go to ‚é¼18 million (£12 million) to try and push through a deal.
Carboni is scheduled to return to Spain on Wednesday and will be desperate to reach an accord with Valencia's attempts to prise Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United having failed.
