Porto chairman hits out at Real over Carvalho

Porto chairman Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa has criticised Real Madrid's attempts to sign Ricardo Carvalho and says the Spanish side have little hope of prising the Portugal defender away from the club.

"Ricardo Carvalho is going nowhere," the Porto chairman was quoted as saying in the Spanish press on Monday.

"Porto isn't having a sale and at the moment moving to Real Madrid would be a step down (for Carvalho). They can't force us to sell a player if we don't want to."

Porto have already sold defender Paulo Ferreira to Chelsea and playmaker Deco to Barcelona. They have also lost coach Jose Mourinho to the London club.

Carvalho, who played a key role in both Porto's Champions League-winning campaign and Portugal's run to the final of Euro 2004, has been targeted by Real to strengthen their defence, but the Spaniards are reluctant to pay the 30-million-euro price tag that Porto have put on the player.

Real have already spent 25 million euros on buying Argentine centre-back Walter Samuel from AS Roma and coach Jose Antonio Camacho said last week the club was not going to break the bank to sign another player.

"Right now everyone thinks that if Real want to buy a player then they have discovered a gold mine. We can't rush into these things. We've got a competitive squad and we want to strengthen it, but only within certain limits," he said.