Valencia's David Villa: There's No Bad Blood With Real Madrid's Florentino Perez

In an exclusive interview with Spanish sports daily Marca, Valencia striker David Villa has divulged that there are no sour grapes between the Spanish striker and Real Madrid president Florentino Perez.

The Madrid supremo was heavily rumoured to have courted Villa during the summer in an effort to bring El Guaje to the Bernabeu. In the end, the price tag on the Spanish international was too great for Perez's taste, negotiations fell flat, and Karim Benzema was brought to the Spanish capital instead.

And now Villa has made it clear where he wants to continue scoring goals: "I am happy at Valencia and I hope to continue here and keep on scoring goals. I hope to be here a long time".

El Guaje also lamented the absence of David Silva, ruled out of Saturday's match against Real because of injury: "Valencia loses a lot with Silva out, both in big matches and otherwise. He is a player that brings a lot to the team".