Ince: Villa can't afford Santa Cruz

12 April 2012

Blackburn manager Paul Ince has warned Aston Villa off a January move for Roque Santa Cruz by insisting they do not have the money to prise him from Ewood Park.

The Paraguay striker signed a new four-year deal with Rovers over the summer, but he has already been linked with a transfer to Manchester City who are now managed by Mark Hughes, the man who took him to the Lancashire club in 2007.

Villa are now reported to have joined City in the race for the South American, but Ince, speaking to The Sun, claimed: "Villa can't afford him. When it gets near to the transfer window, people start coming out with all these things."

He added: "Roque signed a four-year deal, he came out and said he loves it at Blackburn. He wants to stay here and we want him to stay here.

"Until that changes, that's the only situation that matters."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in