Valencia sports chief Fernando Gomez admits they struggled to get players off their books like Miguel and Nikola Zigic.

"There were opportunities, but the market closed too soon, there have been very few sales and many more loans ... this makes it harder to find players an exit," said Gomez.

"Miguel and Zigic had offers, but Nikola did not want to leave, like Banega who wanted to stay here. The offers for Miguel came too late and he preferred to stay."