Valencia president Manuel Llorente admits he was ready to sell David Silva to Real Madrid last year. Los Che face Real this weekend.

"I have to say that Silva did have the feeling that an agreement was to be reached, as Real Madrid had the will and willingness to sign him, but with the change of coach, everything stopped," Llorente told AS.

"It was then that Manchester City came in and closed the transaction.

"Let's say that although we had several discussions with Madrid for the transfer of Silva and saw that they wanted it, one day they called us and told us their priorities had changed, and then, of course, negotiations broke down and we studied other offers."