Wolves will not seek to sell Bakary Sako in January.

The Express & Star says Aston Villa were linked in a report yesterday with a cut-price £2million bid to tempt the seven-goal winger, as an answer to their chronic goals shortage with the Mali international out of contract this summer.

But Wolves see it as false economy to sell the 26-year-old, who has emerged as their best player in recent games and is their most potent weapon this season.

They are hoping to keep him for the rest of his contract, which expires next June, in the hope can help fire them into the Premier League and they can offer him a bumper new deal to stay.

If they fail to go up, Wolves will reluctantly accept a parting of the ways in the knowledge that Sako will be an even more attractive proposition as a Bosman free transfer without a fee.

Sako is by some distance the highest earner in the current squad at £25,000-a-week, but the size of his wages would not cause so much of a ripple at Villa Park.