Aston Villa chief executive Paul Faulkner has made it clear that the club is not looking to make a bid for FC Nuremberg's Hiroshi Kiyotake.
Recent reports suggested that the Premier League club were set to lodge an offer for the Japanese playmaker but Faulkner said Villa's interest never went past the initial stage.
"No. We did make an enquiry about the player, but only the sort of enquiry that we make about lots of players during a transfer window," he said during a webchat with Villa fans.
"For some reason - and I have no idea why - his club decided to make that public, but the fact is that our interest never went beyond that initial enquiry."
Villa begin their 2013/14 Premier League campaign with a trip to London to visit Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.
