Valencia forward & Arsenal target Juan Mata not interested in Tottenham switch

Arsenal target Juan Mata is not interested in swapping Valencia for Tottenham, Goal.com can reveal.

Spurs boss Harry Redknapp announced his interest in signing the 23-year-old after his side’s 3-2 friendly win at Brighton on Saturday, claiming chairman Daniel Levy was taking care of negotiations.

The north London club had been linked with a £19 million move for the former Real Madrid youngster in order to beat rivals Arsenal to his signature, but Valencia have yet to receive an official offer for their prized asset.

Redknapp will have a tough fight on his hands to persuade Mata to move to White Hart Lane and although Valencia remain in a delicate economic situation, the club have promised coach Unai Emery a competitive team for the coming campaign and Mata is a big part of those plans.

Emery, president Manuel Llorente and sporting director Braulio Vazquez have all claimed the forward is not for sale, although the latter revealed on Thursday that alternative plans were in place should Mata be sold.

Meanwhile, Mata himself has stated repeatedly that he is keen to stay at Mestalla and only signed a new contract last summer with the buy-out clause set at a massive £52.5m.

However, a gentleman’s agreement was reached for the player to leave for between £17.5m and £22m, although the player’s performances at the European Under-21 Championships mean Valencia are now asking for a sum closer to the latter.

Spurs, currently, are the only club prepared to meet Valencia’s asking price, although no bids have yet been made – despite considerable interest in Mata.

The player’s father and agent is in contact with several sides, though, and is said to have met representatives from Tottenham in London recently.

But Spurs’ tight wage structure and lack of Champions League football make any possible deal difficult, with Mata only likely to leave Valencia to sign for one of Europe’s elite clubs.

At the moment, he sees Valencia, one of Spain’s top teams and an established Champions League outfit, as a superior side to Spurs, who dropped out of the top four last season following their first-ever qualification for European football’s premier club competition the year before.

Given a chance to further his career in the Premier League, then, Mata would almost certainly choose Arsenal over Tottenham, a source close to the player revealed to Goal.com, while out of a straight selection between Spurs and Valencia, the player would opt to stick with the Spanish side for at least one more season.