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Alvaro Negredo has emerged as the number one target of new Valencia owner Peter Lim.

And if the Spanish club meet City ’s valuation of £25million, “The Beast” is likely to be sold – although the deal may now have to wait until the winter transfer window.

Reports in Spain suggest that Valencia president Amadeo Salvo has already made enquiries about Negredo, who is recovering from surgery on a metatarsal fracture and could be out until October.

Early in the summer, City were not prepared to sell Negredo, who made himself a firm favourite with fans for his goalscoring and aggressive style last season, before injury and loss of form saw him fade from the picture.

But it appears Negredo is not happy to fall behind Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko – and now possibly Stevan Jovetic – in the pecking order.

And City made it plain, as revealed by M.E.N. Sports, that the three players they were prepared to lose in order to fit with Premier League and Champions League squad limits were Javi Garcia, Matija Nastasic and Negredo.

Garcia has gone and Nastasic is up for sale at £12million, but the Blues still need to trim one overseas player to hit the limit of 16 imposed on their Champions League squad for breaking financial fair play rules.

Valencia have money to spend after Singaporean businessman Lim took over the club, wiped out their £160million debt and made funds available.

Some of that has gone on paying the wages of City midfielder Bruno Zuculini, who completed a season-long loan to the Mestalla yesterday.