Christian Benteke will report back to Aston Villa on Wednesday and tell Tim Sherwood he wants to leave. Villa are insistent the striker will not be sold unless the £32.5m exit clause in his contract is met but he has no desire to remain and it threatens to turn into a difficult situation for the manager if the Belgium international ends up staying on for another season.

Sherwood has reiterated he wants to keep Benteke, who scored 12 goals under his watch during the final three months of the season, and within the club there is a feeling that the prospect of playing for Belgium in the European Championship next summer will provide the striker with the motivation to perform at his best if he remains a Villa player.

It is understood, however, that Benteke does not subscribe to that theory and believes that after three successive seasons playing for a club fighting relegation, now is the time to move on. There is no suggestion Benteke will fail to turn up at Villa before Thursday’s tour to Portugal and no thought has been given to submitting a transfer request but the 24-year-old is hell-bent on securing a move to a club competing at the other end of the table and intends to have a conversation with Sherwood to make it clear how he feels.

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Liverpool are the only club to show any interest in signing Benteke, who joined Villa from Genk for £7m in 2012 and has gone on to score 42 Premier League goals across three seasons. Liverpool are not willing, though, to meet the release clause in Benteke’s contract, which they say exceeds their valuation of the player, and will consider moving onto other targets if the situation remains at an impasse.

Villa, for their part, have no intention of budging on that exit clause and are known to be relaxed about the possibility of Benteke staying for another season and being in a position next summer where he only has 12 months left on his contract. Whether that stance changes if Benteke makes his unhappiness clear remains to seen. Sherwood demonstrated with Emmanuel Adebayor at Tottenham Hotspur that he is capable of getting the best out of disgruntled players, but Benteke’s situation promises to be more tricky, and that could become clear to the Villa manager when the two hold talks this week.