Michael Laudrup: "We can't afford Negredo"

Swansea City manager Michael Laudrup has quashed all rumors linking his team with a summer move for Sevilla FC striker Alvaro Negredo.

27-year-old Negredo has been in fine form this season, scoring 18 goals in 29 league appearances for Sevilla. And although Laudrup has expressed his desire to strengthen the Swansea squad over the summer, he admits signing the Spaniard could be outside his club’s budget.

“I don’t think it’s possible because I know there are other teams who want him,” Laudrup said.

“I think we’re talking double figures in terms of millions of pounds, so I don’t think we can (sign him). It’s out of our league. We cannot pay £10m, £12m or £14m.”

Negredo is believed to cost somewhere around £15m for any potential suitors. Serie A clubs Napoli and Fiorentina are rumored to be interested in the striker. Elsewhere, Borussia Dortmund are said to monitoring the striker as a replace for Robert Lewandowski, should the Polish international decide to leave in the summer.

Meanwhile, Swansea will travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea this weekend and having gone unbeaten in their last three meetings with the Blues this season, Laudrup hopes his team can continue their fine form. He added:

“We’ve done well against them this season. We had an intense game against them in the league back and the two semi-finals were very special.

“It was a great win against them at Stamford Bridge, but there have been many great results away from home this season and we hope that there is a couple more left in us. But every game has its own story and we are coming up against a side that has played a lot of matches this season.”