Paul Lambert believes Benteke is worth more than £25m

Aston Villa manager Paul Lambert spoke about star striker Christian Benteke and made it clear that he has no plans to sell the Belgian.

The 22-year-old has attracted interest from big clubs like Arsenal, Tottenham and Inter Milan but Lambert has no intentions of cashing in on the player. Benteke was brought for £7m from Genk in August but Lambert believes he is worth more than that.

“He is hot property. If you wanted to prise Christian away from here you would want a sizeable cheque, that is for sure.

“He has the potential to be fantastic. If you look at modern day figures then £25m is probably a good start.”

Lambert added: “We can’t stop people looking at him but he is under contract here. He is enjoying his football at the moment and doing fantastically well.”

Having found the net 15 times already in this season, his form has forced Lambert to choose him over Darren Bent.

“He has only been here seven or eight months,” the manager added. “I will wait until the end of the season and I will sit with people.”

Source: bbc