Tim Sherwood: Aston Villa will allow Christian Benteke to leave club for right price

Tim Sherwood has revealed that Aston Villa will allow Christian Benteke to leave the club in the summer if the striker decides to end his time at Villa Park.

The Belgium international has been in fine form in this calendar year as he has scored nine goals in the league in 2015. He also scored during his side's 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.

Benteke's impressive run has seen him attract interest from the Premier League clubs as Brendan Rodgers is keen on adding the goal-scoring striker in the summer. Manchester United are also believed to be in the race to sign Villa star.

He is valued to be around £30m ($45.4m) and the former Tottenham Hotspur manager claims the striker will be "too expensive" for the clubs in England.

"If a player doesn't want to play for the club anymore and the club he wants to go to meets the valuation, it's best to let them go," Sherwood told the Mirror.

"It will be just a market value - what's out there. I don't want to talk about selling Christian when I've got no intention of doing that. So it would have to be a lot of money for someone to get him off us."

"We are looking for players ourselves, so we know how much other clubs are looking at [as fees] for their players. He'll be too expensive for a great deal of people in the Premier League. We want to keep our best players - and he's certainly one of those," the Villa manager said.

Meanwhile, Benteke's agent Eris Kismet has admitted there has been no contact from either the Reds or Louis van Gaal's side. The striker's representative claims his client is focusing on helping Villa to avoid relegation.

"At the moment, there is no interest. Every player and staff member is concentrated on avoiding relegation, anything else is just a distraction," Kismet told Sky Sports News HQ.

"I know everyone wants the same thing because I watch the games and I think Aston Villa are playing the best football in England right now."