Laporta awaits news on strikers

Barcelona have bid around €40million for Valencia striker David Villa, according to president Joan Laporta, who is having trouble getting in touch with Samuel Eto’o after offering the Cameroon frontman a new contract.

Manchester City have launched a big-money bid for Eto'o, while their local rivals Manchester United have also been linked with an offer.

His current deal is due to expire in 12 months' time and Laporta is unsure whether he will stay at Camp Nou and is waiting for the 28-year-old to return his telephone calls.

"I have called him a couple of times, but he hasn't answered his mobile," Laporta told Spanish television.

"I don't know if he has changed the number or whether he's lost it, but I would like to speak to him."

Laporta appears less concerned about the progress of the Villa talks.

"There have been negotiations to find out his availability,” he said today, “but we haven't stated a time or money limit.

"We have made an offer to (Valencia president) Manuel Llorente that is closer to €40million than €50million."

Laporta has also taken a dig at Real Madrid's heavy spending this summer, with Barca's rivals splashing out large sums on the likes of Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.

"There are two models and both work," said Laporta. "Florentino's (Perez) way is to not think about the money and ours is to work with our youth teams and that showed that there were ten Barca products in the Champions League final squad.

"Money is not everything because having players that identify with the club is more important. We make Ballon d'Or winners and others have to buy them.

"It's fine by me that Real Madrid have bought Cristiano Ronaldo, but at present Barcelona are the point of reference for everyone.

"Real have erupted aggressively into the transfer market and distorted reality. We could go into debt like Madrid, but it isn't our way of operating.

"We already have a competitive team and all we want to do is to make some prudent investments."