Aston Villa boss Tim Sherwood says his club have no intention of selling star striker Christian Benteke this summer, but accepts that there may be interest from elsewhere.

The Belgium international has sparked into life with nine goals in his last eight games in all competitions, drawing comparisons to the sort of form he showed when he first joined Villa in the summer of 2012.

And his return to the peak of his game has brought speculation about a potential summer exit, but Sherwood is not overly concerned about such talk, with avoiding Premier League relegation and an FA Cup final uppermost in his thoughts.

He said ahead of a Saturday visit from in-form Everton: “It’s good news that people are talking about Christian again because he’s scoring goals and if he’s scoring goals for us, we’re happy.

“I’ve no idea what he’d cost, because I don’t want to sell him. It would have to be a lot of money for anyone to take him from us. He’d be too expensive for a great deal of clubs in the Premier League.”

Villa head into the clash with the Toffees just two points and two places outside the drop zone, having won just one of their last five league games despite the goalscoring efforts of Benteke.

And Everton will represent a stern test at Villa Park, with the Merseysiders having dropped just two points from their last six league games to move up into the top half of the table.

The Toffees are 2.70 to win at Villa Park, with the draw 3.25.