Tim Sherwood has warned Christian Benteke's reported suitors that it would take "a lot of money" to prise the Aston Villa hitman away from the club this summer.

Earlier on Thursday it was reported that Villa had slapped a £30m price tag on the Belgian, who has netted nine times in his last eight games in all competitions.

Although Sherwood says that the 24-year-old is too expensive for most Premier League clubs, the Villans boss concedes that he would sell if Benteke is keen to leave.

"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," he told reporters at a press conference.

"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. But we're not looking to sell our assets and he's certainly one of those. If a player doesn't want to play for the club anymore and the club he wants to go to meet the valuation then I think it's always best to let them go."

The Belgium international's contract expires in 2017.