Athletic Bilbao president Josu Urrutia has insisted that his club will only allow star pair Javi Martinez and Fernando Llorente to leave should their respective buy-out clauses be met.
The duo have been the subject of heated speculation over a move away from San Mames with Bayern Munich linked to the €40 million-rated midfielder, while the striker, who would cost €35m, has refused to sign a new contract.
However, the 44-year-old has reaffirmed his stance that the players will only be allowed to leave should a bid trigger the release clause in their current contracts.
“We have always said that a player can only leave the club on two conditions – either the club no longer wants the player or another club pays their buy-out clause, and neither of those conditions have been met,” Urrutia told Canal Plus.
“We have done everything in our hands. They [Llorente and Martinez] are still Athletic players and we hope that they will remain with us.
“We have not held negotiations for Llorente. We have said what we think and the rumours are of no interest to us.”
The pair were left out of the Leones squad that will travel to Helsinki for a Europa League qualifier this week but Urrutia was adamant that this does not mean they are on their way out of the club.
“We are a team and everyone is available to the coach. We never take every player to a game, we always leave one or two out.
“He [Bielsa] has chosen the players he thinks he needs and now in Thursday’s match we are going to try to make amends for the errors we made on Sunday [a 4-0 loss to Atletico Madrid].”
Despite suffering two losses from their first two league games the Basques hold a 6-0 advantage over HJK ahead of Thursday’s second leg.