City are reported to be ready with a £5m offer after the Latics winger caught the eye of Sven-Goran Eriksson's right-hand man Tord Grip.

But Wigan boss Bruce says it would take a much greater offer to even tempt him into thinking of selling the Ecuador international.

Instead he wants to keep Valencia at the JJB Stadium and see him reproduce the form which has been key to helping Latics climb towards Premier League safety in recent weeks.

Bruce signed the 22-year-old from Villarreal in a £5m deal in January after he had spent the previous 15 months on loan from the Spanish club.
He rates Valencia as one of the most exciting wingers playing in
England at the moment, hence his determination to hang on to him.

Bruce told the Evening Post: "I'm sure there will be a lot of interest in Antonio, but I speak for the chairman as well as myself when I say the last thing we want to be doing is selling our better players.

"Let me tell you, it would take a lot more than £5m for us to be interested – we paid almost that amount to bring him here.
"The one thing about being the Wigan Athletic manager is that if the team is performing well, you are going to have to fend off interest in your good players.

"Chris Kirkland, Valencia, Wilson Palacios for example, are all playing well and other clubs will look at them.
"The good thing here, the beauty of it, is that we don't need the money – the chairman doesn't need any more money.

"If anyone wants any of my players they are going to have to pay a premium rate – when I was told about this supposed £5m interest in
Valencia, I laughed ... and I mean laughed."

Bruce believes Valencia's exciting style of play is slowly dying out, hence his determination to keep him at Wigan.

And if Bruce does manage to keep Latics up, which looks increasingly likely, he wants players of his ilk to try and take the club to the next level.

Bruce said: "Valencia has got that thing which not many players have anymore – the ability to dribble.
"Someone who can run with the ball, take it up the pitch and beat a man, is now becoming a dying breed – there aren't many around.

"We don't produce players who want dribble, we seem to produce the archetypal steady English player.
"If a player does want to take his man on and run with the ball, people will want to pay to go and see him.

"I've not had any enquiries for our players, I don't want any either.
"That said, clubs won't be enquiring yet, although they will be looking to see what is out there ready for the summer.

"We are actively looking. We had Chris Casper, the former Bury manager who is doing some scouting for us at the moment, watching a couple of games in France at the weekend.

"And John Benson was in France too looking at players.
"I know every player inside out in the Premier League and would not be doing my job if I didn't know the Championship either.

"But getting a good young player out of clubs here is difficult, so we have to looking at the foreign market.
"That is a realistic place to find players, you've got the attraction of the Premier League to offer them."