Hyppia not for sale -Rafa
Rafa Benitez has revealed that one of our Barclays Premier League rivals has made an approach regarding defender Sami Hyypia – only to be quickly rebuffed.
The boss claims top flight new boys Stoke City wanted to sign the legendary Finn.
"Yes, Stoke City were very interested in Sami," said Benitez. "But we said we wanted him to stay and we want to keep him so it was very clear.
"He has signed a new one-year deal and we are very happy with him.
"If I was to talk about Sami Hyypia I could be talking for half an hour because he is a fantastic professional, a nice person and a really good player, so we don't want to sell him."
Sami Hyypia will miss the first home game of the season this weekend with a hamstring injury.
The centre-back is Rafa Benitez's only fitness worry for the visit of Middlesbrough on Saturday, with the likes of Martin Skrtel and Philipp Degen now back in contention after injury.
