ASTON VILLA have rejected an opening £18m offer from Tottenham for Ashley Young, saying it is nowhere near their £30m valuation of the player.

Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager, has made Young his No 1 transfer priority. But the club’s chairman, Daniel Levy, is reluctant to pay more than £25m, which may open the door for Liverpool, who are expected to enter the bidding. It is believed that the Stevenage-born winger is keen to return south and has told friends he would jump at the chance to move to White Hart Lane.

Redknapp broke away from Tottenham’s pre-season preparations last week to meet Real Madrid striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s representatives, with Tottenham ready to pay £18m for the Dutchman. Redknapp told them the club was prepared to make Huntelaar their highest-paid player.

Arsenal were held to a 2-2 draw by Barnet in yesterday’s traditional pre-season friendly at Underhill. Academy product Sanchez Watt formed a first-half strike partnership with Andrey Arshavin, who opened the scoring.

New £10m signing Thomas Vermaelen made his debut in a side that included Tomas Rosicky, making his first appearance since January 2008. Arsenal regained the lead through Dutchman Nacer Barazite in the second half after Ismail Yakubu’s goal for the home side before Elliott Charles scrambled home a late equaliser.

Hull chalked up a 6-0 win away to North Ferriby United, with the goalscorers including Nick Barmby and Caleb Folan on the day that their assistant manager Brian Horton denied there was any truth in the rumours linking Newcastle’s Joey Barton with a move to the KC stadium. Horton said: “He can be a very good footballer but I don’t think it’s an area that really needs to be looked at.”

Everton’s loan signing Jo struck a brace yesterday as the club continued their pre-season campaign with a 4-1 triumph at Rochdale.

In other friendlies, Villa won 3-0 away to Peterborough and Sunderland crashed to a 4-1 defeat by local rivals Gateshead. West Ham had their game against Werder Bremen cancelled because of torrential rain.