Bristol Rovers' pursuit of James Constable over
Bristol Rovers chairman Nick Higgs insists the deal to bring James Constable to the Memorial Stadium is now 'dead in the water' after Oxford United turned down a second improved offer for the striker.
Oxford chairman Kelvin Thomas last week confirmed that Rovers had made a second bid believed to be in the region of £150,000 for the 27-year-old after an initial offer of £120,000 had been turned down.
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James Constable
Thomas said the latest offer was to be 'considered' over the weekend, but last night confirmed that it had been rebuffed. "After receiving a second offer from Bristol Rovers, which was discussed over the weekend and Bank Holiday, we have decided to turn down the offer," said Thomas.
"The offer from Bristol Rovers was a reasonable one, but quite a bit less than what we have both rejected and accepted in the past."
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Higgs yesterday confirmed that Rovers were unwilling to become embroiled in an auction for a player who is also believed to be interesting Northampton and Luton Town and will now switch his attentions elsewhere.
He said: "We put a good offer on the table for the player, but Oxford have decided to turn that down, so it is dead in the water as far as I'm concerned.
"We decided that after making the second offer it was a case of it happens it happens and if it doesn't then we turn our attentions elsewhere.
"There are other players that Mark (McGhee) will pursue now that the deal has fallen through. We've entered into negotiations with a number of players and agents so there is a long list of possibilities.
"I would envisage that we may see between four and six new faces before the start of the season.
"It's a moving goalpost, though, because things can change at this time of year. It's difficult because a lot of players are away on holiday, but, hopefully, we should start seeing some movement in the next couple of weeks."
Rovers, meanwhile, yesterday announced ticket details for their pre-season friendly against League One side Coventry City on Saturday, August 11 (3pm).
Entrance to terraced areas and the South Stand will cost £10 (adults) and £5 (concessions). Seats in the two main stands will cost £14 (adults) and £7 (concessions). Tickets are available in advance from Pirate Leisure.
Comments
by Oldfrank
Wednesday, June 13 2012, 1:15PM
“You would be a miserable sod too if you'd heard that our bottom half league 2 rivals Bradford City manager Phil Parkinson, having signed 25 year old international defender Rory McArdle from SPL club Aberdeen, is looking to unload 33 year old ex Torquay carthorse Guy Branston to us.
Is it my imagination or do we have no imagination ?”
by Baldeeheed
Tuesday, June 12 2012, 12:14PM
“Face it Frank - you think anything to do with Rovers is abysmal, you miserable old sod!”
by Oldfrank
Sunday, June 10 2012, 6:10PM
“In the distant past maybe Baboonsass but in the last ten years we've only struck gold with Lambert and Hoskins. Compare that with the lack of success with players we've paid fees for like Pipe, Coles, Kuffour, Hughes, Williams, Duffy, Wright, Gill & Zebroski let alone ones we've enticed to come on a free but given lucrative contracts. I think our record of recruiting players is abysmal.”
by Baboonsass
Sunday, June 10 2012, 4:29PM
“Frank how can you say we're not a good buying club we buy cheap and sell them on, the players we bring in shine as individuals but as a team we've struggled in recent seasons so they move on so we do buy well its just that we cant keep them”
by THEIRONS
Sunday, June 10 2012, 12:25PM
“If only Bristol could produce Football of the quality of Frank and Stans comments .”
by jceegas
Sunday, June 10 2012, 9:23AM
“constable is 27 150 k could be spent on young up and coming strikers from the conference....with resale value........and what has he done at oxford? not a lot really......here we again same old ..........”
by chinesegas
Sunday, June 10 2012, 3:23AM
“why not get hoskins back , even on loan for a season, hey frank where did you get the info on muzzy .”
by SimpleStan
Saturday, June 09 2012, 6:59PM
“If Constable is worth £200 000 just think with the Hoskins money we could have got Sergeant Dixon, Inspector Munro and that bloke from Heartbeat.”
by Oldfrank
Saturday, June 09 2012, 5:24PM
“Mustapha Carayol now unhappy Rovers won't accept a £300 000 bid for him when he was apparently told in January he could leave in the summer for that figure. Latest in a long line of players and managers to discover how important it is to get things in writing.
Talking of slippery slopes I can see a pattern emerging here. Lambert left gaining us £800 000, Hoskins left gaining us £600 000 and Carayol is about to gain us £400 000. Who will be the next one to go at £200 000 ? Rovers are a good selling club but not so hot at buying, as Mark McGhee will soon be telling us.”
by redferryman1
Saturday, June 09 2012, 12:30PM
“davepirate
The inflated offer for Maynard came from Leicester - and I believe the player didn't want to go to 'The Walkers'. So how can you justify accusing City of being "greedy" when the player wasn't interested in completing the move?”