St Johnstone dismiss derisory O’Halloran bids
While the Ibrox club attempt to flog Martyn Waghorn for £1m to pay the January wages and numerous legal battles they have made an offer of one fifth of that figure for the St Johnstone man.
The O’Halloran saga dominated Mark Warburton’s media conference yesterday with the former city trader grinning as he talked around the issue in a bid to distract supporters from the cash crisis at the club
With no updates on an apparent £500,000 bid for Brentford’s Toumani Diagouraga it seems that St Johnstone will be the focus of distraction over the coming days.
“The chairman informed me that Rangers had come in with one bid and then another,” Saints boss Tommy Wright admitted. “Both have been rejected and that’s the state of play.
“The bids have done nothing to interest the chairman. We think we know what Michael is worth and that is the same with any of our players.
“We can’t stop bids coming in from clubs but we aren’t encouraging offers for Michael. We still want to hold onto him. Nothing has changed.”
With their bid quickly dismissed the noises from Ibrox will be about other targets and not being held to ransom by greedy Scottish clubs.
Commenting on his transfer ‘progress’ the former city trader claimed: “We like to do our business early, it was the same at our old club as well.
“We showed that in the summer. It was a case of get it done early, get the permanent ones done and then maybe look at the loan market. Last minute causes poor decision making.
“I’m not worried. The club will go about its business and hopefully do it in the right way. At the end of the day we want players who want to be here.
“We are getting there. We are getting close with a couple of targets so fingers crossed we’ll get them done. We have to make sure it suits all parties but we are making progress.”
With two players signed on five month contracts Warbo hasn’t spent a penny of his January warchest on transfer fees.