Forest Green rejected a bid of almost £1m for striker Christian Doidge today, according to reports from HITC. The question is, which club were in the market for a striker?
Doidge has been linked with moves to Bristol Rovers, Cardiff City and a host of other teams, but today’s bid came from the Championship, meaning a new name has entered the race.
The lively forward scored 25 goals in all competitions last season, form he carried out of the National League from the year before. He has picked up where he left off this time round, with four goals in Forest Green’s opening five fixtures.
The 26-year-old still has two years to run on his current contract and Forest Green are not only reluctant to lose their top scorer, but also in a position to turn bids down. Owner Dale Vince has bankrolled the club significantly and has no need for money. They lose around £2.5m per year at present, unashamedly.
We’ve spoken to our former agent turned columnist Jon Goodwin, who has the following to say about the deal:
Our View (J Goodwin)
I’ve had the feelers out for a while, but there’s little noise coming from the people I know about this. It could be considered that a club openly looking for a striker has taken a punt, which means there’s a couple of candidates.
Middlesbrough have recently had an approach for Hal Robson-Kanu turned down, so they’re in the market for a striker. Chris Wilder is after one too, he’s got an aging strike force at Bramall Lane and might have chanced his arm. He’s got cash to spend too.
Bolton Wanderers are amongst the favourites, £800,000 is around their budget and they lost Adam Le Fondre recently.
The other outstanding candidate is Paul Hurst’s Ipswich. They lost Martyn Waghorn, but got a good fee for him. Hurst has seen Doidge first hand too, he’s got good lower league knowledge and the smart money is on them being the bidders today.
Be the first to comment