Shrewsbury chief executive Brian Caldwell says ideally his club would like to keep Blues targets Jon Nolan and Toto Nsiala and doesn't need to sell them, but admits the duo “are not focused on playing for Shrewsbury” having handed in transfer requests following Town’s joint-bid, which emerged earlier this afternoon. Caldwell, who refused to confirm the identity of the interested club, although as revealed earlier TWTD can confirm it is Ipswich, says the offer was turned down and he has given the other club his valuation of the pair.

“A Championship club contacted us yesterday and put an offer in by text message to myself for the two players, which obviously didn’t reach our valuation,” Caldwell outlined in an interview with BBC Radio Shropshire.

“We looked at the valuations quite closely the chairman and I and we discussed it even last season with [former Shrews manager and current Town boss] Paul [Hurst] and I think we all kind of knew what parameters we were looking at if we had to sell the players.

“However, what I would say is that we don’t need to sell the players, we’re not needing cash like a lot of football clubs, we don’t want to sell the players and this is totally out of our control.

“The players today have obviously got wind of everything through their agents etc and maybe perhaps the other club, shall I say, which I’m sure has been going on behind everybody’s back.

“And they’ve now handed in transfer requests, obviously in an effort to force us to sell. But, one, we don’t to sell, two, we don’t need the money and the third thing is they’ve not met the valuation and we’re not going to sell them on the cheap.”

He added: “In an ideal world we would have liked them to stay but at the end of the day we always need to be focused on the best interests of Shrewsbury Town Football Club and we want players who want to play here, that want to play for the football club and don’t just want to jump ship at the first opportunity.

“Obviously, any bids need to reach our valuation, we don’t want to be selling players on the cheap.”

Caldwell, who says the offer was the first time he has received a bid by text in 25 years in the game, wouldn’t confirm that Town were the club involved, however, he said regarding his club’s former manager Hurst: “Obviously Paul’s been linked with players he knows well from his time here. Obviously three days before we kick-off the new season on Saturday it isn’t great timing for anybody.

“But I’m standing strong here that the valuation that we all feel is the right valuation for the players will be the valuation we’ll accept.”

The Shrews chief says the situation could develop quickly in the next day or so with the Blues keen to strengthen their squad before Saturday’s opening game and if not certainly prior to the transfer window closing next Thursday.

“Anything’s possible in football, things change in minutes, never mind days,” he conceded. “I think it’s possible.

“At the moment I’ve gone back to the other club and explained where I value the players at. I’ve explained that we don’t need the money and I’ve explained that I don’t want to sell the players.

“But obviously we’re in a situation that the players are not focused on playing for Shrewsbury Town and we want players who are focused on playing for Shrewsbury Town.”

He says he’s not yet had a response from Town to rejection of the joint-offer, which some Shropshire sources are reporting to have been £1.4 million: “No, we got the bid yesterday, I went back to them with the valuation which I felt was more appropriate to the levels than they’ve put in and haven’t had any feedback to that as yet.”

Photo: Action Images

cat added 19:50 - Aug 1 Let's keep our cool here ladies and gents. Landing players nowadays takes time, with fat agents, personal terms, contracts etc etc to deal with, it's become a slow process. We can field a decent enough team on Saturday, I doubt anyone coming in now will be ready anyhow. Patience is a virtue, everything comes to he who waits. (Lol)
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SonOfSpock added 20:28 - Aug 1 Text message?! That is a bit poor.
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mickymacsbarmyarmy added 20:51 - Aug 1 Really looking forward to new season.. One things for sure it won't be boring. Is either going to be a rip roaring season or an unmitigated disaster with all these comings & going. Alas if we sign Toto I reckon Emmanuel will sign for Rotherham, what with Warne at the M.K.dons match last week.
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meekreech added 21:03 - Aug 1 More friends to find homes for ! Hurst couldn't get them motivated for the biggest game of their lives in the play off final so how will he be able to get them motivated for the higher levels of the championship ?
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armchaircritic59 added 21:22 - Aug 1 SonOfspock, that's the way it is these days, you weren't expecting a fax were you, lol! It'll probably be facebook and twitter next!
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warktheline added 21:30 - Aug 1 @meekreech, get over it! McCarthy is long gone, along with all his negativity!
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Taricco_Fan added 21:44 - Aug 1 They're probably after £2m for the pair. Meet them in the middle and if not accepted tell them to poke it.
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toxtethblue added 22:37 - Aug 1 Yep offer 1.75m
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WorcesterBlue added 22:58 - Aug 1 This is silly - not what we need. Get Tilt sorted for the right price and then maybe another forward. Bishop, Huws or Adeyemi will add necessary bodies in CM to the three kids and Skuse. Who needs Nolan?
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ArnieM added 23:06 - Aug 1 Not sure I believe Shrews comments about us tapping up,their manager, and now two of their players. It's just big club vs little club syndrome. The same thing will be happening to us when Liverpool come sniffing round Andre Dozzell, again.
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bluearmyboy added 00:04 - Aug 2 Tbh I think we should try and get Marcus Maddison from Peterborough, because he doesn't really want to be there and I think that no other championship clubs are trying to get him and I believe he's better than Nolan, also he'll be going for a cheaper price than Nolan.
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Along added 06:42 - Aug 2 Not sure about these two. Seems a lot of money for two 26 year olds who have never played above league 1 level. Would rather see our young midfielders develop than spend 1.5m on Nolan, and Toto sounds nothing special and sounds like he loses his head and makes mistakes, would be amplified in championship. For same price Tilt sounds a better option. Had enough of getting mates in after MM, thought we were doing something different now.

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DJ27 added 07:53 - Aug 2 Along - The difference in Hurst getting players in he knows is their career is on an upward curve. MM got his favourite players from 5 years previously on downward turn. Both Hunts, Ebanks Blake, Nouble, Foley, I'm sure there are plenty of others. His only real success in that market was Berra.
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Along added 08:09 - Aug 2 But MM didn't pay any real money for these guys, they were just bit part players to fill gaps when needed. The difference is PH wants to spend a couple of million on a couple of mates in their late twenties, who had one decent season for him in league 1. Aside from employing a few of his old mates on loans and short term contracts MM made us a fortune in his transfer dealings, Mings, Webster, Waghorn, Knudsen, looking at 15 million profit. Hope PH is as astute and not chucking valuable money on L1 mates.

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toxtethblue added 09:58 - Aug 2 To be honest I don't blame Blackpool for wanting 1m for Tilt, he looks class and 1m in this day and age isn't a lot. We have the cash. ME seems phobic of paying more than 6 figures!!
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runningout added 10:53 - Aug 2 Not sure if we want players that are easily distracted. We need solid mentality
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JewellintheTown added 10:57 - Aug 2 I guess Simon Brodkin aka Lee Nelson is up to his old tricks and now texting managers instead of gatecrashing. Maybe it's Sasha Baron Cohen? Could be anyone texting the Shrews, how do they know it's genuine and not a wind up? Do managers have a secret oath code or something like the Masons or every other managers mobiles? I'll be sending a text or two with offers if it gets the ball rolling with clubs talking to eachother.

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luckydiddy added 11:49 - Aug 2 Not heard of Shrews manager before PH came here ... just seems like this is how he does things. Tries to make himself look big and hard done by by bigger clubs. Partly thats how football works .. happens to us over academy and better players .. happens to top clubs eg Neymar and PSG. As for believing text message etc .... think if thats how things were really done by ITFC .... we would have heard about it LONG before now.... AND it may have been text message as hes trying to ignore PH's phone calls and set ITFC emails to go to junk!

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