Leicester City have revealed that they have turned down Town's latest offer for defender Gareth McAuley. The Blues made their second bid for the Northern Irish international earlier in the week.
Foxes chairman Milan Mandaric says McAuley will be staying at the Walkers Stadium: "We have finally rejected the offer and Gareth McAuley stays.
"He is a quality player, we are ambitious to get into the Premier League and we need players like him to do that.
"The lad wants to stay here and I have given my manager the green light to discuss a new contract with him.”
Boss Ian Holloway says the central defender is settled with the Midlands club: "Gareth is a great lad, he is happy here and one of those who has played really well for me since I came here, so I did not want to lose him.
"Our defence has been a strong point recently and he has played a full part in that. We are ambitious to move forward and try to get out of this division, and we have to keep our best players to do that.
"I am trying to improve the quality of the squad by bringing in new players, not letting any of our top ones leave.”
Town, who have been linked with a number of central defenders during the transfer window including Birmingham's Martin Taylor and Rob Jones from Hibs, will now have to look elsewhere for a central defensive addition to their squad with only a day and a half of the transfer window left.