Bristol City manager Steve Cotterill is adamant that star striker Sam Baldock is not for sale at any price. Speaking for the first time since Brighton tabled a bid for the 25-year-old goal poacher, the City boss moved to reassure worried fans. Cotterill claims the club has no intention of cashing in on last seasonâs 26-goal top-scorer, even though he only has one year to run on his contract. Cityâs board of directors stood firm in the face of interest from Brighton, firmly rebuffing the Championship clubâs offer last weekend. Eager to draw a line under the episode and focus upon his preparations for the new League One campaign, Cotterill issued a clear message to any club considering trying to lure Cityâs captain away from Ashton Gate. âWeâre trying to put a squad together here and weâre simply not interested in selling him,â declared Cotterill. âWhat Brighton offered is immaterial because, at the end of the day, it was dismissed out of hand. âWe donât want to sell him, so it doesnât matter what the bid was. We are fortunate that we donât have to sell our best players and we have (owner) Steve Lansdown to thank for that. There have been no further developments since the weekend, Sam is our player and he is going nowhere.â Baldock, who has always maintained he is happy in Bristol, heard of Brightonâs impending offer via his agent. It is revealing that he immediately contacted Cotterill to inform him of the interest. âIt was Sam who told me about Brightonâs offer in the first place, before it had even been made,â confirmed Cotterill. âHe got wind of it from his agent and then had the goodness to tell me. He didnât have to do that and I appreciated him letting me know. âAll I can tell people is what he said to me when he came in and told me âThere will be a bid coming in for me this afternoon.â He named the club and he was honest with me all the way down the line. âSam has told me he wants to stay and this whole issue is probably getting more time than it deserves.â Meanwhile, City target Simon Moore has moved a step closer to the Cardiff exit door following the Welsh clubâs acquisition of highly-rated teenager Charlie Horton from Peterborough United. One of four goalkeepers now on the books at Cardiff, Moore is already beneath first-choice David Marshall and Joe Lewis in the pecking order. Cotterill is believed to be closely monitoring events in the Welsh capital.
All very nice sentiments shiny but does anyone really think that a top goal scorer in the last year of his contract won't be on the chopping block if the right offer comes our way? I know City have made mistakes on the last year of a contract scenario but I would like to think that SC has learnt from previous mistakes and would not want to get put in the same bag as some of his predecessors. It's a business where you buy low and sell high and I reiterate that if the right offer comes along between now and the January transfer window Sam will be heading for higher ground. A fact of life that we have to accept and then we move on.
If Brighton accept the £6m that Leicester are offering for Ulloa and come back to us with a £5m bid surely we would take it? I hope that they are working hard to offer Sam a new contract
As they did with Maynard, but of course you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink Hopefully we will get a new contract signed by Christmas, from our position atop the Div 1 pile......Baldrick, you've turned into an Alsatian again
