Altys take on it!!!!!!!!!!!!
Accrington Stanley recently announced on their website that they had made a "substantial" offer for Altrincham captain and leading scorer, Ian Craney. The Board of Altrincham FC discussed the offer on Monday night and have since informed the Lancashire club that the bid is not to be accepted. Should an acceptable offer from any club be received for Ian, and should he wish to go, Altrincham would not stand in his way, though they would be very sad to see him go. However, the Stanley offer was equivalent to only a fifth of the fee paid to Altrincham by Macclesfield for left-back Danny Adams in 2000-01 season. Although the Stanley offer included added sums based on future appearances as well as a sell-on clause, the bid was considered to be well below Altrincham's valuation of the player. Ian has made 197 starts and 17 substitute appearances for The Robins and has won an England semi-pro international cap.
Accrington's site reported today that "Stanley's bid for 21 year old midfielder Ian Craney has been turned down by Altrincham, with the Manchester club looking for more money for their captain. [Stanley] Chairman Eric Whalley said 'We are disappointed that Altrincham haven't accepted what was a very reasonable offer for Ian, especially as the young lad was very keen to come and join us as a full time professional footballer. Maybe they think that we have money to throw around, however I can assure everyone that this is not the case, in fact it wasn't our intention to spend any money at all on transfer fees'".