United’s director of football David Holdsworth confirmed this week that he is pushing to secure the acquisition of a striker, with an offer tabled on Wednesday evening to a player and his representatives.
“I’ve offered a contract to a centre forward and it’s a player that Steven thinks is the right type to fit into our set-up,” he said. “Agents right now are out-pricing players, as they always do, so I’m having to deal with people who are trying to get more money.
“In terms of the offer to the striker, I won’t wait forever. We did that in January with Jerry Yates and Ashley Nadesan, and it drives you mad. All of the offers have a time limit because we have to know what we’re doing.
“Patience is a virtue, but we’re not going to wait and wait only to get let down. A lot of players wait, and right now their agents are putting an extra zero on the end of what they want. If they do that with us they get told a quick goodbye.”
And he also confirmed that 28-year-old central defender Ash Taylor was a target for United, but admitted that the Blues look set to lose out to another club who have offered much bigger wages.
“Steven identified Ash as a target when he knew that his time at Northampton had come to an end, so we put the feelers out there,” he commented. “We made our offer but sometimes you have to accept that you can’t compete if huge wage offers come from elsewhere.
“Like I said, we’re working hard but there are players who are simply out of our pay structure. That can get frustrating, but we’ve got to stick to our principles, and those principles can’t all be about money.
“If we can’t get plan A, then Steven must have a plan B. We’re being practical and patient in terms of recruitment because we know can’t always get what we want particularly when, as with Ash, somebody comes in with an offer which we could never match.”
Rotherham forward Jerry Yates, no stranger to United fans following his successful loan spell last season, remains a target for United boss Pressley with a number of bids having now been tabled as the Cumbrians look to tempt him back to Brunton Park.
“We’ve made three bids for Jerry already, which Rotherham have turned down,” he revealed. “We’re in constant dialogue with Rotherham and Jerry is aware of our interest.
“Rotherham haven’t made their mind up on what they want to do but, like I say, Jerry is aware that we want to have him in our front line.
"I’ve spoken to his agent and we’ve made three good bids. We can only wait so long, but we’re keen to work closely with Rotherham to try and get him here.”
