Bristol Rovers have rejected a fresh bid for Brandon Hanlan from an unnamed League One club, Joey Barton has revealed.
Hanlan, aged 24, has already seen interest from the third tier of English football, after a bid from Lincoln City was rejected by Rovers in the past fortnight.
The Gas are eager to avoid a loss on their investment in the former Gillingham striker, who they were ordered to pay £150,000 for at a tribunal earlier this summer.
Barton is aware that Hanlan is likely to have had his head turned by interest from League One but today admitted that “his attitude has been great” this week, despite another club as well as Lincoln showing strong interest.
“We’ve had another club bid for him,” Barton said. They’ve offered us slightly more than what Lincoln had, it’s another League One side and there’s clearly interest in him.
“The problem we’ve got is he’s got a year left on his deal, so contractually it’s not a superb position for the club.
“I’m in a good position as a manager though, as I don’t have to sell, although you want players who want to be at the football club and Brandon has been superb to be honest, his attitude has been great this week.
“I think he understands the situation we’re in, we’re always transparent with the players and we speak to them as openly as we can and the last thing I want is an unhappy player, but obviously when a couple of League One clubs come calling, I know that’s an increase on his salary and it’s tough to ask the boy to play in a lower division on less money.”
Throughout last season Hanlan managed nine goals for Rovers, but has not featured in this campaign due to a knee problem.
Barton has struggled with his attacking options in the opening stages of the season as summer signings Brett Pitman and Aaron Collins have also missing time with niggles, but both were able to get minutes during the midweek win over Oldham Athletic, with Collins managing the full 90.
Despite the return for two of his main attacking threats, Barton is still interested in bringing another forward to the club before the August 31 deadline, regardless of what happens with Hanlan – with reports suggesting the as failed in a bid for John Akinde.
But Hanlan could stay at the Mem despite the interest, Barton insists.
“We hold all the cards (on the future of Hanlan), so unless we get what we think is a good deal for the football club we won’t allow him to leave, but also if we can get somebody in and it works for all parties then it might be something we look at doing,” he said.
“The problem is we’ve got 11 days to go (until the window closes) and there’s a scarcity of options at this moment in time.”
As well as arrivals, the Gas are hoping to get some players out the door of BS7 to welcome in new arrivals and also ensure they don’t go over the squad limit placed on teams in the EFL.
Barton said: “We’re hoping to move at least another couple of transfer targets on in the next 24-48 hours, so hopefully we can retain certainly all the players we want to retain, because in Brandon’s position we’re really short.
“We’re working incredibly hard in multiple areas to strengthen the squad and make sure that we’ve got, when the window closes, the best squad we can have available.”
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