Stephen Glass has broken his silence on the Lewis Ferguson transfer row by making it clear he will only leave Aberdeen if their valuation is met.
The Dons star was the subject of an embarrassing lowball offer of less than £2million from Premier League new boys Watford.
Aberdeen, who were yesterday drawn against Swedes Hacken in the Europa Conference League, kicked the derisory bid into touch and that led to their frustrated star midfielder slapping in a transfer request.
Glass said: “Obviously, I was aware of it and knew it happened.
“You never want players that want to leave your club, of course you don’t.
“But it is not as black and white as the player wants to leave a club.
“There have been opportunities presented to him and he believes they are better for him.
“It is important to be clear the club is not actively trying to sell Lewis.
“We know we have a really talented player on our hands.
“We know it is important that we nurture him in the right way.
“Until somebody comes along with a bid that the club finds acceptable he is going to play for us.”
Glass has spoken to the 21-year-old and he is disappointed but expects him to keep giving his all for Aberdeen.
The Aberdeen boss confirmed: “In terms of handling it I spoke to Lewis about it, I spoke to him about it before it happened.
“I spoke to him while it was happening and I have spoken to him since.
“I have no doubts on Lewis’ mentality.
“The reason he will be in demand is because he is a top player.”
His uncle, Barry, stated that Aberdeen should sell Lewis but Glass refused to be drawn into a war of words.
“I don’t want to almost make it an open dialogue that I’m defending the club’s situation,” Glass insisted.
“What ends up happening is that I saw after the request went in every day or second day there were ex players from other clubs who had things to say about our player.”
