The Chairman has responded to Nottingham Forest’s bid for Matt Fryatt on the official site. Unsurprisingly, it’s a “no”, but the door has been left open for a bidding war to start.

“I can confirm that Nottingham Forest have made a bid for Matty Fryatt. I received a call from Forest Chairman, Nigel Doughty on Monday about the player. During our conversation, a verbal offer was made.

To be frank, the offer was derisory. I made clear that the offer fell a long way short of our valuation, and was totally unacceptable to us.

Let me make clear, I will be very happy for Matty Fryatt to remain a Walsall player after the present Transfer Window closes on August 31st.
Indeed, we are involved in discussions with Matty Fryatt’s agent about extending and enhancing his present contract.

Nevertheless, we are aware that there is a lot of interest in Matty from a number of Premiership and Championship clubs. This is, I suppose, inevitable for a 19 year-old who scored 15 goals from 22 League starts last season, has already scored a couple this season and emerged from the recent European Under-19 Championships as England’s top scorer with four goals. Whether this interest, and the enquiries that have been made, lead to definite bids, we shall have to wait and see.

While we are not actively trying to sell Matty Fryatt, to be fair to the player, we do have to take into account his own career aspirations. It is doubtful if he would want to move to another League One club, such as Nottingham Forest, and much more likely that he would only be interested in joining a Premiership or top Championship outfit. For that to happen, a bid would have to meet our valuation, and Matty Fryatt would need to be satisfied that the move would be beneficial for his career prospects.”

An unequivocal rejection, then, but with the hint that bids from Championship or Premiership sides at a higher figure than Forest’s rumoured £850,000, might well prove successful.