Shropshire Star

Brian Caldwell: Shrewsbury Town stars will only go for ‘silly money’

Brian Caldwell has warned clubs looking at Jon Nolan and Toto Nsiala that it would take ‘silly money’ to convince Shrewsbury to sell their prized assets.

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The duo were influential last season as Town upset the odds to clinch a third-place finish in League One.

Those performances have led to admiring glances from elsewhere – with rumours persisting former boss Paul Hurst would like to take them with him to Ipswich.

But with both players under contract – and with Abu Ogogo, Junior Brown and Alex Rodman having already left Salop this summer – Caldwell insists only a massive offer would tempt Shrewsbury to sell either of their star men.

“Because of our financial position we don’t have to sell anyone,” the chief executive said.

“A lot of clubs, because of their debt, if they get a reasonable offer for a player they will move them on.

“We are not in that position because of how well the chairman has run the club and we will maintain that.

“Whilst we have got our cash reserves and a healthy bank balance, which is unusual in football, it means we are not under any pressure to sell. It would take really good money to prise a player away, silly money if you like.

“We realise that sometimes it’s a fine balance, players want to play at the highest level they possibly can.

“But realistically we don’t want to sell these players and we have said that from day one.

“They are assets and we are trying to build a team. The last thing we want to do is sell them off, and we certainly don’t want to sell them for a low price.”

Nolan, who joined from Chesterfield, still has two years remaining on his Shrewsbury contract.

However, Nsiala – who was snapped up from Hartlepool – has just 12 months left to run on his deal.

Nevertheless, Caldwell says he is not tempted to cash in on the defender despite the fact he could become a free agent next year.

“Some clubs feel if a player has one year on their contract they need to cash in,” he added.

“But I don’t always buy into that.

“At the end of the day it’s got be what I’d term mad money – or a really, really good offer to get us to even think about it.

“The window shuts in a couple of weeks and we are where we are unless something dramatically changes.”

Despite Nsiala’s contract running out in 12 months time, Caldwell moved to remind fans that talks behind the scenes are always taking place.

“Contract talks between players and the club are often taking place but we don’t always publicise them,” the Scotsman added.

“We don’t think it’s right to do that.

“Talks with Abs (Ogogo) took place very early but he didn’t want to commit.

“But contract talks are a private conversation between myself, the players and the manager.”