whats the crack with rankin?

[RossP]

Inverness reject Hibs' Rankin bid 

Inverness Caledonian Thistle have rejected a second offer from Hibernian for midfielder John Rankin.

Director of football Graeme Bennett told BBC Sport: "Both offers were better than those previously received from St Mirren and Falkirk.

"But they still did not meet our valuation of the player."

The 24-year-old Rankin had been told that he could find a new club but has recently won himself a regular starting place with the SPL outfit.

And Inverness have indicated that they are looking for more than the ?65,000 they paid Ross County for the left-sided player in the summer of 2006.

A move to Easter Road would see Rankin, who still has a year-and-a-half on his contract, reunited with Donald Park, the new assistant manager at Hibs.

Park left the same role at Caley Thistle in November, citing family reasons.

And Mixu Paatelainen moved for Park last week when he took over the manager's job at the Edinburgh club.

St Mirren are believed to have approached Inverness with a ?40,000 bid for Rankin, but that was dismissed along with a slightly improved offer.

Rankin began his career at Manchester United but moved to Ross County in 2003, having failed to break through at Old Trafford.

He has netted three goals in 18 appearances this season but was not included in the squad for the Scottish Cup defeat by Hibs on Saturday.

[RiG]

Interesting that Bennet is now changing the clubs valuation of Rankin every single hour now. The "magic number" has now gone from "what we paid for him" i.e. ?65k to ?100k in a matter of days.

If he keeps moving the goalposts there will come a point where clubs just leave it and we could be left with a very unhappy player on our hands who has made it very clear he wants to leave.

[kencar]

Interesting that Bennet is now changing the clubs valuation of Rankin every single hour now. The "magic number" has now gone from "what we paid for him" i.e. ?65k to ?100k in a matter of days.

If he keeps moving the goalposts there will come a point where clubs just leave it and we could be left with a very unhappy player on our hands who has made it very clear he wants to leave.

This situation is starting to drag on a bit but then again any transfers involving us always seem to.

However, the club have always said they have a valuation of the player and will not let him go for any less than that. If that figure has not been met by any club then they surely haven't done anything wrong. The "what we paid for him" price was used when St Mirren & Falkirk were offering considerably less to us last week.

[Scotty]

I dont think 100K is in the least bit unreasonable for a somewhat free scoring SPL midfielder who we bought as a good SFL1 midfielder. He has undoubtedly improved since we bought him so the valuation is fine.

What ticks me off is that the club should have said that from the start. "You want Rankin, the cost is 100K+ .... end of story." but if what we read on P&B is correct we have been moving the goalposts almost daily and that makes us look like amateurs.

[Scotty]

However, the club have always said they have a valuation of the player and will not let him go for any less than that. If that figure has not been met by any club then they surely haven't done anything wrong. The "what we paid for him" price was used when St Mirren & Falkirk were offering considerably less to us last week.

The general consensus on P&B is that bids of 65K were accepted last week but rejected when Hibs entered the hunt. Doubt we will ever know for sure but if true, we look bad.

[kencar]

I'm not sure P&B is the most reliable source of information    :023:

Perhaps the situation could have been handled better, I'm wondering if we have been surprised by the interest generated in the player?

I would hope that we aren't guilty of shifting the goalposts though.

[dead_ball_specialist]

Finally we have a manager who knows how to negotiate. I'm sick of us losing our best players for a tuppence, especially to rival clubs who routinely finish below us.

It's so ridiculous that the likes of Hibs and Aberdeen, even Falkirk and St Mirren will demand 7 figure sums before they will sell a good player - yet they expect us to sell players of similar quality for pathetic 5 figure sums. Why should a good SPL player for ICT be 100 times less valuable than a good SPL player for any of them?

Allowing ourselves to be shafted like this will only encourage more of the same.

[Johnboy]

Rankin signed a contract with us.... The ball is firmly in our court - we are not obliged to accept any offers that don't meet our valuation of the player or come with all manner of strings attached....

I don't think that makes us look amateurish...

I don't share Rig's fear either that we will "be left with a very unhappy player on our hands"

I would like to think the guy will be professional enough to give 100% and turn in a decent performance during the remainder of his days here, whenever selected.

Hopefully he will be mentally and physicallly attuned to face Rangers on Sunday...  :022:

[RiG]

This situation is starting to drag on a bit but then again any transfers involving us always seem to.

Correct and while in the past we have laid the blame at the doors of other clubs the fact that yet again another transfer involving ICT is becoming a running joke/saga there seems now to be only one common factor involved in all them...

However, the club have always said they have a valuation of the player and will not let him go for any less than that. If that figure has not been met by any club then they surely haven't done anything wrong. The "what we paid for him" price was used when St Mirren & Falkirk were offering considerably less to us last week.

The problem is ICT have been far too keen to "leak" details of the progress of the transfer to the press. The quotes and figures being banded about suggested that ?65k, the price we paid, is what they were looking for. Now that another team enters the fray with an even better offer we reject the other two, previously acceptable bids, but then go and reject the best one (from Hibs) as well.

I think you could be right Kencar - perhaps they are surprised at the intrest in the player with most thinking it was just St. Mirren in the frame. I can only assume that Bennet et al. now believe that all three will happily fall over each other offering more than this ?100k that Hibs offered which, to be honest I don't see happening. ICT can only move the goal posts so much before the clubs get fed up and are no longer willing to part with x amount of money for the player.

We should have told the interested parties what figure we wanted for John - meet it or you will not get to speak to the player. No releasing details of the bids through the press, just get on with it and sort it out behind closed doors with the odd "talks are ongoing" until the deal is either dead or complete.

Again I don't think this whole saga will be endearing ICT to Rankin who already wants out.

dead_ball_specialist - when have St. Mirren and Falkirk recently sold a player for 7 figures?

[EWS]

P&B is not the most reliable source of information at all.  They all think they know something, but none of them do.  The topic you are all talking about started with Rankin 'definitely signing for St Mirren by the weekend' and he hasn't.

I would very much doubt that ICT accepted a bid lower the 65K, and nowhere can I see on the internet (apart from on message boards) that ICT values Rankin at 65K.  All this has come from 'sources' saying that ICT will be happy with 65K, and I am sure they would be.  But as soon as other clubs came in, they can drive a higher price.  A lot of this seems to be sour grapes, and surely if a fee had been agreed with ICT, St Mirren would have publically came out and complained about it.

It's all sour grapes from many other supporters.

[RiG]

I would like to think the guy will be professional enough to give 100% and turn in a decent performance during the remainder of his days here, whenever selected.

We're talking about someone who sold his house because he wasn't getting a game! I think that makes him sound pretty unhappy to me.

I'm sure he would try and be as professional as possible but surely you can't argue that this would very well impact on his performances for us?

[Yngwie]

Think of it like Ebay. We put a reserve price on him of say ?65k (and when St Mirren met that minimum we confirmed that we would conditionally sell at that price if it was the best offer received), but then a higher bid came in and St Mirren lost the auction. Tough.

Incredible that some people think we look amateur because we are holding out to get the best deal for ICT. We would be truly amateur if we took the first decent offer and stopped listening to better ones.

The way we are playing this one shows that we have learned how to deal in the SPL.

[caley100]

Most of the posters on P & B are feckin do-nuts if you ask me, and 99.9% of content is from dreamland mixed in with personal abuse.

So comparing it with the Sun may be fair, anyhow ICT have never made public the fee required for Rankin, they obviously have a number and will hold out for that, Middens offer of 40k was an insult, Falkirks was a wee bit more, but ICT are looking after number one and that is the way it should be.

Hibs look like the side to get a signature, and lets face it... they aint broke.

[kencar]

We're talking about someone who sold his house because he wasn't getting a game! I think that makes him sound pretty unhappy to me.

That's only one version of the story though. Of course it might be the correct one but equally he may have sold his house because he was told he could move in January!

I'm sure he would try and be as professional as possible but surely you can't argue that this would very well impact on his performances for us?

I suppose that would depend on his character. To me it would make more sense for him to knuckle down and try his hardest till the Summer when more bids would likely come in. Compared to going in a sulk and not trying which might make potential suitors wary of his attitude

Think of it like Ebay. We put a reserve price on him of say ?65k (and when St Mirren met that minimum we confirmed that we would conditionally sell at that price if it was the best offer received), but then a higher bid came in and St Mirren lost the auction. Tough.

That is the perfect analogy. Then there is always the possibility of the random bid that pays way over the odds  :022:

[RiG]

Think of it like Ebay. We put a reserve price on him of say ?65k (and when St Mirren met that minimum we confirmed that we would conditionally sell at that price if it was the best offer received), but then a higher bid came in and St Mirren lost the auction. Tough.

Am I right in saying that the highest bidder for the eBay auction wins the item or, in this case, wins the player?

If so, why did the highest bid (which is more than the "reserve price" and trumps all other bids ) still get rejected? If you did that on eBay you would find yourself pretty unpopular.

Of course it might be the correct one but equally he may have sold his house because he was told he could move in January!

**** of a promise to make although obviously it's hypothetical. Of course, currently, ICT are reneging on that at the minute. If it were true of course  :004:

[kencar]

The 'reserve price' in this case though is our valuation of the player which has not been met

[RiG]

The 'reserve price' in this case though is our valuation of the player which has not been met

By Falkirk and St. Mirren. Hibs although were meant to have met it and gone beyond it.

I haven't a clue about eBay anyway. I had to ask the person opposite me at work as he spends all day on it!  :015:

[kencar]

I have never seen anything offical from the club, Bennet or Brew saying we have accepted any bid though  :024: Of course I may have missed it admist all the conflicting stories in the paper.

Top tip. Never, ever, go on E-Bay drunk!!  :015:

[CELTIC1CALEY3]

By the way it's 'craic' surely?

[Johnboy]

By the way it's 'craic' surely?

No.... Only if you're Irish....  :015:

[tm4tj]

Can you buy John Rankin on e-bay?

wow

4 items found for john rankin in eBay Shops

[Glebeict]

As far as I can makeout the January Transfer ( Market ) is only good to strengthen the already stronger rich clubs,

and weaken and unstabize ( if thats a word)the poorer ones . It just makes the SPL more unbalanced.

Rankin is under contract and should have waited before selling his House.

[Johnboy]

Rankin is under contract and should have waited before selling his House.

He's perfectly entitled to sell his house whenever he wants.... maybe he received a really good offer for it.

There would also be nothing to prevent him buying another one in this area...

He might have difficulty in agreeing favourable terms with another club and could even have a complete re-think....

Presumably he's aware of the Highland Curse.... >:D

[Glebeict]

  Yes it was his house , and yes I hope he buys a new one in Inverness.

[Charles Bannerman]

unstabize ( if thats a word)

Destabilise.