"I spoke to him two days ago and told him he's one of the players we need to keep."

"He can score goals, Gary Hooper can. He will be a big part of the squad, along with many, many others.

"So I understand - there's bound to be this sort of speculation and rumour, and somebody can make a throwaway comment that suddenly becomes national news.

"But Gary Hooper has not handed in a transfer request and I've told him I need him here to hopefully be part of pushing this team back into the Premier League, and he was happy with that."

This was 3 weeks before signing Laffertty btw.

Posted By: lurd, Aug 13, 15:07:01