by Barry the bird boggler »
15 Jan 2013 10:13
From the Huddersfield Daily Examiner
HUDDERSFIELD Town are set to turn down any transfer-window offers for Jack Hunt.
Top-flight trio Reading, Swansea and Wigan have all been linked with the right-back, and Premier League hopefuls Cardiff are also believed to be interested.
However, sources within the Championship club suggest it would take a £3m-plus offer for owner-chairman Dean Hoyle to even consider doing business on the talented 22-year-old.
Hunt, with Town since the age of eight, is contracted until the end of next season, and crucially, the club have the option of adding another 12 months to the deal, therefore preventing any other taking him on a free transfer in the summer of 2014.
Named in last season’s PFA League I team of the season and a star of Town’s Wembley play-off win over Sheffield United, Hunt has further enhanced his reputation in the second tier this season with some eye-catching displays.
Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Birmingham City was his 100th appearance in all competitions for Town, and he also played 23 times for Chesterfield during a highly beneficial loan spell in the first half of the 2010-11 season.
Six Premier League clubs, including Swansea, were represented at the Birmingham game.
And the interest in Hunt comes as no surprise.
But having already parted company with strike ace Jordan Rhodes this season – the Scotland international joined Championship rivals Blackburn for £8m on the last day of the August transfer window – Hoyle would be unwilling to sell another top player, particularly with Town striving to ensure they stay in the Championship and go on to consolidate.
And history shows Hoyle has never parted with a prized asset during January, with Anthony Pilkington (to Norwich) and Lee Peltier (Leicester) leaving in the 2011 close-season before Rhodes’ trans-Pennine switch.