Matt Williams: Trio stay looks unlikely

Boss Micky Mellon was hoping any Ginnelly deal will finance new deals for out-of-contract pair Grandison and Akpa Akpro before Saturday's League One opener against Millwall.

But Williams revealed the money on the table for Ginnelly would only pay for one player coming in anyway.

"Burnley's second offer was only a very slight increase and we turned that down," said Williams.

"I've had a very brief conversation with Dave Baldwin, my counterpart at Burnley, as to where we'd need to be to get the deal done.

"We believe we'll get substantially more at a tribunal than what Burnley have offered but I don't think they will go to tribunal because they have one coming up with Danny Ings.

"The amount Burnley are offering now wouldn't get anywhere near what we need to keep the two lads out of contract.

"Even if we get to an acceptable offer, that still won't fund both players.

"So I'd say it's 50-50 to get them over the line by the Millwall game."

Williams admitted that without available pair Mickey Demetriou and Scott Vernon leaving, Town have spent their budget.

"If we move two players out, that frees up money to sign two," he said.

"But we have a couple of players who have turned down permanent longer-term moves elsewhere.

"We've got until 12 noon on Friday to register any permanent player and if we can get it done before then we will do.

"But we can't sign players without people going out."

And he stressed trying to sign the players on a non-contract basis was a non-starter.

"We did discuss a month-to-month deal with one of the player's representatives, but he rejected that out of hand," said Williams.

"If they signed non-contract and then suffered a serious injury on Saturday and it put them out for the season, they're not being paid any anyone.

"If it looks likely that players are going to go out, it's an option to do on Friday morning to get through the weekend.

"But at the minute it doesn't look like happening."

James Caton's projected move to Mansfield won't affect the Grandison and Akpa Akpro saga.

"They want to take him on loan for a month, but they don't want to pay anything towards it," said Williams.