£300,000 For Baptiste

Mansfield Town have stuck a £300,000 price tag on former Alex target Alex John-Baptiste.

Baptiste was being looked at whilst the Danny O’Donnell transfer saga dragged on but when Dario contacted Mansfield he was told they wanted £300,000 for their highly rated defender.

Baptiste had been rumoured to have looked round the Alex training ground in Reaseheath but Dario dropped all interest when Danny O’Donnell finally put pen to paper on a 3 year deal last week.

With interest in the defender growing from the likes of Norwich, Hull and Hartlepool the Mansfield chairman has come out with the asking price, using another former Crewe target as a bench mark.

James Derry, the Mansfield chairman, protested tha £300,000 was a reasonable price considering Barnet sold their young centre half, Simon King, for £200,000.

Derry said that as Baptiste has played more games since a younger age and is four years younger than King then Mansfield should be allowed to ask for more.

The price seems to put a final nail in the coffin, although Dario says he may look at signing another defender should Paul Bignot leave the price tag for Baptiste is out of reach.