Reading to table fresh bid for Bennett

Reading are expected to return with an improved offer for Cork City defender Alan Bennett after having had a bid of around €150,000 for the centre half turned down by the National League club.

The Irish club's officials - still a little stung by their inability to extract a more substantial fee from the then championship side for Kevin Doyle and Shane Long a couple of years back - are believed to have indicated privately to their counterparts that they will not consider anything less than a fee in the region of €350,000 for the 25-year-old.

Steve Coppell, still chuffed, one presumes, with the value he obtained on his last shopping trip to Turner's Cross, is unlikely to match that figure quite yet, but his club is said to be preparing a bid worth around €225,000 for a player who has been City's most consistent performer over the last couple of seasons.

Over the past couple of days Damien Richardson has been at pains to emphasise that he does not want City to be seen as a selling club.

Given the presence of a clause in Doyle's contract allowing him to leave for a specified fee he could not, he points out, do anything to keep the striker at the club.

The departure of George O'Callaghan for Ipswich, he argues, took place due to the exceptional circumstances that surrounded that player's personal circumstances during the latter half of last year. Danny Murphy and Neale Fenn subsequently left when their contracts with the southerners had expired.

Richardson's difficulty, however, is that both Bennett and Roy O'Donovan - who has has attracted interest from a number of British clubs - want to play in England and each could leave for nothing at the end of the coming season when they too will be out of contract.

City have already refused one firm offer from Southend United for O'Donovan while Hull City have apparently indicated that they are prepared to pay around €375,000 for the under-21 international.

While it is not certain that O'Donovan would relish a move to Hull, it may prove harder to talk him into staying if reported interest from the likes of Celtic, Sunderland or Wolves was backed up with a firm and substantial offer.

Holding on to Bennett, though, remains the most immediate concern for Richardson, particularly after the player flagged his interest in trying his luck with the English top-flight outfit from Grenoble, where he is currently on holiday.

"I don't know what's going on," he said. "I'm in the dark, but it (a move to Reading) would appeal to me. I couldn't say it wouldn't. Anybody with a career wants to further their ambitions as I do.

"This is the Premiership so who wouldn't want that? Reading are flying and Kevin Doyle, Shane Long and Stephen Hunt are all doing well, but I am under contract here. Cork pay my wages and are my employers and I can't say any more than that."

Shelbourne players Owen Heary, Colin Hawkins and Greg O'Halloran should learn at some point today whether they are free to leave the troubled Tolka Park outfit, without the need for other clubs to pay fees for them, as a result of the club's failure to honour guarantees made to them last season in relation to the payment of wages.

The three had declared their intention to invoke what they see as their right and Shelbourne's appeal was heard yesterday by Ercus Stewart SC, a leading labour lawyer.

Should the players prove successful, Heary is expected to move to Bohemians, Hawkins has been linked with Derry City and Dunfermline, while O'Halloran has also attracted interest from Derry City. Other members of the club's already greatly diminished squad would also be expected to avail of the right to go.

The FAI, meanwhile, have received the documentation relating to the interim injunctions obtained by Limerick on Tuesday stopping the association from preventing it from giving the club's place in the League of Ireland to a new entity.

The organisation's legal advisers are said to be reviewing the court's decisions and Merrion Square officials are awaiting their advice on how best to respond.