CHAIRMAN Kelvin Thomas says that rumours of James Constable going out on loan are wide of the mark.

And the Oxford United chief confirmed that the club do not want, or need to sell their star striker.

However, Thomas went on to say that he expects more interest in Constable when the January transfer window opens – and that if any offers are near to United’s valuation, the striker will be allowed to talk to other clubs.

“We are not in a position where we need to sell James, or any other of our players,” Thomas said.

“But I have always said, and always will say, that if somebody comes in with a serious offer then we will talk to the player and let them know of the interest.”

Constable, known as Beano, held talks with League One side Bournemouth last week after they made “a substantial offer” for the forward.

United’s chairman said that he was glad that the club’s leading scorer for the past three seasons decided to stay at United, but feels that the situation was handled well by all parties.

“Bournemouth approached us, they didn’t speak to James, and we dealt with it,” he said.

“I told James that we hadn’t accepted the offer – which was a substantial offer – we don’t want to sell you, but you need to know about it, and James decided he wanted to speak to them, and I think that is right.

“James should want to play at as high a level as possible and I think he should see what is out there.

“The deal wasn’t acceptable to him, but if James had said that he wanted to go, then I think we would have managed to sort it.

“I think that James has been a tremendously-loyal servant to this football club.

“But if he gets offered significant amounts of money more to go somewhere else, then he has to be realistic about it.”

And Thomas said that rumours of Constable joining anyone on loan are wrong.

“The talk of him going out on loan is way off the mark, I don’t see any benefit to that,” Thomas said.

“However, we live in a realistic commercial world and (that is the case) unless something unbelievable came in.

“I’m sure in the next window there will be interest in James and maybe a few other players as well.

“But he’s certainly not going on loan to Bourne-mouth any time soon.

“They haven’t appro-ached us directly about a loan, so I am not concerned about that.

“And if James does what I think he will do over the next three or four months, then it is going to take a lot more money to get him, both from our point of view and James.”