Forest Green Rovers slam Notts County "megaphone diplomacy" over Liam Noble

Forest Green Rovers have responded to Notts County's criticism of the Liam Noble transfer saga by describing their conduct as "megaphone diplomacy" and suggesting that they have issued false stories in the press and broken FA rules.

For weeks, the Magpies have been trying to sign their former player, but this week it was confirmed that he would not be leaving the newly promoted League Two club.

This led to Alan Hardy describing the whole saga as a "huge waste of time and effort by everybody at the club" and claimed that he and his club were messed around by FGR.

In response, chairman Dale Vince released a statement which read: "We've watched with an increasing sense of bewilderment as Notts County have released a series of press statements about their interest in our player.  It's one thing to engage in such megaphone diplomacy, and quite another to put false stories in the press.

We have received a series of bids for Liam, the first we considered to be a joke.  Their latest 'final' bid we received was not for £100k as their owner claimed in the press yesterday.  Equally, the claim made yesterday about us suggesting they could double that amount and still not get him is completely false.

We've been very clear from the outset that we did not want to sell Liam and the antics of Notts County since then have only firmed up that position.  Liam Noble - Captain of our play-off winning side - is not for sale.  We want Notts County to stop what they are doing, including the behind-the-scenes contact with the player, which we consider to be a breach of FA rules.  

Forest Green Rovers may be the newest and smallest member of the Football League family, but we know how to conduct ourselves and how to undertake a transfer negotiation the right way - quietly and respectfully club to club."

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