Bristol City are not going to be bullied into selling Antoine Semenyo after Bournemouth tested the Robins' resolve on Thursday with two quickfire offers.
Over the last few weeks (or you could argue six months) it had been brewing. Speculation about Semenyo's future had been floating around in the headlines without any concrete offers coming into the club.
Rangers, Celtic, Crystal Palace, Southampton, Fenerbahce and Burnley have been among the reported interested clubs, with varying degrees of accuracy behind each one, but it's Premier League strugglers Bournemouth who have played their cards first by making an approach thought to be in the region of £10million (£8m plus £2m in add-ons). At least that's slightly more reasonable than the initial derisory £8m just a few hours prior.
In truth, two offers in such a short period of time smack of desperation and City can smell it. Bournemouth were hoping to get the deal over the line before the weekend when they face a huge game at home to Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon in what is an increasingly pivotal game for the club.
This is a side who have lost four on the spin, have the worst goal difference in the top flight (-23), lost forwards Dominic Solanke and Marcus Tavernier to injury and sit just one point clear of rock-bottom Southampton. There's also the small matter that relegation to the Championship will cost a club at least £50m.
Another reason why Semenyo is such an attractive prospect for Bournemouth is if they do get relegated, they immediately possess a player in their ranks who is readymade to help with their quest for an immediate return to the Premier League.
Therefore City are well within their rights to sit back and use those factors in their negotiating power. The ball is in their court at the moment and if the Bournemouth fail to beat a resurgent Nottingham Forest at the weekend, their yearning for a new striker is only going to increase two-fold.
After a second offer was rejected, the understanding is that Bournemouth will walk away and turn their attention to other targets in the position. Given the public necessity to improve their squad, other clubs now have the power of using that to their advantage when negotiating deals.
What remains a slight concern is that reports in the Atheltic suggest Bournemouth have already agreed personal terms with Semenyo. Although that would seem rather suspicious considering an offer hasn't even been accepted yet, but equally it's naive to dismiss such discussions having taken place.
An article in The Sun at the weekend also claimed the Cherries are willing to offer the 23-year-old striker £50,000-a-week. The carrot has been dangled and if that's the case, there's always the risk Semenyo will be pushing for a move and therefore raises the prospect of an unsettled player, although the present reality is there has been no indication of such behaviour.
Nigel Pearson has been consistent that he would never stand in a player's way of playing in the Premier League, and as a living, breathing advert for the club's academy who is a popular figure at the High Performance Centre, nobody related to City would begrudge him such aspirations. Only a fair price separates that ambition.
When negotiating, City will think back to the effort and hours they have put in to help Semenyo get to the level he is at now having joined from the SGS Academy at the age of 17. They also have his age, potential and importance to the team to take into consideration.
Therefore it begs the question and that is: how much is Semenyo worth for City to cash in? It only takes a browse on social media to recognise supporters laughing in the face of their initial £8m. On the flip side, a large of Bournemouth fans think that they are already overbidding in their attempts to fix their frontline.
City will have to sell Semenyo this month or in the summer otherwise there's the potential risk of him running down his contract. The longer they leave it, the more his value depreciates and given the financial state of the club when every pound counts, City will want to ensure they receive maximum income for their star asset.
Letting him leave this month would prove somewhat of a gamble. City still aren't in the clear in regards to their Championship status and sit six points clear of the bottom three although recent performances suggest a corner has been turned.
Hamstring injuries to Tommy Conway and Andi Weimann also highlight the lack of squad depth with Chris Martin also falling out of favour in the first-team reckoning. Nahki Wells' new contract is a huge bonus and Sam Bell has bags of potential but it's a lot of pressure on a young striker who scored his first senior goal on Tuesday evening.
Therefore it's imperative a replacement is lined up and you would only imagine the club would move quickly if they do allow Semenyo to leave. The last thing they need to be frantically pursuing targets on deadline day resulting in an overpriced panic buy.
Semenyo is also hitting form at the perfect time. Three goals in his last four games have no doubt had his admirers taking note and he's looking every part of the striker who tore Championship defences to shreds in the second half of last season.
Take away the emotions of his popularity among the fanbase and squad and you'd think that a player with 18 months left on his deal would be worth in the region of an initial £12m plus significant add-ons including a sell-on fee. That's easy to say from the outside, especially as we're ill-equipped with the knowledge of the player's thoughts and the state of play regarding the replacements in mind.
Whatever happens in the final 11 days of this window, it doesn't feel as though the dust has settled regarding Semenyo's future and the next few days could be the calm before the storm ahead of a frantic week.
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