Wrexham £19m transfer claim put under spotlight as club chief speaks out

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Wrexham director Humphrey Ker has poured cold water on reports suggesting the club have tabled a club-record £19million offer for Angers striker Sidiki Cherif. Claims surfaced on Thursday that the Championship outfit were chasing the 19-year-old forward , who plies his trade in France's top flight.

The teenager is also understood to be on the radar of Premier League side Crystal Palace . Should the transfer materialise, it would surpass Wrexham 's existing record fee of £10m, which they paid for Wales international Nathan Broadhead last summer.

It would also exceed the Championship's highest transfer outlay of £17.3m, set when Ipswich secured Norwegian winger Sindre Walle Egeli in August. Ker, who serves as community director and sits on the Red Dragons' transfer committee , acknowledged the speculation was "exciting" but downplayed the reports when questioned about the potential signing during a talkSPORT interview.

He said: "I think we were all as excited as everybody else to read about it on the internet. To the best of my knowledge, it's a lot of exciting speculation.

"We're looking at lots of different players at the moment, but to say that we've launched a £19 million bid, I'm not sure that's a hundred per cent correct."

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Cherif has made a significant impression this season in France, scoring four goals in 18 Ligue 1 appearances and establishing himself as one of the division's most exciting young forwards. Wrexham currently sit ninth in the Championship table and are looking to bolster their squad as they remain just two points adrift of the play-off spots.

Discussing January transfer rumours more broadly beyond the Cherif speculation, Ker suggested certain agents are exploiting Wrexham's profile to drive up their clients' valuations.

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He said: "One thing we've definitely noticed is that we get used at times as a sort of stalking horse for other contract negotiations and for transfers.

"I'm not saying that's what's happening in this situation, but it has happened in the past that when people are looking to get better deals for their players, they say Wrexham are in for them.

"[They say] they're going to get him, they're going to pay silly money and teams then suddenly react in a different way. Or people who are trying to decide whether or not they want to sign that player suddenly jump to it and launch a bit earlier, even though it isn't true."

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Ker revealed the club was continuing to chase several targets after initially struggling to secure signings in the second tier.

He added: "Now we're in the Championship, we're no longer the big fish in a smaller pond. You're in a division where you've got Premier League teams with parachute payments and things like that.

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