Socceroos midfielder saw a projected move to England breakdown on Deadline Day.
Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou has revealed Crystal Palace’s failed attempts to sign Mark Milligan fell apart because they refused to meet his valuation.
The Premier League newcomers made three bids for the Socceroos midfielder, including a reported offer on Transfer Deadline Day that exceeded the A-League transfer record fee of $1.3 million that took Rostyn Griffiths to Chinese club Guangzhou R&F in 2012.
However, Postecoglou confirmed Palace didn’t stump up enough cash to convince Victory to release one of their prized assets, despite Milligan’s eagerness to move to England.
“I know everyone got excited but it was pretty simple for us,” he explained to Fox Sports.
“We value Mark very highly. He’s a big part of the club and we have a big season ahead and if another club’s interested, if they valued him at the same price we did, he would have gone.
“They made two or three bids and fell short of valuation. We understood Mark had a desire to play in the EPL. We tried to make it happen. In the end we weren’t going to push anything. It was up to them.”
Having retained the services of Milligan, until January at least, Postecoglou is now focusing on bolstering his own squad and is targeting a marquee player, a defender and a midfielder, with William Gallas understood to be one of the many irons in his fire.
“I’ve got five or six bubbling along,” he added. “I was always going to wait until the end of the window before I did anything.”
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