HULL City boss Phil Brown has taken a swipe at Ipswich Town by accusing them of moving the goalposts in the Alan Lee negotiations.Brown claimed on Wednesday the Blues were prepared to lower their valuation of Lee but yesterday he insisted the price only went up in the first place because they lost out on Francis Jeffers.

By Derek Davis

HULL City boss Phil Brown has taken a swipe at Ipswich Town by accusing them of moving the goalposts in the Alan Lee negotiations.

Brown claimed on Wednesday the Blues were prepared to lower their valuation of Lee but yesterday he insisted the price only went up in the first place because they lost out on Francis Jeffers.

Town rejected an initial offer for Lee and Hull went back in again with a bid of around £600,000, which Brown insists is what they were led to believe was what Town were after, but that too was rebuffed.

Brown said: “Ipswich are wanting us to up the stakes and we're not prepared to.

“He was a certain value when Franny Jeffers was on the shopping list of Ipswich, but when Jeffers went off the radar, all of a sudden Alan Lee's value went up. I don't find that to be a very good way of doing business.”

Lee, who is in the last year of his current deal, has since rejected an improved contract from Town, and the Tigers are prepared to wait for the striker.

Brown said: “They've got their valuation of Alan Lee and we've got ours, but I want to stress that we'll be sticking to ours.

“A time will come when we withdraw the contract offer that's in front of Ipswich, and that will be if he signs his new contract there or if he moves to another football club.”

Ipswich Town have refused to be drawn into a war of words with Hull and have made it clear they want to keep Lee.