Kipre will only leave when price is right
SAYS STEPHEN ROBINSON
STEPHEN Robinson insists Motherwell will only sell Cedric Kipre this summer if a club meets his full valuation of the 21-year-old centre-back.
Sportsmail revealed earlier this week that MLS outfit Vancouver Whitecaps are considering a potential £1million move for Kipre on the back of his highly impressive debut season at Fir Park.
A teenage trainee with Paris Saint-Germain, the Frenchman signed a new contract until 2020 prior to last weekend’s Scottish Cup semi-final success over Aberdeen.
And Robinson insists the financial boost from reaching a second final of the season has given Motherwell greater leeway to pick when they cash in on any player.
‘The board have backed me completely,’ said Robinson.
‘We don’t have millions in the bank but they have put everything back in to the side and that’s allowed me to protect assets like Cedric.
‘He came here as a young boy but he’s proved himself quickly and we wanted to put him on a wage that suggests he’s a firstteam regular.
‘I’m not actively looking to sell him. It’s the nature of the game when you are talking about talented young players.
‘He won’t go for a small amount of money. We’ve got him on a long contract and he’ll only go for what I value him at.
‘We have a lot of assets at this club and sides are interested in five or six of them.
‘It shows the recruitment has been right and we are developing in the right way.
‘Hopefully we don’t sell any of them — I don’t want to sell any of them.
‘I know we are a selling club but I am trying to build a team to take forward.
‘When you have 4,000 fans you will always be a selling club, but it is on our terms.
‘We don’t sell until we have a replacement lined up — just like with Louis Moult and Curtis Main. People told us we were mad not to sell at times but we waited to get Curtis and it has proved to be the right decision.
‘Maybe in previous years we were under pressure to sell financially but that’s not the case.’
Kipre’s acquisition on a free transfer from Leicester City last July has proven a masterstroke by Robinson and his recruitment team, headed by chief scout Martin Foyle.
But the Motherwell manager feels Kipre has plentiful room for further improvement if he was to spend at least one more season in Lanarkshire.
‘He still makes naive decisions — and mistakes you can make at Under-23 level, where it doesn’t really matter,’ added Robinson.
‘But he’s improving every day and he wants to improve. Cedric and Charles Dunne are two guys you can’t get off the training pitch.
‘They have a drive — and we have a coaching staff who want to make younger players better and get them in to the team.
‘As centre-halves, you can’t get a better education than from the likes of Stephen McManus and Stephen Craigan, who both captained their countries.’ Robinson was more circumspect when asked about potential interest in Kenny Miller. Motherwell have been linked as a potential rival to Hibernian for the signature of the 38-year-old Rangers forward, who is set to leave Ibrox after being suspended pending an investigation into an alleged dressing-room dispute with manager Graeme Murty.
‘Kenny is a Rangers player,’ said Robinson.
‘It would be wrong for me to talk about any player who is under contract elsewhere.
‘We are always looking to improve the squad in different areas. I’ve never spoken about anyone else’s players and it would be wrong of me to do that now.’
As it is, Main is Motherwell’s only fit senior striker ahead of tomorrow’s trip north to face Ross County. George Newell will miss the remainder of the season with a fractured cheekbone, while Nadir Ciftci has an ankle issue and Ryan Bowman has been suffering from a sickness bug.
Twelve points clear of the relegation play-off place, the Fir Park side effectively have five bottom-six Premiership matches to prepare for meeting Celtic in the Scottish Cup final on May 19. Robinson, though, insists his side have no intention of cruising their way towards Hampden.
‘We can’t afford to have any complacency at all,’ he said. We had a nice tough training session on Tuesday and I think the boys actually enjoyed it.
‘We have to plan sensibly, but we can’t drop it down and then turn it back on again for a match. We need points to make sure we are safe first and foremost and people are playing for places.
‘Momentum is massive. In 2011, when the club last reached the final, the team took a few beatings and maybe went in with a slightly negative mindset.
‘We don’t want to do that. There will be opportunities due to illness and injuries and we will look at a few things, while having respect for our opponents.
‘I certainly won’t be chopping and changing, though.’
ily Mail, Kipre Wednesday, is April 18, a 2018 summer target for Whitecaps EXClUsiVE By stEPHEn McGOwan MOTHERWELL defender We told you first: from Sportsmail on Wednesday