McAuley To Leave Imps

3rd June 2006

The news that Imps' fans feared is about to come true, as Gareth McAuley is set to leave Lincoln City within the next few days.

The news has been confirmed by Crewe Alexandra's manager Dario Gradi, who has tried for a second time to sign McAuley. In January, Crewe had a £150,000 bid for McAuley accepted by Lincoln, only for McAuley to reject the move.

Gradi's latest attempt to sign McAuley was confirmed during an interview in regard to signing new players for Crewe.

As part of the interview, Gradi said: 'We tried for both the centre halves at Lincoln - (Jamie) McCombe and Gareth McAuley.

'Gareth said he was signing for a big club so we didn't discuss it any further.

The news will come as no surprise, as all but the most optimistic Lincoln City supporter had given up hope of keeping McAuley. Now, Lincoln's fans await of the news of which "big club" will poach the out of contract Northern Ireland international, thereby meaning that McAuley officially rejects Lincoln's new contract offer.

The two favourites are the Championship duo of Leicester City and Sunderland. In February, it was described by sources in Belfast as " a done deal" for McAuley to move to Sunderland. However, Sunderland then sacked manager Mick McCarthy to leave the "done deal" undone!

Meanwhile, Leicester City came close to signing McAuley in January but they sacked manager Craig Levein before their initial interest could be finalised. Ironically, Leicester are again interested in McAuley having watched him several times towards the end of the season. Hull City were another club to scout McAuley during the last few games of the season.

Other clubs linked to McAuley throughout the 2005/06 season are Cardiff City, Doncaster Rovers, Huddersfield Town, Leicester City, Nottingham Forest and Stoke City.

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