HEREFORD United chairman David Keyte has slapped a price tag of £250,000 to £500,000 on the club’s prized asset Mathieu Manset.

The 21-year-old Frenchman has been attracting plenty of interest from higher-graded clubs with his goalscoring exploits in the last few weeks.

And the stands have been filled with scouts running the rule over the 13-goal striker.

But Keyte will not be rushed into a deal for the man’s whose goals could be vital in securing Hereford’s future in the Football League.

“We have had one enquiry for Mathieu which we turned down,”

said Keyte.

“It was from a Championship club but it did not meet our valuation.

“For us to even consider letting him go, it would need an offer that we couldn’t refuse - somewhere in the region of £250,000 to £500,000.

“But we don’t want Mathieu to go.

We still have a job to do here and our priority is to get away from the foot of the League 2 table.”

Swansea City and Reading are among the clubs reported to have been watching Manset and Royals boss Brian McDermott is certainly monitoring the situation.

"I think there will be a number of clubs looking at him,” he said. “We might be in the frame to look at him as well, but we will see.

“With any deal there is a lot of work to be done, but he is someone else’s player."

Speaking yesterday (Wednesday), however, Bulls chief Jamie Pitman confirmed that he was expecting Manset still to be in the United squad for the trip to Accrington on Saturday.

“Manny is still here with us and he’s fit and ready to play at the weekend,” said Pitman.

There could be further disruption to the Bulls plans with the possible departure of technical director Lennie Lawrence.

The former Charlton, Middlesbrough and Luton Town manager has only been in position at Edgar Street for just over a month but, according to reports, is now being courted as assistant manager to new Crystal Palace manager Dougie Freedman.

United have won four of their six games since Lawrence was appointed to work alongside Pitman in late December.

While Manset and Lawrence’s futures are in doubt, Hereford are close to securing further deals for two of their loanees.

“We are talking to Oldham about Rob Purdie at the moment and hope to tie that up within the next couple of weeks,” said Pitman.

“And it is a similar situation with Joe Heath.”

Pitman, however, was not too sure what Guillem Bauza’s future was with Hereford (see Sport 9).

“Bauza is currently training with a League 1 club but we have left the door ajar for him to come back,”

said Pitman.

Long-term casualties Dan Connor and Ryan Valentine remain sidelined but Hereford have no further injuries to report ahead of Saturday’s trip to Accrington, who were beaten 3-1 at home by Graham Turner’s Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday night.

But the Bulls squad is strengthened by the return of full-back Ryan Green after a two-match suspension.

Hereford will then entertain old Conference rivals Morecambe at Edgar Street next Tuesday.