Greg Docherty will only leave if price is right, says Canning

Hamilton boss Martin Canning is in the dark over Greg Docherty's future amid reports of an approach from Rangers.

The Accies midfielder is rumoured to be the subject of a £300,000 bid from the Ibrox club this transfer window, which has reportedly been knocked back by the Lanarkshire club.

Canning admits there will come a day when the club has to say goodbye to the Scotland Under-21 international, but says he will have no say in any transfer dealings in the coming weeks.

"Ronnie (MacDonald) the chairman will deal with that kind of thing,'' Canning said. When I find out is when he phones me and says 'the club has accepted an offer for Greg Docherty' and that will be when he moves.

"Until that happens, Greg Docherty is a Hamilton player.

"I spoke to Greg yesterday and he's a very mature, level headed young boy so his full focus is on making sure he is committed to Hamilton and doing his job.

"If something happens for Greg, it means we as a club have done our job properly and brought a kid from nine through the academy into the first team and sold him on to a club that will hopefully develop him further, and Greg will have a good career in the game.

"Everyone here would be happy with that, pat him on the back and thank him for his work here and wish him all the best.''

On the supposed interest from the Glasgow club, Canning admitted he was not surprised and would be reluctantly forced to part ways with the midfielder.

He said: "He has all the potential and that's why there are teams interested.

"When you have that raw power, speed and strength that he has got off both feet, and there is no doubt he can improve, then that makes him a talent.

"If he does move on then he goes with our best wishes, and as a manager I'll be disappointed but as a club it will mean we will have done things properly.''

Accies have already seen three players exit the club since the start of the month, and the manager is reluctant to rush into replacing them with youngsters such as Ross Cunningham on the verge of breaking into the first team.

"We are speaking to two or three just now,'' Canning said. "We need to try and bring in a couple of bodies if we can.

"We brought in Kozo (Chrysovalantis Kozoronis) from Greece who is a midfielder and will fill a gap for us, but there are so many good young kids coming through right now and what I won't do is, because we have lost one or two bodies, bring in somebody to fill a gap as a number.'

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