Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell has confirmed that he is close to adding Australia forward Apostolos Stamatelopoulos to his squad for the coming season.
The 25-year-old Newcastle Jets star is travelling to Scotland for a medical before completing his move to Fir Park.
The forward, who netted 17 times in the A-League last season and earned his first cap for the Socceroos last month, has been targeted as a replacement for Theo Bair who joined Ligue 1 side Auxerre for around £1.3m.
But while Kettlewell admits the deal for Stamatelopous is nearing closer, he insists figures being quoted are well off the mark.
It has been claimed that Motherwell are paying around £260,000 for the striker but the manager appeared to pour cold water on those reports.
Speaking on Friday ahead of this weekend’s League Cup game against Partick Thistle he said: “Apostolos is traveling over to Scotland just now and I can confirm there is an agreement in place subject to medical. His partner was due to give birth on Monday so that has delayed proceedings by a couple of days.
“He’s someone we have been tracking and following for a while. We would hope if we can get him past that medical in the next day or so, I would love to think he starts to come into the mix and our group right away.
“I don’t want to say too much more than that, but I think is important that I do confirm the rumours that are out there because I am always dispelling them when I think they are absolute nonsense but this one is accurate, although some of the details in terms of numbers and finances are very inaccurate, I have to say.
“However, he is travelling and is someone we believe is coming with real good pedigree. He has 17 goals in 24 games last season in the A League and has been part of the all-star team.
“So he is someone, that at 25, we believe can develop at this football club and hopefully pitch in with what is a real good history of number nines.”
Kettlewell also confirmed that Harry Paton is facing a lengthy time out with an injury picked up in last week’s win over Clyde.
He said: “Harry Paton went off last Saturday and the update on that is he’s had surgery on his ankle. A pretty bad injury to his ankle, I thought he was doing really well in the game. A major disappointment with that one.
It looks like Harry will be out for a minimum in the region of 14 weeks to return to play. Blow for us, blow for Harry. We now need to concentrate on the ones closer to playing while supporting Harry and making sure he comes back from this injury.”
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