By Nathan Jackson
March 21 2006

After over a week of speculation, the rumours have finally been killed and Daryl Clare won't be joining the Imps. The Non-League paper broke the story 10 days ago when they reported Clare was going to speak to Keith Alexander this week, however, wages proved a major factor again.

Clare left struggling conference side, Crawley after the Sussex side had financial difficulties. After having 3 different spells in the football league with 2 clubs, it appeared that the former Boston man would join the Imps but wage demands of apparantly more than £1,500 a week mean that any deal for a player who has yet to prove himself at Football League level. Speaking to the Echo, Alexander revealed taht the move for Clare collapsed virtually as soon as it had begun.

"I spoke to Daryl, but we could not meet his wages, there are a few clubs after him and I'm not surprised. He's a goalscorer at the end of the day and his record in the Conference is excellent. I was certainly interested in bringing him to Sincil Bank, but only for the right price. That hasn't happened, but I'm not too disappointed I have missed out. I'm not one for signing players for the sake of it - neither will I waste the club's money."

"I'm working around the clock, speaking to rival managers, the difficulty I am finding is clubs who are fighting relegation or going for promotion don't want to let their players go. I understand that, but it doesn't help my cause. With Simon out, I am keen to get someone in."

Keith has until Thursday afternoon to secure a loan signing when the deadline expires. However, many fans will have noticed the quote about not wasting the club's money, as much as Keith has brought decent players to this club, the amount of rubbish he's brought to this club also stands out. Rory May, Ellis Remy, Niall McNamara, Adrian Littlejohn, Dean West, Peter Folkes, Dave Wattley, Richard Liburd, Derek Asamoah, Ritchie Hanlon, Dene Cropper, Omari Coleman, Mark Ward and Chris Ward are all players who have joined the Imps under Keith's tenureship and all were complete flops and out of the current squad, many fans believe that Martin Gritton could easily fall into that category when he eventually leaves the Imps.