Alan Knill 'hopeful' as Scunthorpe United wait for Grella response

Manager Alan Knill is "hopeful" striker Mike Grella will join Scunthorpe United after an offer was made earlier this week.

However, the Iron boss admits the club are not prepared to bust their budget to capture the American, putting them at risk of seeing him sign elsewhere.

Grella has other interest to consider, but hinted last week that United was his first choice, saying: "I have other offers that will allow me to play and score goals, but hopefully that will be at Scunthorpe as I was very impressed with Alan Knill."

Knill though, is not expecting the former Leeds United front man, who is a free agent having turned down a contract with Bury, to come to a decision any time soon.

"We've put something to him in writing. They'll have a look and see and then come back to us," said Knill, who met Grella in New York earlier this month while on holiday.

"We're waiting on whether or not it's going to be accepted.

"But he hasn't just got our offer on the table.

"He's got other offers, and without a doubt they will be offering more than what we can offer him.

"He'll make his decision.

"I'm hopeful he will come to us but we have a ceiling on the offer because we haven't got the money to go any higher, it's as simple as that.

"But we're hoping he will decide to come to us.

"When I met him it went really well and he spoke to some people who know me – they've done me a favour!

"He is the sort of player I like – pretty technical.

"When you look at him you go, 'but he hasn't done this, he hasn't done that'. We're hoping we can bring what we know is in there out of him on a regular basis.

"We're just waiting to see now.

"These things usually take time.

"It's quite a big decision for the player. He has a number of clubs on the table.

"We're hopeful he'll come to us, and if he does, he comes to us for the right reasons. It is important everybody knows that, that he comes because he thinks he's going to get better playing for us.

"But if he doesn't come to us, it's one of those things.

"You just have to quickly move on."

Knill may also have to do the same with another player on his target list, defender Nathan Clarke.

The 28-year-old centre-back was released by Huddersfield Town this summer, but though there have been conversations between the two parties, no offer has been made by the Iron.

Knill accepts that once again he could lose out as a result of finances as Clarke too, has interest from elsewhere.

"I spoke to his agent on Tuesday morning and that's about as far as it's gone," the United manager explained.

"There has been no offers from us yet.

"He's the type of player I like. He's a good defender, but it hasn't moved on.

"He's another player who has a lot more on the table, and definitely way more than we can afford.

"It's something for us to think about."