COLIN COOPER will today sit down with Luke James to try and resolve the future of the in-demand striker.

Peterborough have put a bid in for the 19-year-old, James has put a transfer request in, and it was claimed last night he has made a further demand to leave Victoria Park.

It is understood Posh first made their interest known in James on the eve of the season two weeks ago today.

With the Pools squad off yesterday and back in training today, Cooper and James will enter talks.

James played in Tuesday’s 2-0 home defeat to Dagenham and offered his usual hardworking performance up front. Posh boss Darren Ferguson, who saw Morecambe front-man Jack Redshaw yesterday reject a move to London Road, has claimed his club won’t be upping their bid for James. Cooper said the offer is not the £1m touted by many.

“Our valuation of players we are interested in won’t change because we have banked a bit of money,’’ insisted Ferguson. “We have a valuation of Luke James and his club have every right to reject our bid, but we won’t be upping it and we have other targets that we will now pursue.

“Our valuations of players won’t change just because our bids get rejected. We’ve made that mistake in the past when we’ve gone back in for players after initially having our bids rejected.

“Me and the chairman are now adamant that won’t happen any more.

“At the moment the Luke James deal is dead in the water because they have rejected our bid and we won’t be improving our offer.

“We can’t afford to hang around for players when we have others we are interested in.

“Anyway we have shown already this season that we have enough up front.’’ Cooper is desperate to strengthen his squad after four defeats in four games this season. He lost out to Posh for Middlesbrough centre- half Christian Burgess on Tuesday, and he has now signed a four-year contract.

Cooper had Sunderland centre-half Scott Harrison on loan at the end of last season and a return for the onetime Darlington defender is a possibility.

Sam Collins is likely to play centre-half at Wimbledon on Saturday, which would see Neil Austin revert to leftback.

Tommy Miller is expected to fit after missing out on Tuesday with a back problem, while Stuart Parnaby is a doubt after being forced off against Dagenham with a foot problem.