BLACKBURN ROVERS have rejected two bids from Newcastle United for Grant Hanley - with their manager, Owen Coyle, claiming the Magpies' latest £4.5m offer is "nowhere near" to their valuation of the Scottish centre-half.

Newcastle’s first bid for Hanley, which was worth £3.5m, was turned down at the end of last week, and while the Magpies returned with an improved offer of £4.5m yesterday, that was also rebuffed by the Ewood Park board.

Rafael Benitez, who retains an interest in Middlesbrough’s Daniel Ayala, has identified Hanley as his preferred addition to a defensive unit that has lost the services of Fabricio Coloccini and Steven Taylor since the end of last season.

Hanley spent the weekend in Austria, but was a late withdrawal from the Blackburn team that beat SV Reid in a friendly, with Rovers boss Owen Coyle claiming his skipper had picked up a knee injury in training.

Hanley was, however, fit enough to walk onto the pitch at the final whistle and applaud the Blackburn fans who had travelled to Austria to watch the game.

“Number one, I don’t want to be selling Grant Hanley,” said Coyle, in the wake of Saturday’s game. “I’ll say that openly.

“But obviously we can’t stop clubs from admiring our players. It’s the same with me. I admire players at other clubs and you go after them.

“But what I would also say is about Grant Hanley’s valuation as a player – I hold him in very high esteem. I think he is a very, very good player.

“And I think it’s fair to say, in my opinion, they (Newcastle) are nowhere near the valuation of Grant Hanley. I don’t want to lose him.”

When asked whether Hanley had expressed a desire to join Newcastle, Coyle added: “It’s nothing to do with expressing a desire because when all is said and done, Grant Hanley is a player who is under contract at Blackburn Rovers.

“I know the way the world works when agents get to work and such forth. But all I would say is Grant Hanley’s our captain and we don’t want to lose him.

“I totally understand why Newcastle covet him, but as I said before and I’ll repeat it, in my opinion they are nowhere near the valuation which I consider Grant Hanley to be.”