Midfielder Peter Leven has turned down Chesterfield's offer of a new contract in the hope of finding a new club at a higher level.
The ex-Rangers and Kilmarnock player ended a decent first season in England as skipper of the side after Spireites turned down a £100,000 January bid from Brighton, a club who are bound to show interest in a player they can now pick up on a Bosman free.
Should Leven fail to strike a deal, manager Lee Richardson has not finally closed the door on a possible Saltergate extension.
He said: "Peter has made his intentions clear that he hopes that a club at a higher level will come in for him. We had made him an excellent offer but respect his desire to move on if he so wishes.
"We haven't closed the door entirely on the matter but we have to move on as well with our plans for next season."
The Spireites have also made offers to two other out-of-contract players, defenders Phil Picken and Janos Kovacs and their responses are currently awaited.
Meanwhile, Aaron Downes was on the scoresheet in Australia U23's 4-0 Intercontinental Cup win over Togo in Malaysia.
He headed the second goal to help his side to a trio of qualifying wins that now sees reach the semi-finals as they prepare for a spot at the Beijing Olympics.
What do you think? Post your comments below. READ MORE Football headlinesMore BladesMore OwlsMore SpireitesMore RoversMore RedsMore MillersMore Ice HockeyMore rugby leagueMore rugby unionMore boxingSports columnistsAll sport categoriesThe full article contains 294 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
