MARK YATES has warned want-away striker Izale McLeod there is no easy route out of Crawley after the club turned down a second offer.

Reds knocked back a £100,000 bid from Notts County over the weekend.

The Argus understands Yates was referring to the latest bid – and not a derisory offer earlier in the window – when he told reporters on Saturday the club’s valuation for last term’s top marksman had not yet been met.

McLeod appears to be engineering an exit with a year on his contract still to run.

He reported at Whitehawk for the club’s 2-1 friendly defeat but, 90 minutes ahead of kick-off, told Yates he was too ill to play.

That went down badly with the Reds boss.

Yates said: “I know Izale doesn’t want to be at the football club.

“If someone pays us what we think he is worth, he will go. If not, he will be in the stand all season. We’ll see where we go with it. He has made it abundantly clear to me that he doesn’t want to be at the football club and he doesn’t want us to stand in his way. I don’t want people like that.

“If he wants to have a season doing nothing, then that’s fine with me.”

Notts County chairman Ray Trew admits he hopes Crawley reconsider after describing the offer as “rather substantial.”