Butcher linked with moves away

By Nathan Jackson
June 1 2005

Imps midfielder, Ricky Butcher has attracted interested from numerous clubs higher in the football league have caught the eye of Preston North End, Rotherham United, Bradford City and Oldham Athletic.

Butcher, who has until Thursday to decide whether he's going to accept the new deal offered by Imps boss, Keith Alexander, has attracted much interest from big clubs down the years but no-one ever thought that a team like Preston would try and come in for him.

Richard Cody, Butcher's agent said, "There is a massive amount of interest in Richard from teams in the Championship down to the league he is in at the moment." A few seemed to ignore this but Oldham Athletic today confirmed their interest by writting an article on their official site. They don't go as far as to say they're definatly putting a contract on the table for Butcher but did say "Richard is definatly a player we're looking at."

Butcher signed just after Christmas 2002 from Kettering Town and was the only ever present in the Imps squad this season, never missing even a minute.