HARRY Kewell has reiterated he wants to keep Conor McAleny at Boundary Park after Bradford publicly confirmed their interest in Latics’ top scorer.

The Bantams have already taken Danny Rowe to Valley Parade in this transfer window for an undisclosed fee and are keeping tabs on 14-goal frontman McAleny who is out of contract in the summer.

On Monday morning, interim boss Conor Sellars told BBC Radio Leeds: “His name’s on the list, how high on there it is, he’s probably not our priority or main target for some reasons.

“He’s a good player, he’s got goals but also we’re looking at the bigger picture and doing the due diligence like we said and making sure he’s the right fit for Bradford City even though he is a good player.”

Speaking to fans’ group Push The Boundary late last week, Oldham chief executive Karl Evans revealed an initial enquiry from their fellow League Two side had been knocked back.

And asked to respond to Sellars’ view on the situation, Kewell told The Oldham Times he found the comments “interesting” and maintained the club did not want to see their key man this season leave.

“Anybody can talk about any player,” he said.

“I’ve literally just come back from training and I’m being told about it.

“It’s an interesting comment because he says he’s on his list but he’s not the type of player that he wants, but they’re looking for a player like him.

“I don’t get it but that’s none of my concern.

“Conor’s a fantastic player for us, he’s scored 14 goals this season which is a fantastic turnaround for a striker in half a season and he probably could have had a couple more if I’d allowed him to take penalties!

“But other than that, he’s a player I don’t want to lose, and the club don’t want to lose.”

In terms of McAleny’s long-term future with the former Everton youngster able to leave for nothing in the summer, Kewell indicated he was focusing on the here and now with a week to go in the transfer window.

“We concentrate on the near future,” he said.

“If you start going too far ahead, you never know what is going to happen.

“We’ve just got to concentrate on Cheltenham and concentrate on our next games.”

Kewell has so far added Nicky Adams, Marcel Hilssner and Marcus Barnes to his squad during the January transfer window and is eyeing a couple more additions with strengthening in central defence and up front his top priorities.