DEAN Court landlord Structa-dene last night told Cherries chairman Eddie Mitchell: “We don’t need to sell.”

Mitchell yesterday claimed he had made two offers to buy back Seward Stadium, which was confirmed by the London-based property firm when contacted by the Echo.

Mitchell told BBC radio that the club’s second offer had been for £4.5m – a figure he described as “fair”.

But a Structadene spokesperson told the Echo: “We have been approached to sell the stadium but we are not generally sellers unless we get a very good price. The price we were offered was not acceptable.

“There were two offers made in the past few weeks, but the first one was so derisory that it isn’t worth mentioning. The second one wasn’t accepted.”

When asked if Structadene could confirm the second offer was £4.5m, the spokesperson declined to reveal the figures involved, but added: “Four-and-half million pounds might be fair in the club’s eyes, but if you walk into a shop and want to buy a suit that costs £100, £50 might seem fair. Unfortunately, the price is still £100.

“We don’t need to sell and there is no requirement for us to sell the property because we are very happy with the return we are getting on it.”

The Echo last week revealed that directors Jeff Mostyn and Steve Sly were set to sell their shares in the football club.

Mitchell confirmed the duo had reached an agreement with an unknown buyer, believed to be a consortium fronted by Russian businessman Maxim Demin.

The Structadene spokesperson added: “The fact the club appears to have attracted some strong investment means its ability to pay the rent will be improved.

“Everything in life has a price, but it has to be the right price. If we were offered a price that would be acceptable to the shareholders then we would look at it.

“We don’t get sentimental about any building we own. We are simply in the business of collecting rent from our tenants and AFC Bournemouth happens to be a tenant.

“Financially, the club has progressed substantially over the past 18 months and has made very good progress with satisfying its commitments to us.

“But I would stress again that we don’t need to sell because we are getting a very good return on our original investment.”

Dean Court was sold for around £3.5m and leased back in 2005 in a bid to stave off the receivers. The club currently pays around £300,000 a year in rent to the London-based property firm.

When the original sale-and-leaseback went through in 2005, the club had an option to buy back the stadium at a price rising by £60,000 a year for five years.

The buy-back price was originally set at £4.25m, although Mitchell confirmed to the Echo in July 2010 that the agreement had expired in April of that year.

Mitchell, speaking to the Echo regarding the possibility of forming a trust to raise funds to buy the ground, said at the time: “We are not in the driving seat and it would be for the landlord to accept an offer, if we were able to raise enough money to make one.

“I would like to think that if we were successful in raising what we believe to be the true value of the stadium, the landlord would sell it back to the club.”

Mitchell, meanwhile, told the club’s official website yesterday: “We have got an ongoing lease at the club, which does secure our future playing here providing the rent is paid.

“I wouldn’t like to draw a line under it, but for the foreseeable I don’t think we would want to increase that bid.”