Souleymane Coulibaly will not be sold on the cheap, according to Killie boss Lee Clark.

The 22-year-old Ivorian striker has been the subject of intense interest from Egypt with Zamalek reported to have placed a £500k offer for the player.

Clark rubbished that yesterday as he prepared his players for this weekend’s Scottish Cup meeting with Hamilton Accies, insisted that not only has there been no formal offer for the forward who has netted 11 goals so far this season but that Kilmarnock will look for a “premium” on top of his valuation.

That comes down to the timing and precariousness of where Killie are in the league table – third off the bottom – with Clark well aware of what Coulibaly’s goals are worth to the Rugby Park club.

“There has been plenty of interest, I won’t deny that, but we haven’t had an official offer for Souleymane as we speak,” said the Kilmarnock manager. “In the pre-Christmas board meeting, I made the directors aware of what would happen come January when you have someone who scores goals – and the type Souleymane scores – you are going to attract interest from all over Europe.

“We have put plans in place. I don’t know what figure the board have put on the player’s head in terms of what would be acceptable. But I just advised that, because it is January, you should always stick a premium on top of that figure as well.

“Hopefully they will take my advice on board and we can go from there.”

Kilmarnock are currently just four points off bottom of the table Inverness Caledonian Thistle, although there is not much between those in the lower end of the league with just six points separating the top and bottom six.

Clark has already brought to mind possibilities for replacements should an offer formalise over the coming days.

He has admitted, however, that at this stage of the season the task of releasing players from clubs isn’t as straightforward as it can be in the longer summer window.

“As a manager, I have put potential possibilities in place if Souleymane was to leave. But that is not cut and dried,” he said. “There are various different scenarios if he does go. Whether there is the possibility of getting a transfer fee to reinvest, something I haven’t had before, or whether I have go down the free transfer and loan market.

“It’s all well and good me having potential possibilities lined up. But I don’t know what market I will be moving in and do you replace a goalscorer like Souleymane in the January market? Because if we are putting a premium on our goalscorer it could well be the same elsewhere.

“Hopefully for me as the manager I would like to see some of it re-invested in the squad but I would also like to improve on the infrastructure of the club. We have lots of good things here but we’d like to keep investing in the academy side too.

“When you get fantastic offers – although we haven’t had a formal offer yet – but assuming that we know what it would take to get him away from here – then we would like to invest again. There is a lot of things that need to be considered; if there are players who can come in or other clubs not going to release them because they need replacements too.”

Clark, meanwhile, has insisted that he is unfazed by the attention his striker is attracting. And he will not stand in the way of any player who wishes to move on to bigger things.

“I have dealt in multi-million transfers of players before so this is not a big problem,” he said. “It doesn’t get me flustered. I’m not sitting having a lovely meal with my wife and then have my head in my hands because someone has rung up with an offer for my player.

“It is about being calm and doing what is right for the club. How I have attracted some of these players here is by telling them this is a potential shop window for them. The market in Scotland is starting to come back again and that can only be good for the game up here in my opinion.

“If the board were to accept what they think are the right type of offers for players then it would be remiss of me as the manager to try and stop them. That’s not how I got the players here in the first place.”