UWE Rosler has made a new striker his number one priority after the shock departure of Gary Alexander .

Brentford's leading scorer left the club yesterday to join Crawley Town on loan before making the move permanent in the summer.

The Bees are left with just Clayton Donaldson and Saido Berahino as their only recognised strikers, but boss Rosler is working around the clock to bring in another frontman.

He said: “We unexpectedly lost Gary Alexander, which was never our intention, so our priority now is to bring in another striker.

“We received a substantial fee for a player who was out of contract in 10 weeks. We have assurances from the board that the money can be reinvested in the squad.

“We are working intensively to bring someone in.”

Alexander insists the stability of a two-year contract at the Broadfield Stadium was too good to turn down after rejecting a new one-year deal in TW8.

But Rosler stands by his decision not to bow to the frontman's demands.

He added: “We have been consistent in our contract offers for Karleigh Osborne, Sam Saunders and Gary Alexander.

“We felt a one-year deal with the option of another year, depending on a reasonable amount of games, was a good offer.

“We believed a player of Gary's calibre would've met that number. However, we couldn't come to an agreement in terms of the length of the agreement.”

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