Motherwell striker Chris Porter has rejected a move to English League One club Huddersfield.
The English outfit had made a £200,000 bid to sign the 25-year-old, who is out of contract at the end of the season.
But Fir Park manager Mark McGhee said that Porter, who is also interesting Hearts, has knocked back the move and hit out at the transfer window.
"It would benefit clubs like ourselves if we could make a transfer at any time," said McGhee.
"Sometimes there is a cost that you have not budgeted for and and you don't have the money.
"We are in the situation where we are saying, 'We might have to sell now, just in case it happens'.
MY SPORT: DEBATE"That's a pressure we could do without and I would prefer if we could make these decisions when we need to make them."
Porter, who arrived at Fir Park from Oldham Athletic in 2007, is Motherwell's leading scorer with eight goals and netted 18 times during the previous campaign.
Prior to Hearts' 1-0 defeat to Well this month in which Porter scored the winning goal, Tynecastle manager Csaba Laszlo admitted his admiration for the player but stressed the forward was just one of several targets.
"He is definitely a very good player and I definitely need a goal-scorer," said Laszlo on 6 January.
Laszlo has already secured the services of midfielder Ian Black on a pre-contract from Inverness.
"I want to bring more Scottish players in the club for the future," he added at the time. "Black was the first step, but it's not finished."
"But I also have players from the Primera Liga in Spain who would like to come to work with me - and Portugal and Germany too."
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