Gareth Ainsworth believes if Wycombe Wanderers sign Alfie Mawson it would be the “deal of the century”, as speculation surrounding the defender’s next move intensifies.

The 21-year-old reportedly turned down the offer of a new two-year deal at Brentford in order to pursue regular first team football after starring for Blues en route to the play-off final at Wembley last season.

Fifty appearances, a plethora of awards at the club’s end of season dinner and a nomination for League Two Player of the Season award saw Mawson’s stock rise to the point where several clubs across League One and Two are chasing his signature.

Ainsworth admits Wanderers are still desperate to sign the defender but admits interest from clubs such as Millwall, Barnsley, Swindon and Bradford is difficult to compete with.

“The longer that Alfie doesn’t sign for anyone else the better it is for us,” said the Wycombe boss.

“In all honesty, keeping Alfie would be the deal of the century for me. We’ll see what we can do and obviously we’re trying our hardest to keep Alfie Mawson, but we’re not only up against bigger wages, bigger money but definitely bigger clubs, bigger status and bigger leagues.

“As an ex-professional, you want to play as high as you can. If he comes to us, fantastic and we’ll have another season with him but if he moves on then I think everyone should be proud that we had Alfie Mawson at the start and helped put him on the map – we didn’t put him on the map he put himself on the map.

“Hopefully Wycombe played a small part in that and Alfie is grateful for his time here, if it has come to an end.”

The player himself tweeted on Monday that after a trip to France he is now ready to decide his next move.