Charlton Athletic boss Les Reed has failed in a bid to strengthen his beleaguered squad after Hibs rejected a £3million offer for Scott Brown and Kevin Thomson.
Reed is desperate to bolster a side that is entrenched in the Premiership's relegation zone and which crashed to an embarrassing home defeat to League Two side Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday in the last eight of the Carling Cup.
Hibs chairman Rod Petrie told the SPL side's official website: "I arrived at the office on Tuesday morning to see that an email had been received overnight from Andrew Mills, the General Manager of Charlton Athletic - Andrew is a former players' agent.
"Andrew had called a number of weeks ago expressing interest in two of our players but made no offer at that time either over the phone or by letter.
"The email from Andrew contained an unsigned offer of £3million for the transfer of both Scott Brown and Kevin Thomson subject to certain conditions. I sent an email back to Charlton Athletic rejecting their offer at 9.17am yesterday (Tuesday) morning.
"Despite the offer having been rejected, Charlton Athletic and their contacts chose to make the matter public for their own purposes. Contrary to all the media speculation in recent weeks, this is the only offer we have received for either player from any club."