Steve Davis believes Uche was as much in the dark and he and the club were

Steve Davis admits that he was totally taken by surprise with the news that Uche Ikpeazu was to be recalled by his parent club Watford. Ikpeazu, 19, had signed a contract extension to take him through to the end of the season with us, but was recalled to the Championship club with the view to him going elsewhere on loan.

Davis has revealed the teenage centre-forward was surprised as anyone that he would be on the move again after only moving into a nearby new flat over the weekend.

The Crewe boss could not hide his disappointment after losing a player he thought he had on loan until the end of the season, but he has stressed that we have to quickly move on.

Steve told crewealex.net: “I was surprised to hear that Uche was going back after we had everything sorted with Watford. He had signed until the end of the season, so we thought he would be with us and we were planning for life with him, but they are well within their rights to call him back.

“We thought he was settled here and happy here. We had got him out of the hotel and into his own flat and he had gone out and brought new television and was comfortable. He was confused as anyone when I spoke to him last night. He had no idea and I believed him.

“Things can quickly change and I don’t totally know if this is a decision by Watford or the agent. There were certainly no signs of it happening and everything had been sorted well in advance of his loan expiring.

He added: “That is the risk you take when you have loan players. They can be recalled at any minute after the first 28 days. We thought we had all five of them but for whatever reason we have lost one of them at the last minute.”