Gudjon Thordarson has told the club's official web-site that modern day managers have very little choice but to work with agents. Thordarson has been in the game long enough to know how agents work and revealed last week that he won't allow Crewe Alexandra to be used as a bargaining tool in negotiations.

Thordarson appreciates that most footballers now come with an agent or representative to the negotiation table and he is willing to work with the supportive and helpful ones.

Gudjon told crewealex.net: "There is a strong network of agents and they are like anything else in this world. There are good ones and not so good ones. One thing is for sure they have to be qualfied and licenced when they approach clubs.

"There are those who are very supportive and helpful and want the best for their client. Then there are others who can be a bit more tricky and you have to be careful. Whatever happens you usually have to deal with them somewhere along the line. You just have to avoid playing too many games with them.

"The difficultly is that players won't operate without an agent or with someone to represent them. They don't have the confidence to come in and negotiate things on their own. An agent will try and get the best deal for them and can get more options for them, so you have to work with them nowadays.

"It is very rare that you can get to speak to a player without the influence of an agent there. I have received two phone calls this week from players, who have tried to take themselves forward by speaking me to directly and that is very encouraging."