Steve Davis says he may choose to go with his own young forwards.

Steve Davis says he will have to weigh up the pros and cons before he considers signing trialist Souleymane Coulibaly.

The former Ivory Coast Youth International has certainly caught the eye in the club’s two opening friendly matches with three well taken goals, but Davis understandably has to consider if he can produce at League One level.

The 20-year-old forward struggled for goals in Italy with lower league clubs Grosseto and Pistoiese and has returned to the United Kingdom to try and resurrect his career.

Davis has been willing to give the former Tottenham youngster a chance to show what he can do and a fantastic strike at Congleton last Friday night certainly showed an aspect of his potential.

The Crewe Alexandra boss although acknowledging that Coulibaly has ‘something’ he has to judge whether he is ahead of his other young forwards, Callum Saunders, George Cooper, Fraser Murdoch and the emerging Andre Brown.

Steve told the club’s official web-site: “Pre-season gives you a chance to have a look at trialists but that can at the expense of some of your own players. We haven’t had a chance to give Fraser or Andre any minutes yet.

“There will come a time when we have to make a decision on the trialists and if they are better than what we have or could get in.

“With the games against local opposition it can be difficult to judge. That is no disrespect to the clubs because we need to play them to get the fitness levels up but they are not as challenging as League One football.

“It is completely different and that is what we are judging players like Soulemayne on. He can only do what we can do and of course we have an opportunity to watch him train everyday as well to help make our assessment.

“He has something. He gets shots off and is a poacher. Other aspects of his game would need improvement and then our own young players come into the equation as well.

“Souleymane is only young and we have our own young players and he would have to be better potentially than what we already have. We have to find room for George (Cooper) and Callum has always scored goals all the way through.

He added: “You have to assess it and see if bringing a young one in would stop the development of our own.”