The players have waited long enough says gaffer

Crewe Alexandra manager David Artell says that the club’s retain list will be published sooner rather than later ‘to be fair as possible to the players’.

The Alex boss says that the players who are approaching the conclusion of their current contracts at the end of this month deserve to know what their futures hold.

Artell has told the club’s official website that he intends to announce his retain list sometime this week.

David told crewealex.net: “Ideally we would like to announce the retain list when we know where we stand but on the flip side, it is morally wrong. The players, who are out of contract, have waited long enough and they deserve to know.

“We cannot let them wait any longer. It has happened to me and it is not nice not knowing where you stand. Our divisional status will affect things but we cannot take that into account at the moment and all I can do is be as fair and honest as I can.

“I want to give those we are not keeping, the best possible chance of getting fixed up. Now I am not sure that an extra few days, week or two weeks will make too much difference at the moment because I don’t think there will be many clubs looking to sign players at the moment.

“I don’t think that will really start to happen until we have a resume date for next season and you can start thinking towards that.

“I want to do what it morally right for the players because they have waited long enough.

He added: “We have a brilliant bunch of lads and I don’t think there would be a problem if they were asked to come back and play the remaining 9 games if needs be. I don’t envisage that happening but I know if they had to they would come back and give everything they had for the club because they are those types of pros.”