Championship offer falls short of club's valuation of stand-in skipper.

David Artell has revealed that Crewe Alexandra have rejected a bid for full-back Harry Pickering from Championship club Blackburn Rovers.

Pickering, 22, has been subject of speculation in the build-up to the re-opening of the transfer window, but Blackburn are the only club to submit a concrete offer.

That has been rejected by the club.

David Artell explained the situation to the club’s official website: “I can tell you that we have had a bid for Harry from Blackburn but we have turned that down.

“We don’t sell our players, clubs buy them. We don’t go round trying to sell our players. We had an agent trying to do that with Perry recently and he was way off the mark. We don’t operate like that.

“Clubs come in for them and we know what they are worth.

“We know their value. We discuss it and we go from there.

“I’ve spoken to Harry and he knows the situation. The out-look looks very rosy for him. There is three weeks left of the window and there is a possibility he might not be here. There is also the possibility that he will be here and then we will look at it again in the summer.

“In the meantime, he can play some good football, with his mates and try and get us playing at a higher level.

He added: “Harry agrees with that and he is a top lad and a terrific professional. We have his best interest at heart and we have worked on that for over 10 years. That doesn’t change because we have had one bid in this four week window.”