Crewe Alexandra manager David Artell has wished Offrande Zanzala all the best in his future career after they mutually agreed to terminate his contract over the weekend. Zanzala became a free agent again after the January window re-opened and will now pursue first team football elsewhere.

The summer signing from Accrington Stanley was limited to 10 appearances and started just the one league game against Portsmouth.

Artell said of the Congo-born forward: “Ossie goes with our best wishes. He is a good kid and I’m sure he will have a future in the game because he works his socks off.

“It wasn’t quite right for us and that can happen in football.

“He has our first signing of the summer and it was too good to turn down but then we managed to sign Mandron and Ports re-signed, so it became more difficult for him.

“Will his departure leave us short? I don’t think we are overloaded with players anyway but we’ll see what happens over the next few weeks.

He added: “I hope Ossie goes on and we look forward to seeing him score some goals wherever he ends up, hopefully not against Crewe though.

“I admire his determination to play football. He wants to play more regularly than he was here and that is why we came to the decision we did.”