David Artell says it would be ‘disappointing’ if any of our Academy graduates who are offered new deals reject them and instead elect to run their contracts down.

The Alex boss is in the process of offering new deals to a selection of his younger players and although he understands that a football career can be a short one, he points to the recent moves of Perry Ng and Harry Pickering to Championship clubs as an example of them trusting our blue-print for success.

Ng joined Cardiff City in January and has been a revelation in South Wales, whilst Pickering will team up with Blackburn Rovers this summer after returning to us on loan in January to complete the season.

Artell told Crewealex.net: “We are in dialogue and negotiation with a few of our younger players. It does take up a lot of your time but it’s well worth it when they have been with us for so long.

“What we don’t want is 15 years of service and development to be stained by the last 12 months of their time here, if they want to wind their contract down. Hopefully that will not be the case and they know that we always try and do the right thing by them.

“We bring them in line with what we think they are worth in our own pay structure and we do our best to play them, develop them and get them that move.

“That is exactly what happened with Pez and Pixie and we hope that others will follow. That is our business model and has been for many, many years now, so it can be disappointing if an agent doesn’t get that or trust us in what we do.

“A player is entitled to run his contract down but if we have developed someone over many years, it is always disappointing if they want to.

He added: “Things are progressing on that front and I am sure it will be resolved over the next few weeks.”