Crewe boss David Artell remains hopeful that one or two may follow Christopher Long into the football club in the next couple of weeks. Artell and his staff have been working extensively on their summer recruitment and held meetings with various players and their agents.

The former Everton youngster, Long, was the first to sign for the Alex yesterday and Artell is hopeful that the ground work he has put in over the last few months will start to pay off before the end of the month.

Artell told the club’s official website: “Things are moving on a bit now and hopefully we are getting somewhere. These things do take time and players and their agents do tend to hold out for as long as they possibly can.

“There is still plenty of work to do but hopefully in the next couple of weeks, we will have some more positive news. Hopefully we can get one, two and possibly three more in soon.

“I am probably working harder now than when the season was on, which is crazy really but we want to bring in the best we can and hopefully we are getting closer with a few.

“We are certainly heading in the right direction with some of them.”