News from Crewe

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Young striker Shaun Miller could be handed his first senior start at Blackpool after some impressive performances as a substitute. After reaching 52 points with that timely win over Rotherham, Dario Gradi has hinted about using some of his younger players in the run-in and Miller is leading the queue after he caught the eye when coming on against Gillingham and Bristol City.

With decisions to be made over contract extensions, Dario wants to have a look at some of his younger players and the likes of Miller, Tom Pope, midfielder Mark Carrington and fullback Cavell Coo could all feature before the end of the season. The Alex boss and his coaching staff will also be keeping a close eye on those players, who are currently out on loan. The likes of Darran Kempson (Bury), Adam Warlow and Nick Farquarson (both Witton) and Chris Flynn are just a number of players who will be assessed over the next few weeks.

Dario told crewealex.net: "I’ve told the younger ones that they will start a game between now and the end of the season. We are not technically safe yet and still have the possibility of grabbing a play-off place. It is not likely, but it is not impossible.

"If we can go on a run and win most of our remaining games then we would have a chance. With our younger players, you really don’t know how they are going to do until they play. You never know. That is why we are keen to play some of them before the end of the season. We have got to decide on whenever to keep some of them because we will look to reduce the playing squad for next season."

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Tell Dario we will have Warlow and Miller if he doesn’t want them!!!
WHS.

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We train them well here, Shaun Miller today scored on his full debut for Crewe although he ended up on the losing side as Blackpool ran out 2-1 winners

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Shaun Miller scored his second senior goal over the easter weekend in Crewe’s defeat at Chesterfield and today it has been announced that The Alex are offering the 19 year old a two year contract, following the progress he has made.

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Nick Farquharson and Junior Brown have both put pen-to-paper on their first professional contracts. Both promising youngsters have certainly caught the eye for the Academy Under-18’s and Youth team this season and have been offered new one-year contracts to continue their development at Crewe Alexandra.

Farquharson has overcome a troublesome shoulder problem in the past to become one of our most prolific strikers at Academy level. The Coventry-born hit man has spent the last month on work experience with Witton Albion alongside fellow Academy graduate Adam Warlow.

Crewe-born Junior Brown can play in various attacking positions, but certainly caught the eye as a left winger in the Youth Cup matches against Morecambe and Oldham Athletic before Crewe eventually lost out to Cambridge United.

Farquharson and Brown have followed the example set by James Bailey and Bryon Moore, who both signed their first professional contracts last week.

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Adam Warlow RELEASED. Apparently.

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Centre-half Ritchie Sutton and striker Adam Warlow have been handed free transfers by Crewe Alexandra. With Dario Gradi electing to reduce his playing squad to around 24/25 players for next season, there is currently no room for two of the club’s former Academy graduates.
Sutton has spent the majority of the season out on loan at Stafford Rangers and the non-league club would be eager to take him on a more permanent basis.
Whilst out on loan himself, Warlow has scored a commendable 29 goals for non-league Witton Albion but has not done enough to convince Dario Gradi and the other coaching staff that he worth an extended deal. Warlow rejected the chance to go out on loan to Icelandic side IBV next season and Dario admits he couldn’t justify giving the Southport-born striker a new contract.
Dario explained to crewealex.net: "Adam is one we couldn’t make our mind up about. He has scored a lot of goals for Witton but whenever we have watched him the reports haven’t been that favourable for this level of football. We have watched him numerous times this season.
"We offered Adam the chance to go out on loan to Iceland and then to come back here to see if he had developed but he declined that offer, so I couldn’t really justify giving him a new contract.
"He is now free to move on and he is one who could come again. He certainly has the ability and can score goals, but mentality he struggles a bit and we have decided to cut our losses and we wish him well."

I think Dario’s assessment of Adam is spot on. However, Lets get him signed!! "Do do do…"

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Dario clearly doesn’t fancy him

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dous any one know if weve got warlow or has he gone sum where else

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He’s currently without a club.

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The Supporters Team are currently short of a 30 goal a season strkier if he needs regular games ;D

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Mark,

To use Stu logic (maths)

Adam scored 24 goals in 44 matches.

I have to date scored 6 goals in 2 matches.

This works out over 44 matches to be 132 goals.

I wouldn’t worry too much about goals :wink:

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we should all start something to keep him at the club, would love to see him next season :slight_smile:

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Dario Gradi remains hopeful that the talented Shaun Miller will prove to be Luke Varney’s successor after-all. The Alsager-based Miller looks set to start alongside Nicky Maynard in attack on Saturday and he has already impressed the Alex faithful with his willingness to work hard for the team and of course his impressive goal ratio. Miller certainly caught the eye towards the tail end of last season, when he stepped into the boots of the injured Varney. He scored on his full debut away at Blackpool and followed that up with well taken finishes against Chesterfield and Tranmere Rovers.

Miller has taken that goal scoring form into this pre-season and showed his potential once again with a match winning finish against Stockport County last weekend. Miller has proved to be relatively clinical in front of goal and Dario believes that if Shaun and his partner in crime, Nicky Maynard, can hit it off then we could be set for a successful campaign.

"I’ve never been one for making false promises but if Luke Varney had still been here then I would have fancied us to be a lot closer to the top six than we were last season, ’ admits Dario.

"That plan went out of the window when Luke went but that happens at a club like us. We need to sell our better players to survive and it was the right move for his career. We suffered when Dean (Ashton) left us and people were telling me that we shouldn’t have sold him until we had a replacement in place.

"I would tell them we had his replacement already here, but he just wasn’t playing well enough at the moment. It took Luke a bit of time to come through but he proved to be good enough to score the goals we needed.

"Maybe Shaun is that replacement again. He is a bit different to Luke and he isn’t playing as well as Luke was but he still might. He is a very talented boy and his goal ratio when he has played is very good.

He added: "Shaun is still finding his feet and will need a bit of time, but he is eager to learn and can take a goal."

That is not to say that the club have given up looking for that bigger striker to help Nicky Maynard out when necessary this coming season. Rightly so though, the club won’t rush into anything just for the sake of it.

"We want to find that striker who will make a real difference to us. We are not interested in someone coming in just to fill that hole in our team. We look like being harder to beat this season but the worry remains will we score enough goals?

"Saying that Nicky and Shaun could hit off like Nicky and Luke did last season and that will give us a great chance of having a decent season. As I’ve always said the ability of your strikers is vital to any team at any level."

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It has been confirmed today that striker Nicky Maynard, suffered a broken leg during Crewe’s opening day victory against Brighton.