NEIL YOUNG has insisted on his players earning the right to win a Chester contract.
The Blues boss has added midfielder Mark Peers to his squad after he agreed to sign following Chester’s impressive 2-1 home pre-season friendly victory against Tranmere Rovers on Tuesday night.
Young believes that the player can become a regular in the Blues line-up after a pleasing performance against Tranmere and after scoring a spectacular goal from the halfway line in a 3-0 home win against Aberystwyth at the weekend.
Young said: “Mark Peers has agreed to sign for the club which is good news, but at this moment in time he is not one of my contracted players.
“We won’t put him on contract at this moment in time but he has committed himself to the club and, as I say to all the players, to earn themselves a contract they have to prove that they can be consistent on a regular basis.
“I’m sure Mark can win a contract because he has played for a fantastic club like Halifax.
“He’s very intelligent and showed that against Tranmere. He doesn’t touch the ball a lot, but his movement and ability to drag people around the pitch allowed Michael Aspin a lot more space.”
Young revealed that his hopes of clinching a deal for Colwyn Bay’s Damien Allen now looked doubtful.
He added: “Chester put seven days on Damien Allen from Colwyn Bay, but Colwyn Bay have now put in an objection regarding me speaking to them.
“I don’t think the player will now sign for us because of what has gone on. From what I’m hearing I think he may have already signed a contract for Colwyn Bay.
“It’s just one of those things. We’ll just have to get on with it. There are plenty of people we know and we’re getting cv’s sent to us all the time.
“I think we’re virtually there, but I’m hoping to sign Steven Beck on his return from Australia this weekend, I’m hoping to get Andy Burgess back from a hamstring strain, and Iain Howard is due to return from a break at the weekend.
“I’m hoping to give Ollie Ryan a game on Sunday against Wigan in the hope that he can impress and we can then possibly think of strengthening our forward line.
“I’m not planning to bring any more trialists into the club, but I included Ollie Ryan in the squad to face Tranmere and I thought he did well considering he hasn’t done much training. I thought he worked the channels well.”
Young, who was pleased with his side’s work out against Tranmere, admitted he was expecting to finalise his squad for the season after the home pre-season friendly against Marine on August 7.
He said: “We’ve got several players pencilled in, but I wouldn’t say that we’re close to finalising how we are going to play or what we are going to do because a few lads have given me a few concerns in games.
“A few have been given opportunities in games and I don’t think they have grabbed their chance.
“We’re okay in certain positions, but I think we’ve got to make a decision on a few others before we can go with our final squad.
“I’m hoping to make a few decisions about players after this Sunday’s match against Wigan.
“We’ve released one or two trialists already and I expect one or two more to filter out next week.
“The cut off date for me though is probably the Marine game on August 7, but what I want to try and do is give senior players I release every opportunity to find another club.”