Crewe first-team coach Steve Holland has handed professional contracts to six of the club's academy players after letting four others go.Luke Danville, Luke Murphy, Ashley Westwood, Chris Clements, Josh Thompson and AJ Leitch-Smith have all signed deals at Gresty Road.

It has been a busy time for Holland, who earlier in the week decided against making offers to Ryan Lynch, Mat Bailey, Junior Brown and Nick Farquharson.

Holland told the club's official website: "It is always the hardest part of the job and we don't take these decisions lightly. In an ideal world we would like to keep the younger ones a little longer to see if they can make that step up, but we have to make those decisions.

"We are looking to make room in the squad because on the evidence of this season there is significant progress to be made.

"We don't want to just add numbers, we want players here who will come in and make a difference."

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