Dario Gradi's Crewe have an outside chance of reaching the play-offs

Crewe manager Dario Gradi has said that he does not expect to sell any of his players to Premier League clubs for big transfer fees in the future.

Several of Crewe's academy products have left the club for multi-million pound fees during Gradi's 28-year stint at the Alexandra Stadium.

"The market is different," he told BBC Radio Stoke. "We're not likely to sell Danny Murphy to Liverpool any more.

"Those clubs would probably need the player to have a step in-between."

Gradi continued: "That's the step that Dean Ashton took and that's hopefully the step that Nicky Maynard has taken."

Crewe are likely to spend a third season in League Two after falling nine points away from a play-off place with just five matches to play.

"League Two is much harder because of the foreign players playing at the top," said Gradi.

"You take somebody like Accrington Stanley, who really shouldn't be in the league with their gates, they've done really well and they've got a chance of going up again like Dagenham did.

"Dagenham signed a lot of non-league players, that was his market, and Accrington have signed a lot of the Liverpool boys.

"They've got decent teams and the poor teams that used to be in this league no longer exist."

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