Carlisle United have denied they have received any bid from Crawley for England under-19 international Brad Potts.

Reds were linked with the right-sided midfielder or defender yesterday but Carlisle managing director John Nixon says they have had no contact from their League One rivals regarding the player.

That backs up Crawley chairman Dave Pottinger’s claim that the club had not made a bid for Potts yesterday. Pottinger also rubbished reports they had offered £350,000 to bring the 19-year-old to the Checkatrade.com Stadium.

Nixon said: “I can confirm that we have no bid of any kind for any of players. We have had no contact with any other club and we most definitely have not spoken to Crawley Town at all.”

“We do also have to say that, as a board of directors, we would be extremely reluctant to sell any of our younger players. Obviously we understand that every player has a price but players like this, who are coming through and making a mark, are worth significantly more than the numbers currently being spoken about.

“It just isn’t part of our policy, for the way we want to go forward, to get rid of our youngsters when we feel they can do an important job for our football club.

“However, all of that aside, we can there has been no bid at all for Brad Potts. Our worry is that this type of rumour will unsettle the players and their team mates and that is obviously something we want avoid as he head into a very important period of the season.”