YORK City Knights fans will today receive a huge fillip - teenage sensation Greg Minikin is staying at the club.

Several Super League and Championship teams have been keeping tabs on the 19-year-old centre, with Wakefield and the mighty Wigan thought to be among those showing an interest. A move away from the Minster city was therefore expected by many.

However, the Knights are to announce today that he, along with flying winger Jamel Chisholm, has signed on for 2015 as the club continue to build for a promotion push in League One. And head coach James Ford reckons it underlines the club’s ambitions.

“I’m delighted Greg’s committed to the Knights,” said the new boss. “There has been lots of interest in him from clubs at all levels of the game and keeping him shows the ambition of (chairman) John Guildford and the club.

“Greg’s happy to stay. He enjoys how we do things and how well he’s developing. At some point he will be a Super League player and, hopefully, that could be with York City Knights.”

Ford, himself a centre, previously coached Minikin in the Under-18s and U20s reserves, but the new chief, whose place in the first team was at times taken by the Wetherby teenager, laughed off talk that he was his “protege”.

“Nah, Greg is his own player - a very good player in his own right,” said Ford. “It’s quite flattering for me, any suggestion he’s my protege. He’s certainly a good player but he doesn’t need that kind of label.”

Minikin, a former York College player, made his first-team debut as an 18-year-old against Super League giants Catalan Dragons in a Challenge Cup tie in May 2013. He went on to play four times last year, scoring one try, and, after an impressive pre-season, he started this term as a first-choice centre, only for injury to restrict his number of appearances to 12, in which he notched four tries.

Ford added: “He was a good player in the U20s and he’s now a good player in the first team but there’s still heaps of improvement in him. Greg himself will agree that there are areas to work on but the good thing is he will continue that development here and, if he keeps the same attitude and approach and the same philosophy to hard work, who knows how far he can go.”

Minikin and Chisholm take the number of players now confirmed for the Knights’ 2015 ranks up to 12. The dozen are Nev Morrison, Pat Smith, Ed Smith, Minikin, Chisholm, Colton Roche, Jack Aldous, Mark Applegarth, Austin Bell, Jake Joynt, Ben Dent and Adam Dent.

Meanwhile, Ford has confirmed that four first-teamers have been released.

Lee Paterson, Ryan Backhouse and George Elliott will not be offered new deals, along with Brad Brennan, who finished the season at Huntington Stadium on a long loan from Batley.

Paterson and Backhouse have both been linked with moves to promoted Hunslet Hawks.