IN-DEMAND midfielder Kieran Green "is torn between two or three options", York City manager Steve Watson has said.

Green is the only York player not yet to have decided upon where his future lies having been offered a new deal by the club.

Watson admitted that he may have to begin to look for options elsewhere soon, but stressed that he is eager to keep the midfielder, who played 37 times for the club last season.

The City boss told the club's website: “I’ve spoken to him on a number of occasions at length and I’ve said that we believe the best place for him is with us at York but like good young players do, they've had people whispering in their ear – it's not really a scenario that should happen but it does happen unfortunately in football.

“He is torn between two or three options.

"At the moment we have given him a very good offer for his age and for what he’s done so far and certainly in this league he won't be at a better club for his development.

“There is only so long we can hold out for players until we have to look to replace them.

"He’s as strong as an ox and he’s exactly the type of player we want going forward.”

York were in talks to retain striker Alex Kempster and defender David Ferguson but both players have taken up offers from elsewhere, with Kempster joining South Shields and Ferguson moving to Hartlepool United.

The former's move came as a surprise to City fans and Watson given that South Shields are in the division below York.

“Alex is doing what’s right for him," Watson added.

"Shields are a very good club in that league with a very good chance of being promoted again.

"He wouldn’t be able to go to a team in our league with as much ambition and scope to go forward as us. I didn’t see it coming but that’s football.

"If players decide they want to be elsewhere then you have to let them get on with it.

"I don’t want anyone here who doesn’t want to be playing for York.

“Alex has made big strides in two years and York is a big club with a big pressure behind it and maybe he thought this was the best step for him to enjoy his football.

"For me personally he has been one of the bright lights since I got here, he’s a great lad to work with and with players like that you have to wish him all the best and we move on.”

Ferguson meanwhile has moved higher up the pyramid to join National League play-off challengers Hartlepool.

Watson continued: “He wants to play as high as he can and it’s a lot easier to take when a player says that to you.

"Ultimately you always want your players to be ambitious and play at the highest level they can and I doubt with Fergy it’s even financial.

“All the players we have given contracts to have been improved contract offers.

"He just wants to play higher and there's a certain amount of me that respects him for that.

“They have both conducted themselves brilliantly, given me and the club everything since I’ve been here.

"I don’t think we will face either of them in the league next season and as I said before we move on.”

Announcements regarding new signings could come this week.

Watson said: “There will be players that by the end of this week we are hoping to announce and I think it will be a new way forward for the club.

“York is a big club at this level. I think getting a new set of players in with a fearless attitude of playing for York might invigorate us.”

With Kempster, Dan Maguire, Jordan Burrow and Macauley Langstaff all gone, York will need to recruit a whole new strike force this summer.

Watson said: “We took the chance on Dan Maguire to be a full-time footballer and it was a little bit of a gamble and we didn’t think it would be as difficult as it was –none of us did – even himself.

“The forwards thing is something which I can now totally commit to now and get my own ideas about how we can improve the overall goal scoring ability of the team because I think that is all we lacked last season.

“You can’t just go to strikers for goals. They are usually the main source of goals but they need to be chipped in from everywhere – if we can 10 more goals from midfield then I think we would have had seven or eight more points and that would have been more than enough.

“I do look to be solid to start a game off with but looking at my recruitment this summer it’s going to be based towards much more of a goal threat from all departments.”