PAUL Cox has urged his talented young Barrow AFC players not to be lured away from the club, and to stay and develop at Holker Street.

Several of his squad have attracted interest throughout the season, with rejected bids in the summer and in the January transfer window for the likes of Jordan Williams and Nick Anderton.

Both those men are already contracted to AFC for next season – as are Richie Bennett and Moussa Diarra, two other players who have garnered a lot of attention since making the move to the Bluebirds last summer.

The majority are young players who have come to Barrow from lower-division sides and demonstrated an ability to perform in the National League.

Bennett has 22 goals to his names this season, Williams has earned England C call-ups, and Diarra's early-season displays saw him named the divisional player-of-the-month in September.

All could expect to be the subject of higher-league interest in the coming months – though teams would have to match AFC owner Paul Casson's valuations to take them away, as was proved in August and January – but Cox is hopeful they will decide to stay and grow their game still further at a club that he believes is on the up.

“The positive about this football club is that we are getting loads of people enquiring about our players,” said the Bluebirds manager. “That means we are doing something right.

“I still think some of the young players we have brought in and who are having a little bit of attention, need a bit more if an education, they need a little bit more experience. But I think they are learning in the right environment.

“Some of these lads have run through a brick wall for this football club this year. I think the supporters understand that – the support home and away have understood that this place is going places.

“The majority of people at this club realise that we are on the up. If they don't, then they should go and have a talk to some of the other clubs, because we are being talked about in high regards.

“Sometimes, we're being talked about not so nicely, with one or two people saying horrible things about us. But I've got the philosophy that there is only one thing worse than being talked about, that's not being talked about.

“When you're in and around that pack, you know that people are going to talk about you and your players. No-one ever talked about us 18 months ago – people were very arrogant when we walked into their grounds, very arrogant when they came up here.

“Now, we have had some very big clubs come up here and sit with 10 men behind the ball, because they are afraid to play against us.

“What we need to have is a mentality where, for every situation we come across next year, we can overcome it. I want to build this football club on a state of mind, because that is what it will come down to.”