Coventry City's Technical Director Mark Venus has said that he does not want to sell any player that he does not have to.
Speaking to the Coventry Telegraph, Venus said: “That’s what I want to do. The manager’s role and responsibility is on the pitch and if the team are doing well, and we’re all in it together, I want to sit there and never have to sell anyone that I don’t want to.
“I only want to sell a footballer if I can sit in front of you and say it was right for him and right for the football club. That’s one of my ambitions, to get this place so that we are in control of everything that goes on; ins, outs, ups, downs.
“Football is about selling and you can’t kid yourself, you always have to sell your best players.
“It’s like Jamie Vardy and Arsenal; for me, if you sign him from Fleetwood for a million pounds and have won the Premier League with him, I would let him go because you have to let him take it to where he can end it. Who knows where it’s going to end.
“You always have to be with the player. As an ex-player that’s the best thing I can say.
“So for instance, I am talking to players now and saying to them that if they come to us and do really well then I will have to service them with someone bigger than my football club if someone comes and wants to take them.
“As long as they understand that I need something back to replace them. So I have to work from the mindset of the player too and I think it’s better for the football club if we get someone in who we might never have got if we had been a bit more stubborn.
“You have to be open ended and open minded to help them to get their careers going. One thing that is non-negotiable with us about our careers has been we have always brought footballers on, always made the clubs we’ve been at better off with footballers with the worth of them.
“That is like a lifeblood going through a stick of rock. You can always pick holes in anything, cut it, bust it but Tony and I have always signed players and made them worth more than we signed them for by making them better players.
“I think we are nearly there in terms of my ambition to be in charge of all the footballers and our position. That’s one of the points we have to get to."
More on this - http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/coventry-citys-mark-venus-i-11505997