JOHN Coleman insists none of his Accrington Stanley stars will be leaving the club in January — even if they receive a £1 million bid.

Josh Windass was linked with Arsenal earlier this week, with a seven-figure transfer fee mooted, but Coleman said no bids will be considered in the January transfer window.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Coleman confirmed a scout representing the Gunners was at the Wham Stadium last Saturday to see Windass score his ninth goal of the season in Stanley’s 3-2 FA Cup win over York, but he was not watching Windass in particular.

“I know the nuts and bolts behind the story,” said the Reds chief. “There was an Arsenal scout there but he wasn’t watching anyone in particular.

“It’s a compliment to Josh more than us, because he’s been playing well, but he’s not the only player who’s playing well, and hopefully he can take some of the attention off the other players who can slip in under the radar for us.”

Windass has scored 15 goals in his last 33 games for Stanley, having failed to find the back of the net in his first 36 games.

The 21-year-old has been in superb form for the high-flying Reds this season, but he is one of several to impress, with Coleman effusive in his praise for midfielder Matt Crooks, who has six goals in 17 games from midfield this term.

With any transfer fee for either player likely to be spent on planned improvement to the stadium under the stewardship of new majority shareholder Andy Holt, Coleman is in no rush to sell his star performers.

“We’re not going to take any bids in January, that’s a fact,” he insisted.

“If we get a £1m for a player it’s going to be spent on the ground, not on the team, so whether than £1m gets spent in January or June is immaterial to me, so we will wait to June.”

Coleman also added that he has no concerns about players becoming distracted by speculation over their future, especially with the winter transfer window creeping ever closer, and has spoken to his squad to discuss the possibility of transfer talk.

“I prepared them for this, I spoke to the player’s weeks ago about it,” he said. “They know the way I operate means they have every opportunity to go on to bigger and better things, but it won’t be this season, it will be next season. Their fine with that.

“The players are loving the experience of playing for Accrington at the moment. It’s easy to be like that when you’re winning, we’ve got to see what their character is like when we go through a bad spell.”