Bell thought Offord deal would be beyond Crewe

Crewe Alexandra boss Lee Bell says bringing former captain Luke Offord back to the club was a deal he thought "would be beyond" the club.

The 26-year-old centre-back returned to the Alex at the start of the month following James Connolly's departure to Walsall.

Offord came through the academy at Crewe and went on to make 170 appearances for the first team and skippered them to promotion from League Two in 2019-20.

He left the Mornflake Stadium after 17 years to join MK Dons, where he spent the past two seasons.

"He's a quality player. I always think if someone like Luke Offord hasn't played for the football club, would he be on your radar? And he certainly would," Bell told BBC Radio Stoke.

"He's certainly somebody I thought that would be beyond us. But he's been brilliant. He wanted to come back, he feels we can get the best out of him."

Offord's versatility, operating in defence or midfield, gives Bell the option "to play with a back three and a back four more fluently" and "go into different shapes", describing the player's return as "a real positive signing".

Bell has now added two players to his plans for the coming season, with striker Jordan Gibson arriving on a three-year contract last month.

Despite the loss of influential loanees Emre Tezgel and Tommi O'Reilly for this term, Bell said Offord and Gibson can plug that gap.

"They're real high operators in this division who've got promotions under the belt," Bell said.

"We've obviously lost two players that contributed a lot of goals to us. They'll probably play in higher divisions, so I wanted to try and make sure we tried to get goals in and Jordan certainly fits into that category.

"Luke looks ultra-focused and has real high standards of what he's doing. He's been around a really good manager [MK Dons' Paul Warne] taking off the bits that he needs and bringing them to our squad,

"We want that motivation to try and move forward. We need some more players to be able to do that, which we're working on, but certainly a step in the right direction with Jordan and Luke."

In terms of further signings, Bell said the club would continue to try to compete with the bigger spenders in League Two but added it would be "extremely difficult in terms of where we lie with the budget".

"We are where we are but I'll get on with it and I'll make a fist of it like we always do," he said.

"It is difficult to compete with the top end of the market. Even when it comes to January.

"I don't want people to think I'm making excuses, but you see what the likes of Salford are doing and Bristol [Rovers] are doing and Gillingham are going to have another go.

"It is difficult but you have to have focus."