CHRIS LAKEY Canaries boss Peter Grant has revealed that he wanted to drop his teen striking sensation Chris Martin - for his own good.

CHRIS LAKEY

Canaries boss Peter Grant has revealed that he wanted to drop his teen striking sensation Chris Martin - for his own good.

Martin has put pen to paper this week on a contract which Grant admits is up there with the best the club has ever offered a teenager, but insists he doesn't want to burn out the 18-year-old.

“Ideally I would have liked to rest him to be honest with you, but I have not had the personnel to be able to do that,” admitted Grant.

“He has been phenomenal in that period, but young boys always need a rest.”

Grant believed Martin was showing signs of fatigue in last week's dismal 3-0 defeat at Colchester - and had it not been for the manner of the City performance he would have been replaced by another rising star, 16-year-old Kris Renton.

“I am always loath to take goalscorers off in games because I always feel those people have got a goal in them,” he said. “It is always something you should be aware of. Last week I would have done it if we were winning because I thought he was looking heavy legged, but I know he had the bug that three or four of them had last week and you could see that in Chris' performance.

“So I would probably have taken him off if we were winning and put Kris Renton on - but it was not the scenario I wanted a boy to remember his debut by.”

Martin has signed a three-and-a-half-year deal, with Grant's role ensuring the Beccles youngster was fairly treated financially.

“It is not the monetary side,” he said. “I think when you are signing contracts as a player the money always comes to you if you do the business.

“It is one thing I can guarantee as a manager here - if somebody comes through the ranks they will be treated with the same respect as people that get bought in. He has been well looked after and that will be the way I will always be with the players.

“They are as important as every body else. I think Chris will be absolutely delighted with his contract and we are delighted that he has signed it.

“All I am happy about is that Chris is going to be here. Obviously when outsiders get involved you are always a little bit concerned because they don't really know the boy, they don't know the work that has gone into the boy. The only people that know that are his family and Chris himself, so the contract is a very good contract, an excellent contract, and he deserves it.”