Southend chairman Ron Martin has issued a hands-off warning to Millwall and Sheffield United over star man Ryan Leonard.

Both clubs have had bids rejected by Southend for Leonard in recent weeks, with the highest believed to be in the region of £300k.

The 25-year-old midfielder was handed a new contract by the Essex side to stop him leaving on a free transfer.

And Martin insists Leonard is not for sale this summer.

He told Echo News: “I’ve met with Lenny and I’ve told him we don’t want to sell him.

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“We’ve rejected offers from two clubs for him and our ambition is to get promoted from this league and to get into the Championship so it makes no sense to sell our best players.

“We will be offering him a substantially improved contract and he will receive that this week.”