Chester will safeguard Sam Hughes’ sell-on clause at all costs, which could potentially earn the Blues a major cash windfall.

The cash-strapped Blues have been plunged into financial crisis over the past fortnight, but are closing in on their initial £50,000 target to stay in business this month, yet more fundraising efforts are needed to keep the club afloat in the coming months.

Simon Olorenshaw – co-opted back onto the Blues board last week – confirmed the Blues are hopeful of bringing forward the next installment of Hughes’ transfer fee from Premier League outfit Leicester City, who signed the centre-half in the summer for a fee in the region of £125,000.

Yet Olorenshaw stressed Hughes’ sell-on clause would be ‘not be touched’ as it could represent a huge windfall for the club in future years given the rising nature of top tier transfer fees, and the temptation to enable Leicester to buy-out the clause would be resisted.

“We’re in talks with Leicester over bringing forward the next installment of the Sam Hughes transfer,” he said, with Hughes currently a key member of Leicester’s Under 23 squad who are pushing for the Premier League Two title.

“But we must not touch the sell-on clause. The way Sam’s career has progressed and could go, that sell-on clause could be the future of this football club. That will be safeguarded.

“There’s other opportunities to bring in cash. The Tranmere home game will be a big one for us, we hope to bring in a good crowd, and we have James Alabi’s tribunal coming up (February 15).”

Re-elected chairman Olorenshaw is one of a quartet of new faces on the Blues’ board with Jeff Banks, Mark Howell and Calvin Hughes all elected at a CFU board meeting last Monday, following the resignations of outgoing chairman Jonny Hughes, vice-chairman Neil Bellis and directors David O’Toole and Anne Salmon.

Asked if he wanted to thank the previous board members on record for their efforts, Olorenshaw replied: “Absolutely. No one has gone onto that board without the best intentions for this football club.

“No one has made any decisions for the wrong reasons. They have made decisions they felt were the best at that time, they’re all good people who have put in a lot of hard work and want the best for the football club. We’re all fans who love the club at the end of the day.”