Anthony Johnson feels new signing George Green has ‘more ability than most players outside of the Championship’.

The 22-year-old midfielder became Chester’s 10th summer addition on Tuesday after penning a one-year deal from Nuneaton Town.

The former Everton starlet, who has since had spells with Oldham, Burnley and Ossett Albion, has suffered with off-field problems since being released by the Premier League club, but Chester joint-bosses Johnson and Bernard Morley are over the moon to have secured Green’s signature, having previously taken him on-loan when they were in charge at Salford City.

“He’s got more ability than most players outside of the Championship,” said Johnson, who is confident of securing one - possibly two - new signings ahead of this weekend’s friendly double-header against Llandudno (Friday) and Bury (Saturday).

“We’ve got one hell of a player on our hands and I can’t tell you how excited we are to have him on board.

“It’s brilliant we’ve got George on board. It’s the first time myself and Bernard have been able to sign him, rather than get him on-loan.

“When he left Everton, he went to play local league football and Bernard went over to meet him and his family when he was at Ossett (Albion) but he went to Burnley instead. Fair enough really!

“He’s a great kid who has been through a lot of problems. It doesn’t bear thinking about what George has been through, but the important thing now is he’s settled and is focused on his football.

“He knows he’s got the ability. It’s not arrogance, but he’s confident because he knows what a naturally-gifted footballer he is. His character impresses us too.

“We’ve had to pay a small fee to Nuneaton, but he has come here on less wages than he was on at Nuneaton, so it shows he’s got the drive to want to do it.

“We’ve got a player who has played top level football and knows 50-60 per cent of our lads already. We just need to make sure he’s mentally ready and of course, get his fitness levels up as he’s had no pre-season.”

A Chester XI made the short hop across to Cairns Crescent on Tuesday night for a pre-season friendly against Blacon Youth, with a mostly youthful Blues side running out 3-1 winners, with goals from Lloyd Marsh-Hughes, Nathan Brown and Sion Jones seeing off the Cheshire League outfit.

Gary Roberts came through a full 90 minutes along with Brown, while a goalkeeper and midfield trialist were also on show for the side, academy boss Calum McIntyre taking charge.

“We had the first-team training at Blacon High School so once we’d finished up me and Bernard went down to the game,” Johnson added.

“We caught the final 10 minutes of the first-half and all the second-half. It was good to get Gary Roberts and Nathan Brown 90 minutes into their legs, and a couple of trialists got a good runout too.

“We got to give some of the youth players a bit more game time too, which was great as it was a tough test playing against a men’s team who wanted the scalp of Chester to take home with them.

“They all did well and it was good to meet a few more of the supporters and nice to have a local game which is close by for everyone.”