BILLY Knott does not bear a grudge about the two loan stars who gazumped him in City’s plans.

The midfielder is attracting plenty of interest after being freed by Phil Parkinson.

After a promising first year at Valley Parade, he found it hard to make the same impact in his second.

Like Gary Liddle, who left for Chesterfield in January, Knott played second fiddle behind the loan recruits in central midfield.

Lee Evans was a regular throughout the season and Josh Cullen arrived in February to form a very effective partnership which left Knott on the outside.

But Knott said: “I can’t fault the boys. I got on well with both of them, Evo and Josh, and they were brilliant when they played.

“I wouldn’t say anything bad about the two boys. I’m good mates with both of them.

“When you come in on loan you expect to be playing and they did really well.

“But it was frustrating for me. I’m only 23 and want to be playing games.

“I need to play regularly to keep improving and that wasn’t happening.”

Knott started 21 times but did not kick a ball for City again after playing both games over Easter against Millwall and Crewe when Evans and Cullen were on international duty.

He added: “The gaffer praised me a lot after we won them both but then he didn’t play me.

“I think I knew it was over then because I couldn’t do much more.

“The gaffer knew I was frustrated at the end.

“I’m not one to be happy on the bench and when you’ve won two games on the spin and still get left out it’s a bit harder to take.

“But it’s one of those things. I learned from this year and still enjoyed it.

“It didn’t come as a shock being released. I’m good about it.

“The gaffer rang me up after and said ‘make sure you get a good club’.

“It looked like he only wanted me to do well and it was a pleasure working for him. We left on a good note.”

Knott has been encouraged by the contact he has already had from clubs. He is not rushing into a decision on his next destination.

“I’m just meeting a few clubs and having a few chats. It’s nothing major at the moment but just talking to a few managers.

“I’ll sit down in a couple of weeks to decide what’s best for my career.

“There’s plenty of interest so I’m not worried. There’s quite a few good clubs.

“There are a few good ones in League Two looking for promotion. If they are big clubs aiming to go straight up, then you’ve got to consider that as well.

“But I would like to stay in League One if I can – and play against Bradford next season.”

Local club Southend have been linked with him but Knott has dismissed that as paper talk.

He said: “I think my agent has rung me most days since I came back down south. But he hasn’t mentioned any contact with Southend.

“I didn’t know anything about it until I saw the paper and there was Phil Brown speaking about me.

“It’s nice to know and I think I did all right over the last two seasons.

“I hopefully showed the manager there was a bit of quality about me.

“It was just unfortunate this year we had two loan signings ahead of me who played a lot of games.”