The former football coach Barry Bennell had an arrangement with Crewe Alexandra for up to 12 youth-team players to stay at his house and abused so many of the boys in his care that they had arguments about getting the beds regarded as “a bit safer”, a jury was told.

On the eighth day of Bennell’s trial at Liverpool crown court, where the former Crewe Alexandra youth team coach is facing 48 charges relating to 11 boys from 1979 to 1990, one of his alleged victims said Dario Gradi, the club’s manager, had arranged for him to stay with the man who has been described by the prosecution as a “devious paedophile”.

In a police interview shown to the jury, the former player was asked to explain whose idea it was for him to stay with Bennell after he had joined Crewe’s junior system. “It was the football club,” he said. “It would have been Dario Gradi, the manager. It was an arrangement between the club and Barry. Dario was the manager and Barry was in charge of the youth team. There were sometimes 10 to 12 of us staying there, a whole football team. The club didn’t have much money and nobody thought anything of it.”

He added: “I can remember boys arguing to get on the top bunk beds because you felt a bit safer there.”

He was 11 at the time and alleges he was raped 12 to 20 times until his sleeping arrangements changed, without any explanation, two years later. “I remember Dario Gradi stopped me staying with Barry. For some reason I was stopped staying at Barry’s house and went to stay at Dario’s. I’ve got no idea why.”

Breaking down in tears, he continued: “I’ve always grown up thinking that Dario saved me from Barry. I never stayed there (Bennell’s house) again, never saw the place again.”

Bennell has denied the charges, which all relate to players from the junior set-ups at Crewe and Manchester City, but pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexually abusing three boys, aged 11 to 14, and admitted earlier in the trial that he had been “evil” and had periods “out of control”, serving prison sentences in Britain and the US.

The latest player to give evidence also said Bennell kept a wild cat as well as dogs and a monkey at his house, which was “dirty” with “dog hair everywhere”. He said that downstairs it was “heads to toes with different boys”, with bunk beds in the upstairs rooms. Bennell, he said, had left him “paralysed with fear”. Now in his 40s, he said he felt “massively let down” by Crewe and wanted the club to be held accountable.

In further evidence, he said that on the first occasion Bennell tried to abuse him, with his hand allegedly over the boy’s mouth, he pushed him away. “After that he started playing mind games. He started playing me out of position, he dropped me from the team. I was worried about my football career because he was messing me about.

“He had this power over you. He had a nasty streak where he could turn at any time and say he could ruin your football career. He had always been really nice to me but as soon as that happened he turned on me and started making my life awkward.”

Five or six weeks later, Bennell allegedly raped him for the first time. “I was paralysed. I was petrified of him. All I was thinking about was my football: ‘I can’t say nothing because of my football.’ I was confused, petrified, sweating. It’s the first time that haunts me. I can remember it now and it sends chills through my body.

“I can remember thinking: ‘Is this what happens in your life?’ I just didn’t know. I couldn’t speak to anybody about it. If I did, he’d tell my mum and dad. Who’d believe me? ‘Oh my God, is this what you’ve got to do to get somewhere?’ When you saw that shadow coming, it’s still in my nightmares now.”

The player said he was invited to join Crewe when Bennell saw him playing in a competition at the Cliff, Manchester United’s old training ground. “Crewe Alexandra had the best youth system in the country, on a par with Manchester United, Manchester City and any of the clubs down south. They were the team to be at. We very rarely lost any games, we had loads of good players. From a football perspective, Barry had skills and coaching methods that were far ahead of anybody else at the time. He could do tricks with the ball that nobody else could do in this country.”

After the alleged abuse, however, the player said he lived in fear of Bennell, gesturing to his neck as he said: “He used to find pressure points on your body, get you there so you couldn’t move. He could be the nicest person on the planet and then turn. We’ve seen one or two instances where people answered back and they just left the club. If you did stand up to him, you’re gone.”

In later life, he said he had told his father what had happened and expected him to inform Gradi about the abuse, but that apparently did not happen. As an adult, he said he had received a letter from Bennell asking for money. “I ripped it up in a million pieces.”

The trial continues.