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Bakes seems to be handling the press calls while the Davis family go off on holiday, and he's normally uncontroversial.
But he was lobbing a few grenades in The Sentinel this morning.
Seems it's not so much whether Anthony will ignore the lure of the Home Counties and come back to the Alex, but more whether he's quite the finished article, and worth the top whack we're paying him.
We know what kind of midfielder he can never hope to be (the Daniel Johnson of PNE springs to mind), but he seems to be an honest trier who goes firefighting when we look likely to fold in the centre of the park.
But I can hardly ever get to the games, so is there anything in what Bakes says, or is this more of a negotiating ploy?
He does point out that Grant is a firm fans' favourite, but contends that he's less appreciated at management level for his failure fully to deliver on his promise.
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I went to every home league game and I would suggest that Bakes has it spot on. He is no better than league 1 and definitely not as good as he probably thinks he is. Don't get me wrong I liked him but he caused problems trying to be clever in he wrong areas of the pitch. We will miss him but how much may depend on Ollie Turton's progress next season. And on who we bring in of course.
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Our treatment of Grant in the latter part of the season has been awful.
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I have to disagree with you on this Tim.
For me Grant has been our driving force for the past two seasons, he brought something different to the team, he worked tiredlessly , had total commitment in the tackle and rarely missed a game ( only missed games when suspended).
I may be wrong on this , but in my opinion Neil Baker's comments are totally disrespectful to a player who gave his all for the team.
If this week is his week for doing the PR work, then thank god he's not trusted with it regularly !
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I think it highly unlikely Grant will be a Crewe player next season. I don't believe it was disrespectful at all. Just saying as he sees.
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After that cameo speech from Baker ,there is zero chance of seeing Grant in a Crewe shirt again.
As for saying it as he sees, the art of management in any walk of life is diplomacy !
Perhaps a finite example as to why Neil has never been a number one in the professional game !
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I honestly just think it's been a slow news week and Baker / The Press have used this to 'Justify' their decision to not offer a new contract.
I agree that Granty didn't look his best towards the end but you have to remember that he was treading thinly to avoid picking up his 10th yellow card. Although he could occasionally play his way into trouble, there was nobody better in our side who would help 'firefight' and release pressure from the back-line.
Although it does look unlikely that he will ressign, I would like to personally thank Granty for two great seasons in a Crewe Shirt and I'm sure with the budget we will have to do very well to replace him with an equally good defensive midfielder.
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I don't think Bakes is being overly controversial its not the first time he has stated that he expects more from Grant, he has also stated that Grant can get better, whether that is true or not only time will tell, but I doubt we will see him in an alex shirt again. The point that is true is that Grant will be a very difficult player to replace and I doubt there are many free transfers out there who can do as good a job as Grant. It depends on Jones, Turton and Atkinson next season plus anyone else who SD can bring in, but Grant will be missed. I hope we can get him to sign another contract but that seems unlikely, we were probably lucky to get him here in the first place. However his top whack can be used to pay for someone else, although that is top whack for Crewe not top whack for League 1.
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think bakes is showing why he isnt ever gonna be a manager -
without Grant we would have a very soft midfield - you have to win the ball first to then do something with it - our other midfielders dont get stuck in
is it a ploy to make Granty think the person doin the wages doesnt want to pay him what hes on
would rather loose the fitness / diet coaches and the like and pay the players a decent wage - we might get better players interested then
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If it's assumed by our management that Grant has not delivered...pray what do they think of their own performance!!
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