Time to be bold.

[gazan]

Although a long-term fan and season ticket holder, I have to admit that I'm close to losing the faith. People will point at a'near miss' at the play offs and to a number of high(ISH) scoring games through the season but I will persist with my assertion that Bell has to go. I sincerely believe that, nice man as he is, he is not good enough to turn the Alex into the 70+ points team they need to be to be promoted. And, importantly, the financial situation dictates that the Alex must be promoted. Alas, I believe this was our best chance and we blew it. Including Tezgel and O'Reilly the Alex had a talented squad. League 2 was at a low ebb, containing no outstanding teams so it was an ideal time to shine. As it happened, the Alex didn't take advantage. Was this because, as a young side, it was prone to inconsistency? No doubt that was a factor. However, it is clear to me that management was more crucial to this outcome. The team was off to a flier in the first 4 games, imposing itself for the first 60 minutes of a game then playing out the remainder. There was a hiccup at Gillingham as the players forgot their shooting boots but created a lot of scoring opportunities. Noone thought the run could last and most appreciated a good performance let down by inefficient finishing. However, the management panicked and changed the set-up. This was the pattern for the season. A lack of faith in the press which had been successful at the beginning. There was also a lot of bemusing substitutions, playing people out of position, moving things around unnecessarily and weird tactics. Despite a number of 4 goal results, there were many games where the team only had one or no shots on goal. It was so frustrating to see long balls hoofed up the pitch for a lone forward who had been expected to cover all the oppositions half of the pitch on there own. Also frustrating was the endless little passing games at the back that inevitably ended with a hoof up pitch. There was often a sense of no plan and no way to really change things.
The managers response was often that the players had worked hard or, conversely, had not carried out their instructions
I realise that this is becoming a long post so will stop soon.
The board have to decide if they do detect improvement and implement no change and risk another season of failure in an increasingly dire financial outlook or be bold, break the pattern and go for someone new (or Mickey Demetriou).

[MikeSB]

Although a long-term fan and season ticket holder, I have to admit that I'm close to losing the faith. People will point at a'near miss' at the play offs and to a number of high(ISH) scoring games through the season but I will persist with my assertion that Bell has to go. I sincerely believe that, nice man as he is, he is not good enough to turn the Alex into the 70+ points team they need to be to be promoted. And, importantly, the financial situation dictates that the Alex must be promoted. Alas, I believe this was our best chance and we blew it. Including Tezgel and O'Reilly the Alex had a talented squad. League 2 was at a low ebb, containing no outstanding teams so it was an ideal time to shine. As it happened, the Alex didn't take advantage. Was this because, as a young side, it was prone to inconsistency? No doubt that was a factor. However, it is clear to me that management was more crucial to this outcome. The team was off to a flier in the first 4 games, imposing itself for the first 60 minutes of a game then playing out the remainder. There was a hiccup at Gillingham as the players forgot their shooting boots but created a lot of scoring opportunities. Noone thought the run could last and most appreciated a good performance let down by inefficient finishing. However, the management panicked and changed the set-up. This was the pattern for the season. A lack of faith in the press which had been successful at the beginning. There was also a lot of bemusing substitutions, playing people out of position, moving things around unnecessarily and weird tactics. Despite a number of 4 goal results, there were many games where the team only had one or no shots on goal. It was so frustrating to see long balls hoofed up the pitch for a lone forward who had been expected to cover all the oppositions half of the pitch on there own. Also frustrating was the endless little passing games at the back that inevitably ended with a hoof up pitch. There was often a sense of no plan and no way to really change things.
The managers response was often that the players had worked hard or, conversely, had not carried out their instructions
I realise that this is becoming a long post so will stop soon.
The board have to decide if they do detect improvement and implement no change and risk another season of failure in an increasingly dire financial outlook or be bold, break the pattern and go for someone new (or Mickey Demetriou).

Its obvious that this site has had its day and the absence of posts and the very few posts show that to be the case for a very long time. You should be congratulated gazan for your persistence in keeping the site going for so long and best probably if you said goodbye to it now. I mean look at how many 'fans' have read your message so far and not one reply? Do me a favour!

Now, in respect of your post gazan. Fans have been waiting decades and decades for the big promotion and got it on occasion but the club then ditched or we should say, sold the best players asap and down we went ie relegated. Some clubs our size had far more faith and are playing in the PL and championship as we can see.

Lee Bell is a very nice man as you said but he should have been sacked at Christmas last when we lost our away match to Newport who had not won a match for nine months and that would have shown that the club was serious about promotion. The Chairman said the academy was in our DNA and he was talking BS as that has never been in our DNA but he and the Board are obviously content for us to remain a fourt division club or even National League.

Supporting CAFC as I have done for 70 odd years was in essence a waste of time and money, despite their being one or two good seasons in between.

ie Time to move on an support a team who really I mean REALLY wants to play in a higher league regularly. Some clubs higher than us have a far lower fan base and that is a fact. It could be the Board resigns and a new Board comes in with greater ambition.

Good luck to all!

[Timmy58]

Its obvious that this site has had its day and the absence of posts and the very few posts show that to be the case for a very long time. You should be congratulated gazan for your persistence in keeping the site going for so long and best probably if you said goodbye to it now. I mean look at how many 'fans' have read your message so far and not one reply? Do me a favour!

Now, in respect of your post gazan. Fans have been waiting decades and decades for the big promotion and got it on occasion but the club then ditched or we should say, sold the best players asap and down we went ie relegated. Some clubs our size had far more faith and are playing in the PL and championship as we can see.

Lee Bell is a very nice man as you said but he should have been sacked at Christmas last when we lost our away match to Newport who had not won a match for nine months and that would have shown that the club was serious about promotion. The Chairman said the academy was in our DNA and he was talking BS as that has never been in our DNA but he and the Board are obviously content for us to remain a fourt division club or even National League.

Supporting CAFC as I have done for 70 odd years was in essence a waste of time and money, despite their being one or two good seasons in between.

ie Time to move on an support a team who really I mean REALLY wants to play in a higher league regularly. Some clubs higher than us have a far lower fan base and that is a fact. It could be the Board resigns and a new Board comes in with greater ambition.

Good luck to all!

I think it rather depends on what you want from supporting a football club. When you say it is time to move on and support a team who want to play in a higher division, that suggests a glory hunter. Manchester City are probably your best bet. To say it has been a waste of time supporting CAFC is, frankly, insulting to those who do support the club and those who have managed or been involved in managing/coaching and also to those who have played for the club in that time. Out of interest, why do you think we have sold players having achieved promotion? I know you have incredible about football, mainly because you keep telling everyone. So, surely you understand why this is. I read about CAFC having no ambition, I am guessing referring to the board and the chairman. But ambition can be construed in more than one way. I am 70 years of age and I have been supporting for over 50 years and I would like to think those running the club plan to ensure there is a league club to support for my daughter and her kids and beyond.

[jimmyboldon]

I think it rather depends on what you want from supporting a football club. When you say it is time to move on and support a team who want to play in a higher division, that suggests a glory hunter. Manchester City are probably your best bet. To say it has been a waste of time supporting CAFC is, frankly, insulting to those who do support the club and those who have managed or been involved in managing/coaching and also to those who have played for the club in that time. Out of interest, why do you think we have sold players having achieved promotion? I know you have incredible about football, mainly because you keep telling everyone. So, surely you understand why this is. I read about CAFC having no ambition, I am guessing referring to the board and the chairman. But ambition can be construed in more than one way. I am 70 years of age and I have been supporting for over 50 years and I would like to think those running the club plan to ensure there is a league club to support for my daughter and her kids and beyond.

Well said.
Mike, the board are NOT content to remain in L2. If you bothered to attend the fans forum, you would have heard Charles Grant state that to be financially viable, we need to be in L1. Do you know how much the directors put into the club out of their own pockets to cover the debts?

[MikeSB]

I think it rather depends on what you want from supporting a football club. When you say it is time to move on and support a team who want to play in a higher division, that suggests a glory hunter. Manchester City are probably your best bet. To say it has been a waste of time supporting CAFC is, frankly, insulting to those who do support the club and those who have managed or been involved in managing/coaching and also to those who have played for the club in that time. Out of interest, why do you think we have sold players having achieved promotion? I know you have incredible about football, mainly because you keep telling everyone. So, surely you understand why this is. I read about CAFC having no ambition, I am guessing referring to the board and the chairman. But ambition can be construed in more than one way. I am 70 years of age and I have been supporting for over 50 years and I would like to think those running the club plan to ensure there is a league club to support for my daughter and her kids and beyond.

When I was 16 I went to Barrow to see us win a game. I did not see another Crewe fan there...I went to see us play Darlington away and again did not see another Crewe fan there apart from my mate who sat with me. I went away to see us play Crystal Palace and did not see another Crewe fan there. But I grew up and saw the club were 4th division standard and had no ambition to play higher and indeed they sold players as soon as they could to then put the money into a ridiculous academy structure and now that has been downgraded. I now could not care a less what division we are in. I've grown up and seen clubs the same size as us now playing in the PL eg Bournmouth and there are many clubs in L1 our size and less and we again failed the big test with an inexperienced manager who really has no idea about how to manage the team. We sign loan players who are far better than ours and so what do we need an academy for. We played better with four forwards for a couple of matches and then its back to four at the back and still we lost 3-1 at home when we needed to win that game and he goes with a defensive formation.

In other words I could not give a damn and fans will still be paying a huge amount to watch a poor quality team

[gazan]

Could people please respond to MY post and not get distracted?

[jimmyboldon]

Could people please respond to MY post and not get distracted?

Once again a bit of discussion takes place and you take the hump. Really?

[gazan]

What? Read it carefully! What do you mean "Once again..."
Discussion? Just the same old, same old!
Someone got out of bed on the wrong side, this morning
!

[MikeSB]

Once again a bit of discussion takes place and you take the hump. Really?

Good reply JB...I wonder why a site with so limited a written response, anyone needs to argue the toss about what was and is written...

I was wrong in my post yesterday, I actually love this club and have done so for 70 odd years as I am 81 now and when I was on a paper round in Crewe all those years ago, I could not wait to see our score in the stop press when I was doing the afternoon round. I think we should be in L1 at least. L2 is really no better than the National League.

I'm not sure about the motives of anyone else as i am not a mind reader but I think if we were serious or I should say IF the Chairman was serious about promotion to L1 then he really should have sacked LB after the Newport game. Some clubs sack their manager after a few games and anyway, the Chairman jad no right appointing inexperienced managers to the job and of course, even experienced ones can get it wrong. I dislike sacking managers as LB has been here a long time but we really do not need three managers at each game or a host of non players at the club as in the past none of them were and they all cost money to employ. And still the Chairman insists we will have the best Cat3 academy in the league...Sorry but that is really BS and he should have said, all the non players will be sacked and lets start again.

Its ironic that Dave Artell was sacked by this manager and Grimsby are in the play offs today.

I really want to see us have ambition to play in L1 and the Chairman has no excuses if he thinks the same thing. OK I was a fan when we were in dire straits a few times and I could never understand why some of my mates went to see Liverpool, ManC, ManU and other clubs when they had a local club to support. What pleasure is there in seeing such teams play?

Sorry, gazan, off topic again!

[MikeSB]

What? Read it carefully! What do you mean "Once again..."
Discussion? Just the same old, same old!
Someone got out of bed on the wrong side, this morning
!

Same old? This is a discussion forum and if fans want to write repeatedly, so what....Go and get the 4000 fans who go to our games and get them to write stuff!

[jimmyboldon]

What? Read it carefully! What do you mean "Once again..."
Discussion? Just the same old, same old!
Someone got out of bed on the wrong side, this morning
!

2 March this year you asked people to stick to the thread and not be distracted. So yes, ?again?

[Alexron]

Although a long-term fan and season ticket holder, I have to admit that I'm close to losing the faith. People will point at a'near miss' at the play offs and to a number of high(ISH) scoring games through the season but I will persist with my assertion that Bell has to go. I sincerely believe that, nice man as he is, he is not good enough to turn the Alex into the 70+ points team they need to be to be promoted. And, importantly, the financial situation dictates that the Alex must be promoted. Alas, I believe this was our best chance and we blew it. Including Tezgel and O'Reilly the Alex had a talented squad. League 2 was at a low ebb, containing no outstanding teams so it was an ideal time to shine. As it happened, the Alex didn't take advantage. Was this because, as a young side, it was prone to inconsistency? No doubt that was a factor. However, it is clear to me that management was more crucial to this outcome. The team was off to a flier in the first 4 games, imposing itself for the first 60 minutes of a game then playing out the remainder. There was a hiccup at Gillingham as the players forgot their shooting boots but created a lot of scoring opportunities. Noone thought the run could last and most appreciated a good performance let down by inefficient finishing. However, the management panicked and changed the set-up. This was the pattern for the season. A lack of faith in the press which had been successful at the beginning. There was also a lot of bemusing substitutions, playing people out of position, moving things around unnecessarily and weird tactics. Despite a number of 4 goal results, there were many games where the team only had one or no shots on goal. It was so frustrating to see long balls hoofed up the pitch for a lone forward who had been expected to cover all the oppositions half of the pitch on there own. Also frustrating was the endless little passing games at the back that inevitably ended with a hoof up pitch. There was often a sense of no plan and no way to really change things.
The managers response was often that the players had worked hard or, conversely, had not carried out their instructions
I realise that this is becoming a long post so will stop soon.
The board have to decide if they do detect improvement and implement no change and risk another season of failure in an increasingly dire financial outlook or be bold, break the pattern and go for someone new (or Mickey Demetriou).

Well as a supporter of over 70 years I would say it would be impossible to stop just because we didn't get promoted.

I have witnessed some excellent games this season as well as some abject performances but overall I consider it to have been a good season

Lee Bell and his team have done an excellent job under, sometimes, difficult circumstances so get behind the team for the last two games and never give up.

PS. I remember a chap called Mike playing for Crewe Ham or Creweventus back in the day and he was for ever going on about Tom Finney, Johnny Haynes and Jimmy Greaves and how they didn't need coaching. Could this be the same person?

[gazan]

2 March this year you asked people to stick to the thread and not be distracted. So yes, ?again?

Oh dear! Social media knee-jerk response! Hope you and MSB will be very happy together! You deserve each other.
I've tried very hard to keep (real) discussion going on this thread but, as MSB correctly points out, fewer and fewer people are contributing. Add in that there are glitches with lack of maintenance of the site plus this recent attack by somebody I had thought was one of the good guys and I have to say so long and thanks for all the fish! I had planned to stop bothering at the end of the season anyway but why wait an extra 8 days. All the good guys have gone. Congratulations to the rest of you. I hope you enjoy baring your fangs at each other.👋

[ShropshireAlex]

Oh dear! Social media knee-jerk response! Hope you and MSB will be very happy together! You deserve each other.
I've tried very hard to keep (real) discussion going on this thread but, as MSB correctly points out, fewer and fewer people are contributing. Add in that there are glitches with lack of maintenance of the site plus this recent attack by somebody I had thought was one of the good guys and I have to say so long and thanks for all the fish! I had planned to stop bothering at the end of the season anyway but why wait an extra 8 days. All the good guys have gone. Congratulations to the rest of you. I hope you enjoy baring your fangs at each other.��

I don't think I do - except occasionally about boring repetition - tbh gazan

[Furberstreet]

It has been a while since I posted on here and now feel motivated to start contributing once more. Whilst acknowledging that LB has done a good job given the financial constraints compared to the majority of clubs in League Two, I felt a sense of inevitability as Crewe dropped out of the playoff positions towards the end of the season. The loanees have been of a high calibre, but we have once again drifted away from the playoffs and I regret that the management has been found wanting at key moments. It is interesting that the Chairman and Board members believe L1 football is essential for the club to become financially viable. What is to be done to make this a reality? Do we change the first team management and, if so, who do we aim for? To move to the next level, we need to look externally for a new management team. We need to pare down the coaching staff in the Academy to match the downgrading. The business model envisaged by Dario has not been viable for a while. We are no longer producing young players with ?1m+ transfer valuations and, whilst that is a sad reality, the Academy remains important as a means of preparing players for the first team squad. That said, do we believe the Board should provide a new manager with a bumper transfer pot to build a first team of League One standard players. Remember the Steve Holland experience when the Board made available a huge transfer budget by the Club's standard and we were still relegated from League One. Can we strike a balance in funding a stronger team whilst not impoverishing the Club and setting us back a number of seasons? The Chairman has said on a number of occasions that the Board is looking for external funding. I think that this is essential, but it is also essential to ensure that genuine due diligence is carried out on would-be investors and, also, that consideration is given to increasing the funding threshold above 25% of shares to 35%-40% if that is the means of attracting a genuine capital injection into the club. I acknowledge the difficulties arising from the Norman Hassell era but we need to look forward.