If not Bell, who (or what?)

[whosbrianwilson]

For goodness sake, Mike, you nearly closed the forum just before you promised to leave last time!! Stop cutting and pasting your last 300 posts over and over again. It's beyond boring for everyone.

[gazan]

For goodness sake, Mike, you nearly closed the forum just before you promised to leave last time!! Stop cutting and pasting your last 300 posts over and over again. It's beyond boring for everyone.

Sorry, my fault! I knew as soon as I wrote it that I may moved the ouija board the wrong way!😉
Anyway, Wartman, there's never in a million years going to be more money next year unless a rich and generous outsider wishes to pump money into the club for no other reason than it warms the cockles of their heart. You've been around as long as I have to know that the budget will not really grow much, if at all. (Let alone the fact that money itself is worth 10% less now than it was last year- sorry, that's politics- apparently they don't connect!). To grow the budget in the short term there are 3 options:
The suggestion above- and I don't believe in fairies.
Large, well-known sponsorship ( and why would they?)
A significant increase in crowd revenue - so we all need to bring a friend on a regular basis and spend money on pies, beer and shirts etc.

[Wartman]

Sorry, my fault! I knew as soon as I wrote it that I may moved the ouija board the wrong way!��
Anyway, Wartman, there's never in a million years going to be more money next year unless a rich and generous outsider wishes to pump money into the club for no other reason than it warms the cockles of their heart. You've been around as long as I have to know that the budget will not really grow much, if at all. (Let alone the fact that money itself is worth 10% less now than it was last year- sorry, that's politics- apparently they don't connect!). To grow the budget in the short term there are 3 options:
The suggestion above- and I don't believe in fairies.
Large, well-known sponsorship ( and why would they?)
A significant increase in crowd revenue - so we all need to bring a friend on a regular basis and spend money on pies, beer and shirts etc.

And that is the reason I believe this club will be a non league club in the near future. To increase the gates you would have to be providing an entertaining spectacle on the pitch and we are not, major sponsorship I agree who is going to attach themselves to the town of Crewe an area that is completely and utterly on its arse.

[gazan]

But to be realistic, most of the country is on its arse. Football-wise, we are still better off than others. The academy will keep us afloat with relatively inexpensive players of some (if at times moderate) talent. As in society, the politico/economic situation will affect the poorest most so there will be casualties elsewhere before us.
We are not playing well at the moment but we are the 7th in terms of losses in the division. In terms of wins we are exactly where we should be, those with fewer wins all below etc.
Our current lack of goals has obvious origins with our two first choice strikers missing long-term. However, that can be remedied in the medium term. As long as Offord and Mcdonald remain relatively fit we have a chance in every game. Next season we'll have a surfeit of Centre Halves available and a couple of regular CMs bedded into the team from the academy. Colkett should have really got going by then.
The future is not rosy but armageddon is a long way off.

[MikeSB]

But to be realistic, most of the country is on its arse. Football-wise, we are still better off than others. The academy will keep us afloat with relatively inexpensive players of some (if at times moderate) talent. As in society, the politico/economic situation will affect the poorest most so there will be casualties elsewhere before us.
We are not playing well at the moment but we are the 7th in terms of losses in the division. In terms of wins we are exactly where we should be, those with fewer wins all below etc.
Our current lack of goals has obvious origins with our two first choice strikers missing long-term. However, that can be remedied in the medium term. As long as Offord and Mcdonald remain relatively fit we have a chance in every game. Next season we'll have a surfeit of Centre Halves available and a couple of regular CMs bedded into the team from the academy. Colkett should have really got going by then.
The future is not rosy but armageddon is a long way off.

There are many clubs even with lower gates than us a league higher without expensive academies.Even Stockport and Barrow are above us in the league and yet we more or less have the same team as when we were a league higher. This club fails when Directors have to put money in and that cannot go on for long. It may be best if we just asked to be relegated now to the National League where Wrexham have 8000 plus gates and we have what coming through now? The academy plus some worthwhile signings worked for a very short while but when was the last big transfer away? WHY have most clubs in L1 and L2 not taken a Cat2 academy with loads and loads of non footballers in it. Its actually a great thing for ex footballers and coaches to have a job where non really should exist.

Its a complete failure and action is require NOW...not something that may come along with the so called next crop! This forum was always pretty dead and nobody can lift it.

[Wartman]

There are many clubs even with lower gates than us a league higher without expensive academies.Even Stockport and Barrow are above us in the league and yet we more or less have the same team as when we were a league higher. This club fails when Directors have to put money in and that cannot go on for long. It may be best if we just asked to be relegated now to the National League where Wrexham have 8000 plus gates and we have what coming through now? The academy plus some worthwhile signings worked for a very short while but when was the last big transfer away? WHY have most clubs in L1 and L2 not taken a Cat2 academy with loads and loads of non footballers in it. Its actually a great thing for ex footballers and coaches to have a job where non really should exist.

Its a complete failure and action is require NOW...not something that may come along with the so called next crop! This forum was always pretty dead and nobody can lift it.

Hi Mike I appreciate your opinion on the academy and nobody can fault your championing of that belief, I am sitting on the fence at the moment with regards to the academy as I don’t know how much it costs us each year and how much revenue it generates, I know that it produces cheap players for the first team and on the whole most of them are poor but we do still produce some good players too Tabiner looks good Oriordan also looks good I am not as enthusiastic on Williams and Adebisi as some people are on this site, Finney junior I am not sure about and the rest of the first year pros look a long way off, then we look at Finney senior and Griffiths both stealing a living as professional footballers clogging first team places this is the problem I have keeping players for the sake of it. I would not be adverse to downgrading the academy as long as cat 3 will still produce a few players 2 or 3 for the first team. And also Mike I do agree with you that the club is drowning in non playing staff which seems to be getting worse.

[MeForCrewe]

Just gone past the ground, there were a few recognisable directors cars there. I presume that they must be sifting through the applications now that the deadline has now passed.

[MikeSB]

Hi Mike I appreciate your opinion on the academy and nobody can fault your championing of that belief, I am sitting on the fence at the moment with regards to the academy as I don’t know how much it costs us each year and how much revenue it generates, I know that it produces cheap players for the first team and on the whole most of them are poor but we do still produce some good players too Tabiner looks good Oriordan also looks good I am not as enthusiastic on Williams and Adebisi as some people are on this site, Finney junior I am not sure about and the rest of the first year pros look a long way off, then we look at Finney senior and Griffiths both stealing a living as professional footballers clogging first team places this is the problem I have keeping players for the sake of it. I would not be adverse to downgrading the academy as long as cat 3 will still produce a few players 2 or 3 for the first team. And also Mike I do agree with you that the club is drowning in non playing staff which seems to be getting worse.

Hiya Wartman,

OK I annoy most people on here but they should not dictate what I can post even if it is boring etc. I only want what is best for the club and I suppose non footballers clogging up the finance of the club seems perverse but I cannot believe the BoD don't look at ALL the possibilities as well. It could be that the Cat2 academy is FULLY financed by the PL and FA and they pay for all the non playing staff and coaches and so in that case the BoD will keep it as it is. But then we have Reasheath facilities to pay for. How much does that cost the club? Again it may be funded by the PL/FA but so few clubs at our level go for Cat2 and so why is that? I recall the Barnsley Manager saying after the match on Sat and I quote..."How very young the players are". Now he is an experienced manager and knows youngsters cannot compete with older Pro's. Its why they need three or four years here. Thordason got the boot here as he said the academy graduates had to be good enough to play for the first team and he was ousted. I just think tying our hands with something so outrageous where we can have four managers involved with the first team and at what cost when one did the job for a hundred years at all clubs prior to the arrival of academies. These really are for kids and not adult footballers. Its why the FA/PL want 6 year olds and others coached as they thought the future of our game depended on it. Well just look at the World Cup results to know the actuals. Its not academies its the pure and simple idea that basic football skills need no coaching. Its why James Greaves.... Said the same and nobody at least at this club or on here can say he was wrong.

IF we downgraded the Academy to Cat 4 then the cost would be so different and more importantly, the same kids would come along as their parents would not and have never drove them to Liverpool. City or ManU and so why not try and go back to Cat2 if it fails? I think its up to the Chairman to explain the full facts of the Cat2 academy. And what the future looks like it. I suspect the FA/PL are paying almost the full cost but could be wrong!

[Freddie Creweger]

I'm sorry to disappoint the majority of posters but the facts over the last several years are that the current academy status does not appear to justify the expense laid out. Last year was the fruition of our best academy for the last decade and what did it achieve.
Owen Dale refused to play for us because he considered he was being paid peanuts ( just like most posters think is a sound scenario) and as we don't know the transfer outcome, I assume we got peanuts as well.
Wintle and Lowery our best products left for nothing.
We got transfer fees foe Kirk, Ng and Pickering, but apparently insufficient to avoid the club making a loss.

How come, Accrington, Fleetwood, Morecambe, Forest Green, et al, can survive and prosper on lower gates than Crewe in a higher division with a bigger fund to draw on???? Not to mention Salford, Barrow and others in league 2.

I'm afraid unless the academy is mostly financed by the FA/EFL, then I have to agree with Mike SB that the academy as it is, has run its course. Since the premiership clubs hoovered up and had FIRST CALL on anyone with real talent even if they had been at crewe for several years.
The football at Crewe has been appalling for a number of years interspaced with the admitted talent we had during the last promotion, but even that couldn't save the club from making a loss.

[MikeSB]

Freddie C, take a bow, that was a very articulate and substantive post that detailed the actual situation wih actual facts and so let the doubters take issue with them, rather than my musings but somehow I can't see them doing so...It means they have not thought things through as you have done. They assume a season or two at lower league games means the expense of the academy is justifiable but how many other clubs have had the money as we have £20m and ended up a lower fourth division club that plays so poorly? We used to play Crystal Palace, Bournmouth, Brighton and others who left us behind many years ago...

Lets bring Dario back!