Crawley Town / WAGMI

I think we've been through the same, where an owner backing the club means nothing if there is no knowledge of the game.

How can you have a strategy in place without expertise? Paying off debts is fantastic, no argument from me, and @wetherbywhaler was always praising Stefan for his work on the club's accounts.

However good players are useless in the wrong set up. We saw that with Eoin Doyle. Marquee signings are a waste of money under the wrong manager.

Crawley's owners have come in with good intentions and brought in a young manager with a good reputation when what they needed was a wise old head who knows how a club should be run and can implement a style and strategy that the club can follow long term.

Throwing money at football is no guarantee of success. Being a viable business with increased revenue streams is nice, but what's to stop you getting relegated out of the league?

See, there's two parts to a club: the business and the football team. You need both to be doing well, and in either case, one does NOT make sure the other works well.

Coming in and running a business is lovely, it really is. But it's not good enough.

 

My impression is that they've bought the club with good intentions, and then realised there's a total shit show going on, and are fire fighting to make sure the club stays in business. I admit they are probably very green, but managers can be replaced, and back team staff can be hired. Probably their next step once they've satisfied all the people they own money to. Without wanting to sound like a happy clapper, its better to have a club struggling at the bottom of the table (for now), than have no club at all.

 

I'm not surprised they were running at a significant loss.

They're just one of many teams in the lower leagues who are overachieving former non-leaguers with tiny grounds and a tiny following.

How do these clubs afford a competitive team with 2,000 fans?

Something's got to give somewhere, and it's almost certainly going to be the balance sheet.

In that regard, I don't think Crawley can claim they're underperforming.

 

Sacked Kevin Betsy a club in turmoil

 

They took 47 fans to Grimsby on Saturday.

Even if they suddenly became successful there wouldn't be a change. Like Salford, 107 fans they took to Northampton for what was a 3rd v 5/6th game. What is the end game for these clubs? They aren't going to get any bigger.

 

The clueless yanks have sacked Matty Etherington after 32 days in charge as Crawley manager

Massive bullet dodged, and for all the criticism we’ve all given Rupp over the last few years, he certainly deserves credit for seeing through those shysters and not selling up

 

I'm glad we avoided that bullet, since we already got the Edin Rahic bullet right between the eyes.

It would have been unfair to get a second helping of massive incompetence.

Don't forget where we were when Rupp took over.

We can't laugh at Crawley, we've zero room to gloat.

 

It may still work out for them but sadly I just think it’s another club that will be torn to shred by clueless owners and the poor sods who have followed them for years will be left to pick up the pieces ....................it may happen once in a while. (Bournemouth) but a lot of the time it tends to end up going badly

 

Said that at the time. I couldn't get my head around why so many fans were all for them and shot fans down like myself who said we had no ambition.

 

I think folk just wanted a change until they sussed out what there real issue is ............ they have no feel for the club they probably won’t go near it they don’t care about the fans ........... you look at Wrexham I was sceptical about that until I watched the documentary and how much they have thrown themselves into the heart of the community............. in fact for two novices they put a lot of owners to shame .......... the way the dealt with the Parkinson situation on the back of Wrexham fans wanting him out put a lot of owners to shame ............ would have been easier to fold under pressure but they stuck with him and I’m sure they will be rewarded with it

 

Co-chairman in the dug out…. Alarm bells must be ringing for Crawley fans big time!

 

Doesn't look like things are getting any better at Crawley and indications are that co-chairman is getting directly involved in dugout and looking to move some first team players on. So maybe plenty of choice in L2 this January's transfer window, albeit disgruntled ones.

 

I was rooting for the new owners of Crawley, hoped they did ok. Seem decent lads.....but clearly clueless and out of their depth.

They they not employ a CEO or DOF with any experience???

 

The Netflix documentary should be fun...

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jan/05/crypto-chaos-how-crawley-crumbled-under-owners-reckless-leadership?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

 

Looks like we dodged a bullet here:

www.theguardian.com

Crypto Chaos