The History

Crewe Alexandra is a small English club. Founded in 1877 and named after "Princess Alexandra" the club was one of four that found the English second division. However after a short four year stint Crewe were relagated and stayed in the depths of English football until 1921 where they were promoted back to League 2. Since then Crewe have lingered aound the lower leagues of English and have remained there to date.

Club Honours

Although being one of the founding fathers of the second division Crewe have had no real historical honours. Recently the club has start to prove itself being winners of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in 2013 and well as other smaller trophies that include local county competitions.

The Ground

Built in 1906 and next to the town's iconic railway tracks "Gresty Road" is Crewe's current residence. The ground holds a capacity of over just over 10,100 which sadly rarely reaches capacity due to the small repuation of the club.

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In the last hour it has been announced that Crewe Alexandra boss Steve Davis has resigned. Steve has been with the club since late 2011 however has felt the need to resign due to struggling results and the recent revolt against him by the fans who have been unhappy with the prolonged stay in Football league 1.

Crewe chairman John Bowler has released this statement on the clubs website: "Steve has been a great asset to the club. Although this season we finished 19th in the league I myself was very satisfied with the results he produced this season with many of the pundits saying we should have gone down this season. I would have agreed with them if I Steve had not pulled this group of individuals into a team. When he (Davies) gave myself the call that he was resigning I was utterly bemused by the decision."

Mr Bowler later stated that he had "a number of candidates" lined up for the new position with one of them being 26 year old Thomas Pascoe who had to cut his playing career early with a recurring knee problem. Thomas, who has no previous coaching experience has yet to comment on the statement.

News on social media shows the joint bemusement at both decisions: the resignation of Steve Davis and the alleged favourite to the hot seat. A number of fans have already voiced their opinions over the young Englishman with one saying: "If he gets us a good string of results and brings in some decent players he will have the backing of me". Another voiced their anger on the clubs facebook page saying: "If the statement is true, Mr Bowler has made a terrible decision. Who is this lad? Surely there is a better replacement out there? Im starting to lose faith in John".

More on this news as we receive it.

The Interview:

http://www.zellastrading.com/assets/images/db_images/db_3_manager_office1.jpg


Key:

TP-Thomas Pascoe
JB-John Bowler


JB: Good morning Mr Pascoe, I'm John Bowler the chairman here at Crewe Alexandra. I've called you here this morning because as you know we need a new manager after the resignation of Steve Davis. As a former player and captain here I feel you are the right man for the job.

TP: Honestly, I'd love to be the manager of this club. After being here from the start of my career it's right I call Crewe my home. Although I would love to be a manager here I feel like I'm not experienced enough. I'm 26! I should be out there no training for the new season! I know as a captain I had responsibility as to certain runnings of the club but the change from captain to Manager is a huge jump.

JB: If I didn't feel you were the right man for the job you wouldn't be sat here now. I fully expected you to come here and say this. Remember if you do choose to be manager here, you are a member of the backroom team. You won't be alone! You have your assistant manager who will gladly help you. As a new lad whose just retired and completed his coaching course I'm not expecting you to be a world class manager. You've got to start from somewhere and from my point of view it's here.

TP: I would be lying if I said I didn't want to come back here. I'm sure the players would also enjoy working alongside myself again. A familiar face in the dressing room and someone who has been where they are now.

JB: I'm leaving this up to you. Of course every club has to give the manager some expectations. A club like ourselves in the current state that we are in needs time to build ourselves to a league challenging side. The fans are starting to get frustrated with the sustained period of time that we have spent in these leagues. It's the right time to start to change that.

TP: Well, it looks like it's time I returned to this club. Talking of expectations what do you actually expect me to do at this club, something that I can aim to achieve will here at the club.

JB: Realistically I'd be looking at a final positioning above the relegation zone. Also as we have a very strong youth academy it would be very useful in the revival of the club and for our finances if we could use our youth academy for ourselves and for sales to other clubs.

TP: I feel that I can fulfil these task's and cement our position in the league.

JB: It's been a pleasure seeing you Mr Pascoe. I wish you all the best at the club!

TP: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to help the club out John.

Club Analysis

Crewe has a very young squad with high potentials for the future. The downside to this is that they do not have the best of current abilities. Because of this I will be looking to make full use of the clubs training facilities to try and get these players to develop quickly.

After looking through the squad I have noticed 2 players that may have to leave. These being one of my keepers: Steve Phillips. Steve is already 35 years old and does does have the best of attributes to be playing in the first team. He is also having a high wage for someone who I will not be planning on using. However, the high wage may be due to the fact that he is also our Goalkeeping Coach. He is very well suited for this role as he has a high ability in working with youngesters and in goalkeeping. I feel there are 3 options with Steve, sell him and use the money for a younger keeper who has a better abilty and also buy a new Goalkeeping coach, ask him to retire as a player and keep him as a coach or finally keep him as both a player and coach but see if he accepts a lower wage.

The other player Im currently looking at selling is Adam Dugdale. At 25 years old he has reached the peak of his performence. His attributes are not going to grow much more with him having a 2 star ability and potential. Like Phillips he has a mucher higher wage than most of the other players in the squad but that may be due to the fact that he is one of the more experienced players.

Currently at the club we have 3 loan players: Uche Ikpeazu, Chuks Aneke and George Evans. I will be using these 3 players as much as possible as they have very good abilities for the league that we are in.

Key Players:

Chuks Aneke:


Although Chuks is a loaned player from Arsenal. He will be very beneficial to the squad as an attacking midfielder as he can finish well and also play balls into my strikers.

Abdul Osmon:


Abdul is a well rounded defensive midfielder. He has very good defensive stats but can also clear up any balls that fall infront of the defence with his very good heading. This will also be useful if we come up against teams who try to play balls over our defence or try and play long high balls.

Great detail and I love the content!

The Fixtures:

Our previous manager (Steve Davis) had already played one of our friendlies. The result of this looked very promising as a 4-1 lead, showing either our attack was very strong or Stalybridges defence was weak. The draw to Manchester City's Under 21's was led by our assistant manager. Again when I saw the result to this game I was very pleased. To force a draw against an Under 21 squad like Manchester City's is no easy feat.

With the final two pre-season tests rapidly approaching I am very optimistic. With a home tie at Blackpool I think we can hold them out for a draw or we can pick a scappy one goal win. Yes Blackpool are a Championship side but there is no reason to not look at this as a tie we can get a good result from.

With Nantwich being a non-league side I will be looking for a win. I will be playing one of my younger XI's and seeing how each player does so I can get a much more solid overview of who will be in my team come the first game of the season. With 2 games of Pre-season remaining I think we can pick up some good results and carry confidence into the league come August.

Results:

Crewe Under 21's


Putting the result aside I am very happy with the performance of the team. I am not one to play a passing style of football, I always attack with the ball and like to make teams play off the back foot. It worked for this game however we need to be much more clinical with our chances if we want to be winning these games.

Blackpool:


A win against Blackpool! A massive confidence boost although the stats show that it was somewhat undeserved. An early penalty from us through Harry Davis really gave me belief tha we could beat this Blackpool side. Straight after the goal I played a more counter attacking style and sat men behind the ball as Blackpool piled on the pressure and efforts at goal. At half time I decided it was time to make some changes. One of them being Jay Leitch-Smith. He was utterly amazing to watch and in the 81 minute scored an absolute gem of a goal from outside of the box.

Nantwich:


A great way to finish pre-season. Byron Moore had an excellent game, bagging himself 2 goals for the club which included my rotational squad. The goal that was conceded came about due to poor defensive duties, this proving it's still an aspect that needs improving on come the beggining of the season. A fantastic pre-season from my perspective and something I hope to carry into the start of the season.

Results for the season so far:

Very nice detail and layout. You've got to love Crewe as well! Interested to see whether you keep bringing youth through or change the system! Good luck!

Good pre-season, especially the result against Blackpool is very good!