With less than a week remaining until the start of the League Two season, anticipation and excitement is building ahead of what appears to be one of the most competitive campaigns in the fourth tier for some time.
But for many in a large market town in West Sussex, there is a palpable sense of despair growing from a near 16-month accumulation of strange decisions, which has plagued a once proud football club in England’s South East.
It is evident that the new season is fast approaching when prediction tables begin springing up everywhere you turn on social media, and here at The Real EFL, we too tried our luck at the near-impossible task of determining the results of a 46-game season.
Regardless of any personal allegiances or bias, each and every one of our writers came to the same conclusion: Crawley Town will finish rock bottom of League Two this season.
From promises of the Premier League by going unbeaten in League Two along the way, to the prospect of exiting the Football League through the back door, we take a look at where it’s all gone wrong for the Red Devils.
WAGMI United Takeover
Unsurprisingly, the problems began on April 7th 2022, with the news that American investment group WAGMI United purchased controlling shares of Crawley Town Football Club.
Crawley sat 13th in League Two, maintaining the midtable mediocrity that the two-to-three thousand home fans had seen for the vast majority of the 2021/22 season. However, all of that was about to change…
“A conventional approach to ownership hasn’t worked, and the club is losing hundreds of thousands of pounds while its fans suffer through year after year of uninspiring results on the pitch,” said Preston Johnson, WAGMI United co-founder.
Their aim was for the club with a rich history of more than 125 years to become ‘the internet’s team’ with fans stretching across the world. Confidence (or outright cockiness) was at an all-time high at WAGMI – an acronym for ‘We’re All Gonna Make It’, with the cryptocurrency sports company even tweeting to ask if they let you skip League One if you go unbeaten in League Two.
Do they let you skip League 1 if you go undefeated in League 2?
— WAGMI United (@WAGMIUnited) April 9, 2022
Managerial Merry-Go-Round
Disaster would soon be on the horizon, as 10 days after takeover, manager John Yems was suspended amid “serious and credible allegations” of discrimination, and the 63-year-old has now been banned from football-related activity until January 2026.
Since then, four permanent managers have walked through the door at the Broadfield Stadium, and co-chairman Johnson has even been seen in the dugout.
Despite the upheaval from Yems’ departure, it appeared to be the start of an impressive summer. Crawley turned to highly-rated Arsenal youth coach Kevin Betsy to lead the team, and last season’s League Two top scorer Dom Telford arrived in a move which sent shockwaves through the division.
Dion Conroy was next through the door, having captained Swindon Town on their way to the play-offs, and popular-forward Ashley Nadesan signed a new two-year deal to remain in West Sussex.
The Red Devils looked set for a promotion push, with WAGMI publishing a 26-point list of all the improvements they had made in their first three months at the helm, but what followed was a circus that would rival the Cirque du Soleil.
Kevin Betsy departed the club in October after a fifth defeat in a row, leaving them bottom of the League Two table, with Lewis Young occupying the interim role for a second time. Despite victory in four of his 10 games in charge, and many believing he was the leading candidate to take over on a permanent basis, the 33-year-old left the club following eight years of service as a player and coach.
Johnson and Smith turned to youth coaching again, appointing Peterborough U23 manager, Matthew Etherington. Johnson cited the 41-year-old’s willingness “to take risks” as the reason to why he aligns with the club’s vision, despite Etherington suffering with a gambling addiction whilst at West Ham.
The Truro-born man was sacked after just 32 days in the hot seat, coming a day after the infuriating announcement that striker Tom Nichols had joined Gillingham. Nichols did not feature in Etherington’s three-game tenure, a decision which he said “had been taken out of his hands.” The sale prompted forward Kwesi Appiah to remark that the club social media accounts “had surely been hacked” in his disbelief at the decision.
Wait, what?!? 😳🫣🥺 Surely been Hacked!
— Kwesi Appiah (@kwes1appiah) December 28, 2022
In the growing chaos, co-chairman Jonhson joined interim manager Darren Byfield in the dugout for their fixture against Stevenage, in an effort to take “a more hands on approach” following Etherington’s departure.
The opponents’ stadium announcer later tweeted that Johnson had reportedly asked the fourth official how substitutions work, as Boro inflicted a 3-1 defeat.
A sixth manager of the season was appointed in January, in a remarkable period that would make even the owners of Chelsea and Watford look comparatively patient, as Scott Lindsey would leave promotion-chasing Swindon for the relegation battle at Crawley.
A difficult first couple of months was followed by an upturn in form in March, as the 51-year-old’s side recorded five victories and just three defeats in their final 13 matches, narrowly avoiding the dreaded drop on the final day.
After providing much-needed stability for the first time since Yems’ departure, it was imperative that the board backed Lindsey this summer. There was cautious optimism amongst fans following the release of the retained list, with Nick Tsaroulla among several key players remaining under contract. However, rather than building on that base of a squad, there has been a gradual stripping away of the core experienced members of the dressing room, leaving the Walsall-born man up a creek without a paddle.
If there is a similarly poor start this season to what the club endured in 2022/23, will the Englishman be next to walk out the revolving managerial door at the Broadfield Stadium, or will WAGMI finally resist making a knee-jerk reaction, and provide the former footballer with a platform to implement his improvements? I think the latter is improbable for an ownership that removed Lewis Young for “being out-shot 87-28 in his last five games.”
I’m not convinced that Crawley won’t go through multiple managers again this season, and who in their right mind would want to take up the role. It wouldn’t be the worth the risk for any up-and-coming coaches, who could derail all progress they have made in their careers, and they are unlikely to attract a promotion-chasing manager like Lindsey again.
Recruitment Policy
There has been an adoption of the so-called ‘moneyball’ technique since the takeover, which is a focus towards stats-based recruitment, as well as a drive to unearth the best young talent from non-league with high resale potential.
A policy which sounds good on paper but doesn’t necessarily always translate out on the grass. It does not account for the intangible characteristics, for example, leadership in the dressing room and a voice on the pitch. That necessary experience in key moments in matches over the course of the season, where someone might need to stand up and be counted. Crawley are going to go through a whole host of tough periods from now until May, and I’m not sure they’re going to have enough in their ranks to deal with it.
Of the incomings this window, five have never played in the English Football League, whilst over 2,500 games worth of experience in England’s professional leagues has been shown through the exit door, leaving just three players in the squad with 200+ Football League appearances. Those being Joel Lynch (430), Ben Gladwin (211) and Dom Telford (201). Forward Ashley Nadesan (207) has joined ambitious League Two side Gillingham, in yet a further blow to their survival hopes, and you can read an excellent analysis on how this will affect Crawley here. When Ade Adeyemo from eighth-tier Cray Valley Paper Mills is his direct replacement, you start to see why fans are so concerned.
It’s not a surprise to see that the fanbase has lost faith in the transfer policy and ownership, when they’ve seen so many bizarre decisions on that front in the last 12 months. From clauses which include a bonus for a striker tackling in the opposition half, or a defender receiving money for heading the ball, to scouting YouTubers in a charity football match, WAGMI have provided no evidence of competency for supporters to get behind.
On the public front at least, Scott Lindsey remains the sole outlier in defending the strategy, believing it is the best for the future of the club, and reiterates his stance that he is happy with his squad ahead of the opening day. Internally, I suspect he may be seething at some of the decisions. His frustrations were evident in the recent 9-1 defeat to Portsmouth in pre-season, as he told many members of the dressing room they were not good enough to play at this level.
Co-chairman Eben Smith said on the day he arrived at the club: “If Crawley Town Football Club doesn’t get promoted to League One by the end of our second season, which we think is about 50/50, then we under-performed.”
If the Red Devils are promoted to League One this season, Smith may need to turn his PlayStation off and return to reality. As for skipping League One, I sadly fear that Crawley will only be skipping into the National League. Their hopes and dreams of the Premier League are becoming a nightmare, and unless there is some divine intervention between now and the visit of Bradford on Saturday, what little the fans have left to cheer for will surely diminish over the course of this season.
The ones who make the most noise are not necessarily always correct or true reflection of what all fans think on squad, albeit maybe more so on performance of WAGMI as owners. And who is Dion Conway who joined just after Telford in summer? When Etherington walked out (not sacked) in December, Lindsey was appointed in January and brought Dion Conroy & Ben Gladwin in from Swindon who helped turn our season round. This summer while some questionable exits to LGE 2 rivals (Powell and Tilley mainly), some older ones moved on and some good additions (Orsi & Kelly in particular) & mgr is clearing players (who “don’t want to play for me”). We may well struggle in a strong league but won’t be alone in that, but mgr has had good pre season (he says), we have excellent new training ground and the new signings are good performers in National League which is not a weak league. So let’s wait and see and hope for better from owners or a sale to somebody with more of a clue.