Football Season Guide

Crewe are coming from a dream-like season, which saw them easily staying away from trouble and also winning the Johnstone's Paint Trophy. Manager Steve Davis received a lot of praise for getting his side to play attractive football in a division in which many sides opt to go for a long ball route, while Crewe's philosophy was summed up in their final game of the previous season, which saw them beating Walsall with a lineup made solely from homegrown players. They have been rather quiet during the summer transfer window - misfit striker Nathan Ellington was released, while the departure of skipper Luke Murphy will certainly be a blow, but will hardly be a surprise, given that the talented midfielder was always expected to move up a division or two during the summer. Apart from Anthony Grant, who will be hoping to become a regular in midfield, all of the players that arrived have little to no League One experience, and we will have to wait and see whether the Crewe scouts have hit some more gems from the depths of the lower leagues. Davis should be expected to dip into the loan market at times in order to strengthen his squad, but he is not a manager that tends to rely on loan players too much, and he does not seem to have reasons to do so, as the core of last season's squad is still at the club. Given the fact that Crewe managers always work with budges that are below the standards of League One midtable clubs, Davis's job isn't exactly a high pressure one, and he will be expect to once again let his players have fun and express themselves on the pitch.