Football Season Guide

Crewe's last two seasons have very much followed an identical pattern, as the Alex were abysmal in the first halves of their campaign and looked certain to go down, only to gradually improve in the second half of the campaign and go on to survive in the division. Steve Davis has received a lot of praise for performing magic with limited funds, and the Alex boss will have to perform his magic once again if the Alex are to stay up, as Crewe are coming from another summer that saw them lose a lot of important players without properly replacing them. The departure of vice-captain Anthony Grant is expected to be the biggest blow, while the departure of skipper Matt Tootle also represents a blow, although not as big as Grant's due to the simple fact that Tootle has missed the majority of the previous season. Three more regular players have left in the likes of Ryan Colclough, Liam Nolan and Billy Waters, while Crewe have signed only two outfield players, with David Fox being the only one out of the two that has real experience of playing at League One level. All in all, Crewe have once again been weakened in the summer transfer window, and whether or not they will stay up will heavily depend on the quality of signings that they will manage to sign on loan. Their chances of staying up without utilizing the loan market seem to be close to zero.