Crewe Alexandra have announced that the club have parted ways with manager David Artell with immediate effect following the club’s relegation back to League 2 following Saturday’s defeat at Doncaster Rovers.
Artell, a former captain of the club between 2010 and 2012 which included a League 2 play-off final victory in his final game as a player, became Academy Operations Manager at the Alex in the summer of 2014 and took over as first-team manager from the previous manager Steve Davis in January 2017.
He would manage 274 games for the club, winning 100, drawing 51 and losing 123 but he had lost 15 of the last 16 games in charge.
What does this mean going forward?
Artell’s assistant manager Alex Morris and Under-23s manager Lee Bell will take control of first-team affairs until the end of the season with a permanent manager to be named after the end of the season.
Where we go beyond that will be interesting – these 4 games are a chance for the Morris/Bell duo to make their own mark on the team and give themselves a chance to manage the club next season or whether the club go for an external appointment (someone who knows the club or someone who’s outside ‘the Crewe bubble’).
