Crewe Alex: The Future

After Crewe Alexandra parted company with ex-manager Steve Davis a new boss, ex-captain, Dave Artell was announced as manager. In the days to follow, under 23’s manager and ex-Crewe player, Kenny Lunt was announced as his assistant. This article will discuss if I think the appointments are good ones and what I believe the future, under Artell and Lunt, will hold.

Artell captained The Railwaymen to a promotion from league two, under his predecessor Steve Davis. The Gibraltan man has accumulated seven international caps and played against world champions Germany, over the course of his career. He also played 72 matches for Crewe between 2010 and 2012, his very last being at Wembley and winning promotion – before the then skipper was released two weeks after that memorable day. He also won two back-to-back promotions with boyhood club Rotherham United. A win at Wembley as captain, a total of three career promotions and rubbing shoulders with world champions certainly isn’t a bad career. Artell himself admitted this during an interview with the official club website (source for quotes):

“I had time to reflect over the weekend and it is probably the first time I`ve been able to do that. I was a local lad from a council estate in Rotherham. I got to play for my hometown club and won two promotions in two seasons and played in the Championship.’

He added: “I then went on to play International football and faced the World Champions, so that isn`t a bad playing career. Many would have taken that as a playing career and now I want to be successful in my management career.”

In numerous articles previously, I have repeatedly mentioned how I believe one thing Davis’ players lacked was passion. An anti-Davis banner, which read ‘No Fight, No Passion, No Hope, Davis Out’ perfectly summarises my thoughts. However looking to the future, I have no worries that passion will be an issue. Out of all the players I’ve seen at Gresty Road in the last seven/eight years, Dave Artell is definitely the most passionate. Hopefully, that passion for football has stayed with Dave, and can rub off onto the players in The Alex dressing room. The players have lacked confidence recently, but with a fresh face and new ideas, I believe that confidence can be restored.

Another big factor to possible future success under Dave Artell is, newly appointed assistant manager, Kenny Lunt. Not many people know the club better than Lunt, look no further than his career total 390 appearances for the club as proof of that. He also spent time coaching the U18’s here, so I hope he will have learnt the tricks of the trade there. It is important to the board and many Alex supporters, the coaching staff understand how the club runs and that they know and respect the philosophy of the club. With 390 appearances and time as a coach, I’d hazard a guess as to saying Lunt knows and values what he needs to. Artell also shared his thoughts on the philosophy, making it clear he knew and respected it in an interview.

As well as having a love for the club, Kenny Lunt is also a great coach with a great depth of football knowledge. Artell was clean to heap praise on his assistant, and other staff at the club.
“I will then bleed knowledge from those working with me. They have great knowledge about the game. Kenny (Lunt) and (Alex Morris) are fantastic coaches. It is the same with James (Collins). They are all tactically astute and I want to lean on Neil Baker like a lamppost. When Dario is back in the building, then I would like the opportunity to tap into his knowledge as well.

“One of my great strengths is that I’m like a magpie. I like to absorb knowledge and use it. Between us all there is enough here to get it right.

– source official club website.

I would like to wish Dave and Kenny only the best of luck for their future in the role of manager and assistant. I would like the fans that were ‘stay away’ ones, to come back and support the boys and also fans who stayed to keep up the excellent support.