Reaction: Steve Davis Sacked

Well, today we heard news that I think many an Alex fan wanted to hear. Steve Davis has been sacked by the club and replaced my Academy Operations boss Dave Artell.

While it’s been coming, and the club has been in genuine decline over the last few years, I was still shocked to see the announcement on Twitter earlier.

Why was I shocked? Was it because I felt that Steve should have been kept in the job? No. It’s because the board had stayed so faithful to Davis and it seemed like they’d never part company.

I know many of you have been calling for his head for quite a while now and that’s very understandable: two last day survivals, one relegation and a poor first half of the season don’t breed confidence among fans.

However, my real question is: is this Davis’ fault? Could he have done anymore?

Have a look at Twitter and see what former ‘keeper, Steve Phillips had to say on the news when we (@VitalCrewe) asked him. I think it’s pretty interesting.

I am sympathetic with the board’s adamance to stick to their model: it’s what has seen some great times for the club and has brought through some great players.

Steve Davis was doing very well before all these players had to leave, and as we all know he was linked with the Wolves job way back when.

However, an Ashley Westwood, Nick Powell, Luke Murphy and Max Clayton later, we’ve plummeted.

Did Steve come up with the model? No. Is it all Steve’s fault? No. Could Steve have done better though? Of course he could have, and his last few years were abysmal. It was terrible.

John Bowler has admitted, in public, the drawbacks of the club’s model, and one does have to wonder whether Dave Artell will be able to turn the club’s fortunes around.

It’ll be tricky, because it’s not as if he’s in a position to ‘do an Allardyce at Sunderland’ and spend millions on revamping the squad. There’s a rigid structure in place of which he’ll have to get the best out.

There will of course be more analysis here on Vital Crewe. I just thought I’d share these thoughts for now, and I’d be interested to hear what you have to say in the comments or on Twitter.