Respect For The Fans

With another less than satisfactory campaign in League One football over, Crewe fans are still reeling from a disgrace of a performance on the last day where despite our fate being in our own hands as we only needed a draw, other results had to conspire to save us from relegation.

Whilst the players brought their complete lack of disregard and respect to the club on Saturday, it would have been more apt if there were wearing sunglasses and flip-flops as the majority already seemed to think their holidays had begun prematurely. The performance, in a game which could have seen the club lose not only its League One status but over £250,000 if you believe the Cheltenham chairman’s estimation in today’s press, was abysmal and was an embarrassment to the players but moreover the fans.

Respect for the fans at Crewe is something that has declined dramatically over the last ten years and I would go as far to say in a list of the club’s priorities the supporters would be at the bottom. Any requests or recommendations from the supporters to the club are scoffed at and usually dismissed out of hand. A large number of supporters tried to bombard the club before Saturday’s final home game in an attempt to convince them to lower prices to get in a bumper crowd for such an important match. The club responded by saying any such offers weren’t even worth considering or financially viable with a, ‘why would we want to do that’ attitude. Well they were right in one sense because in hindsight I wouldn’t have wanted new or old supporters back at the club to watch that drivel on Saturday because it was simply embarrassing and would only drive them away and discourage them from returning.

When the fans suggest ideas for the club though, they’re not trying to undermine the club’s integrity as a business but they are trying to help the club move forward and give something back. Most suggestions are made on the back of seeing other clubs try fresh ideas and I see it as jealously from the Crewe fans in envy of other clubs. I’ve been jealous on many offers than have gone on in the last couple of weeks, with two just up the road, cheaper season tickets depending on 5,000 pledging at the Vale and cheap season tickets at Stoke to watch Premiership football.

When was the last time Crewe did anything that was in the fans interests to thank them for their support or to encourage new fan membership?

When did the club last:

– Offer decent rewards to long suffering season ticket holders?

– Lower prices significantly to encourage new support or to get bigger crowds?

– Say sorry to the fans with real sincerity after abject home and particularly away performances?

– Say that ‘that was for the fans’ with emphasis after convincing performances in the post match media?

– Give you as a fan anything within the recent past that made you think, ‘You know what, the club has given me a really good deal there’ or ‘That’s a nice touch by the club to reward supporters’?

Clubs all over the land seem to appeasing supporters and although yes we see the good deals offered by clubs publicised more than the rip offs, but Crewe rarely give the supporters anything to shout about, on and off the pitch.

I’m not saying the club don’t offer decent value for money on season tickets, as they do, especially for OAPS and students. It’s the general attitude towards the fans and their incessant lack of disrespect towards them with the same old patronising talk every season that’s becoming infuriating and seeing crowds dwindle week after week.

Surely it’s about time on the back of Crewe’s worst season in many years that the club sat up and started telling the fans what they want to hear in terms of ambition and honesty, rather than boring clichés and well rehearsed fob offs and excuses that we are all becoming fed up of.

We all love the club and want it to move forward but sometimes supporting Crewe is enraging and I’m not sure how much the fans will take of the same old excuses at the end of each disappointing season.