Crewe Alexandra Challenge

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Bailes

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This will be my 1st story on FM Base and on the Poll I created you decided that I should be Crewe Alexandra. I was very pleased with this as Crewe are the team I have supported since I was old enough to know what football was.

One of suggestions given to me in the comments was to only sign young players and as many of you may know, Crewe have one of the best academies in England and have produced players such as: Dean Ashton, Luke Varney, David Platt, Robbie Savage, David Vaughan and the latest to depart being Nick Powell to Manchester United. Because of this I have decided to set myself the challenge of only signing players under the age of 23.

Thank you for reading and I hope at least some people will follow my progress. Please comment if any improvements or particular things I can add to the series...​
 
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Pre Season

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Pre Season Results


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Crewe 3-0 Crewe Reserves (O.G, Moore, Leich-Smith)
Crewe 0-0 Fleetwood Town
Crewe 0-0 York City
Crewe 4-2 Brackley Town (Pogba, West, Tootle, Murphy)
Crewe 3-1 Hibernian (Clayton X2, Pogba)
Crewe 1-1 Leek Town (Pogba)


Pre Season Signings


Danny Redmond - 50k from Wigan

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Rhys Taylor - Free

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Jake Bidwell - 3 month loan from Everton

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Eddie Nolan - Free (he was 23 when i first bidded for him)

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August

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Crewe 2-1 Huddersfield AET (Leich-Smith, Moore) - Capital One Cup
Crewe 1-0 Bury (West)
Crewe 0-0 Crawley
Crewe 1-2 Hartlepool (West)
Crewe 1-5 Stoke (Moore) - Capital One Cup
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I am very pleased with my start to the season, I am 11th in the league and managed to get to the 2nd round of the cup. Despite this I am concerned by the fact I have had 3 red cards already and my 5-1 loss to local rivals stoke, even if expected, was hard to watch. I believe that we can continue to improve as to team is extremely youthful and the average age is only 23! I am pleased with how my signings have blended in to the squad and from what I have seen so far I don't see why I can't get promoted!
 
Your deals are quite good for what one can find at this level.

Promotion is achievable through play offs in the first season, I think. The league is very tight, so the problem is to get enough consistency with the results and prevent bad runs from happening.
 
September results


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Crewe 0-5 Bournemouth
Crewe 0-0 Tranmere (0-2 penalties) - Johnstone's Paint Trophy
Crewe 2-1 Yeovil (Leitch-Smith x2)
Crewe 3-1 Carlisle (West, Leitch-Smith, Moore)
Crewe 3-1 Oldham (Robertson, Leitch-Smith, Dugdale)
Crewe 1-1 Portsmouth (Leitch-Smith)
Crewe 0-1 Notts County

I was very unhappy with my start to September. A 5-0 loss at home to Bournemouth was the last thing I expected and in the JPT my side missed all 4 penalties in the shoot out! After that though, my form picked up and I went on a 4 game unbeaten run getting me as high as 6th. This was largely thanks to AJ Leitch-Smith who is on fire at the moment and I hope he can continue. I end September in 12th position in the league but only 3 points off the play-offs with a game in hand....
 
IF you can, sign Johan Pohjanpalo. Would be another great youth prospect along side clayton
 
October Results

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Crewe 2-3 Colchester (Robertson, Murphy)
Crewe 4-1 Walsall (Leitch-Smith x2, Osman, Pogba)
Crewe 0-2 Leyton Orient
Crewe 0-3 Scunthorpe
Crewe 2-0 Preston (Robertson, Mellor)


Not the best of months but the 2 wins I had were solid. Leitch-Smith is injured and is now out for around 2 weeks which is a massive blow to the team as so far he is the top scorer. I am also disappointed in Max Clayton as he is rated as the teams best player and is yet to score. I end this month in 13th place, 6 points from the play offs and 5 points above relegation and am still confident that we can get promotion to the championship!

My next match is a big local derby at home to Port Vale in the FA cup 1st round and hopefully a big win can increase the confidence levels and hopefully we can then push on up the league. After this game, Jake Bidwell's loan sadly comes to an end, but I have been successful in signing him on a 3 year permanent contract from Everton for 190k and will arrive at the club in the January transfer window...


 
Good luck mate :)

I'm in my 3rd year as Crewe, got promoted by winning the league in the 2nd season. The first season, it's definitely possible to get into the playoffs if you can avoid a bad run! I had a 13 game winless streak in Nov-Dec which just killed me off, I ended up only missing out by 4 or 5 points still...so you can definitely do it!

I'll keep an eye on your story with interest!
 
be patient with clayton, he's only a youngster.. you'd be better having an experienced striker as first choice and blooding clayton in through sub appearances until he hits some form.. good story though!
 
Murphy is absolutely quality, i have a Crewe save and he is quality, same with Clayton but he can be inconsistent
 
November Results


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Crewe 1-1 Port Vale - FA Cup 1st Round (Clayton)
Crewe 0-0 Sheffield United
Crewe 1-1 Coventry (Pogba)
Crewe 0-1 Port Vale - FA Cup 1st Round Replay
Crewe 0-1 MK Dons
Crewe 3-0 Doncaster (Leitch-Smith x2, Waters)
Crewe 1-1 Brentford (Moore)


Although this may look like a terrible month, their were alot of positives to take out of the games. I was very disappointed to be knocked out in the 1st round of the FA cup especially by my rivals! I was extremely please with my draws with Coventry and Sheffield United as these are both top teams battling for automatic promotion and these 2 games showed me that on their day my team can match the top teams in the division. I then got absolutely battered by MK dons. but then very unexpectedly smashed Doncaster 3-0 away and then battered Brentford having 68% possession but conceding an 86th minute equalizer.

Overall I am disappointed with the results this month but am very pleased with the performances and if we play like we did against Coventry, sheff Utd, Doncaster and Brentford against the lower teams we have a very high chance of winning and therefore moving up the table.

As it stand we are down in 17th place but for some reason have 3 games in hand on alot of the teams above us.

Also does anyone know what position is best for Max Clayton? Striker or Attacking mid left or right?
 
I've played very little in the right wing, where he seemed to be worse. I use him almost indistinctly in left wing or striker. He's done well in both positions for me; but due to his good passing and that he looks a bit wasteful when in striker I prefer him in the left wing as inside forward. There's also that I have a couple of good strikers that take preference due to being decent in the air, not just in pace.
 
With Clayton, I found that he didn't score enough to play as a lone striker in a 4-5-1, 4-3-3 or something similar. But I played him as a deep lying forward as part of a front 2 (in a 4-4-2) and he did well there - he's good to chip in with a decent amount of goals, but sets up plenty as well. In the end I got an offer of 3.5mil from Cardiff for him, so I took that. It was our first year in the Championship, so that money went a long way!
 
December Result

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Crewe 0-1 Stevenage
Crewe 1-1 Bury (Leitch-Smith)
Crewe 1-0 Tranmere (Nolan)
Crewe 2-2 Crawley (Clayton, Mellor)
Crewe 0-1 Shrewsbury
Crewe 0-1 Hartlepool
Crewe 0-3 Yeovil
Crewe 1-6 Brentford (Pogba)


WOW! I don't understand what has just happened! It was all going so well and then suddenly we fell apart. We played terribly against Crawley but managed to sneak an injury time equalizer but since then its got worse and worse. Hopefully a few new signings will liven up the team for the new year but promotion is definatly out of reach now and my aim is to avoid the drop.

On the opening day of the transfer Window I have signed 2 players:

I've decided to permanently sign Jake Bidwell who I previously had on loan as he is allot better than Matt Tootle and also my back up left back Gregor Robertson is out for 2 months with fractured ribs. I also signed 19 year old Steven Hetherington from Motherwell as, although I have a few decent centre mids already, I felt he was a good young player and at 14k it wasn't too much of a risk signing him.


Steven Hetherington - 14k from Motherwell

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Jake Bidwell - 190k from Everton

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