Target 3000? Crewe should concentrate on Target Midtable

Crewe have had a pre-season campaign to get over 3,000 season tickets for this upcoming season, however, I think they should be concentrating more on finishing in a safe midtable position given their awful home record last season, a manager who saw them finish lower than when he took over, and a distinctively average striker force.

I'm not the type of who believes that time with a specific manager guarantees on the field success. Yes, it has worked in very rare examples such as Sir Alex Ferguson at Man Utd, but that's about the only example I can think of.

Whenever a manager is sacked after only a season or two (or even less), people always argue that you'll never have success unless you have stability and often point to managers such as Ferguson and Crewe's Gradi as an example of this. Gradi has been manager of Crewe on three occasions, from 1983 to 2007, 2008 for a month and most of the 2009/10 season. During his time as manager, Crewe were promoted four times and relegated three times. The main success of Crewe came in the 90s when they finished in the top six of two divisions for six seasons in a row. However, other seasons weren't as kind to Gradi.

Other than those six seasons, as well as the two promotion seasons of 1988/89 and 2002/3 seasons, Gradi didn't guide Crewe and any other single digit position finishes. Infact, Gradi's record other than those seasons saw a tenth place, one eleventh, two twelfth, one thirteenth, one fourteenth, one sixteenth, two seventeenths, three eighteenths, a nineteenth, a twentieth, a twenty-first and the four 22^nds that saw them relegated.

Gradi's main success came off of the pitch with the rejuvenation of the youth system at Gresty Road. Names that came out of the Gresty Road development programme were David Platt, Rob Jones, Geoff Thomas, Danny Murphy, Dean Ashton and Neil Lennon, with Platt going on to captain England and win the Premiership with Arsenal.  There's no arguing that off the pitch Gradi did a great job, but on the pitch he has been far from special in terms of results as a whole.

Last season was a tough year for Crewe. They had come into the division from League One having looked safe with a few weeks to go. It started reasonably well with 3 wins from their first four League games, but six defeats in seven games in all competitions meant that Gudjon Thordarson was relieved of his duties with the club laying 14^th in the League.

Results slightly improved but remained largely inconsistent. The club were rarely winning and only recorded five wins before Christmas after Thordarson left and whilst they only recorded back to back victories twice after Gradi took over, they had five separate spells of failing to win for three or more games, including ending their season with only three wins in their final fifteen games.

Some Crewe fans fans blamed Thordarson for the finishing position of last season, however, Crewe were higher when he left than the position they finished in. They ended the season in 18^th position with no team other than Darlington losing as many at home, and only the bottom three failed to win fewer home games than the Alex.

Despite all of the above, there has been a lot of talk coming out of Crewe about pushing for promotion during the season, mainly in the media. I am far from convinced that Crewe are even good enough for the top half, let alone a push for promotion. Then again, it might all just be part of their Target 3000 campaign, the ambition to get 3,000 season ticket holders to sign up before the beginning of the season. This campaign includes a rather unusual banner on their official website of one of their players finding his head super-imposed on the body of Gerard Butler in the movie 300, whilst holding a shield with the Crewe Alexandra.

Steven Schumacher, James Bailey, John Brayford and Adam Legzdins have left the club, whereas David Artell, Adam Dugdale, Danny Blanchett and Lee Bell have joined the club. However, the club have kept hold both Calvin Zola and Clayton Donaldson, two semi-prolific strikers at this level.

Donaldson scored thirteen last season and they gained the club thirteen points. Zola scored fifteen League goals last term, although his goals only won seven points for his club last season. With a total of 28 goals between them, it was far from one of the most prolific partnerships last season, but should still be enough to see Crewe safely finish midtable.

I don't think Crewe have much of a chance of finishing anywhere near the promotion places. The facts speak for themselves. Gradi took over last season and guided them to a position lower than that of when he took over, their striking combination is very average in terms of goals scored between them and their poor home record speaks for itself. At the moment they are nothing more than a midtable club that are trying to be ambitious, not realistic.