The Crewe myth?

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

Crewe: the Melton Constable of the North West.

Famous as an academy of football. Play the game the right way. On their day look like Brazil. A player production line, stop....

Mark Rivers from Crewe for half a million, back to Crewe for nothing. Didn''t like training but could run like **** off a stick. Could breeze past defenders but was worse than Huckerby when it came to team play. Eventually,  just sort of petered out and as he did so the team hit a hot promotion spell within which he failed to re-emerge.

Dean Ashton from Crewe for 3M+. Don''t know about training but stood next to Iwan on a golf day photo looked older and fatter than our former hero. Can turn and open up play brilliantly, can hit them in from all angles or can''t smack a wildebeasts glutes with a canoe paddle. Came in on a hot streak which he maintained then wilted under the expectation following promotion.

Crewe players look great playing for Crewe, in the Crewe system and under the Crewe expectation level but Academy of football and supplier to the higher leagues, my a*se!

I know Crewe have produced some top players but they are no production line and founder outside of their own system.

Ashton is another one. Apparently other players are in awe of him on the playing ground but then again I can snowboard at speed on a playstation.

If the right offer comes in, offload him, balance the finances and the team and move on.

Deano can go and be introverted somewhere else.

[ZLF 271]

Doh!

No coincidence that both are footballers rather than work horses and worthy has an ability to ruin any players ability then?

 

OTBC

[gazzathegreat 0]

Rudolph, as Zipper says, both Rivers and Ashton were taught to play football.  Worthy got them and then  decided to undo all that good work and turn them into his usual boring, dull utility players, sucking every bit of creativity out of them.  Now Ashton is a mere shadow of himself and the only true City player with any natural creativitiy left, McVeigh, is rarely played and probably couldn''t do much given the current climate. 

 

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

What I was asking Zip was how many Crewe ''academy'' players have gone on and hit the heights. Why hasn''t Rivers gone on and played football at another club?

I am also suggesting that Ashton may not be as good as everyone suggests outside of a system which suits him. Why didn''t Liverpool or another Prem club come in for him? He is a good player and I hope he goes on to do well but he is lacking in too many areas for me and any bid which shows Norwich a 1M+ profit after payments to Crewe is a very good deal IMO.

I wonder too what is going on in Ashtons head. Is he a very nice young man or just a loner lacking in character?

When I put the rumour site suggestions on the board there were any number of rated young players from lower league clubs. I looked into them at the time and they appeared to be promising up and coming players. Dean Ashton is good but he is no Shearer. A lesser striker in a more cohesive balanced unit would be more effective.

If Ashton''s sale provides options to invest then it is good buisiness, especially, once again, for Dario Gradi.

[still holding out for new heroes 0]

heres a few

David Platt,

Danny Murphy

Geoff Thomas

Robbie Savage

Neil Lennon

Ashley Ward

Rob Jones

Craig Hignett

a few more international caps there than Drewe Broughton and Adrian Coote...

 

[Crickmore Powell 0]

"Dean Ashton is good but he is no Shearer" quoth Rudolph Hucker. No indeed he is not Rudolph, Ash just hasn''t got that routine elbow into opponent''s chops maneouvre at all has he? Of course he''s no Shearer, and big hurray and a huge On The Ball Dean for that, it''s one of the reasons he''s a priceless City asset. I like Shearer roughly as much as Mariner btw. Nuff said?

Selling Francis for a reasonable profit when he clearly didn''t want to stay (and frankly after the Fulham no-show just as well) was good business, and selling Greeny might be too, not that I want him to go, but selling Dean would be suicidally stupid. And who knows maybe going to Gresty Road may even jolt him out of his no-goals run, hell there may even be a hint of supply for him from the players behind him for once, he got one last time City played there after all. Ah yes, routine away win to say goodbye as champions after 9 long years exile, three goals, #s 95 and 96 for Iwan, Flem scoring, doesn''t that all seem like an incredibly long time ago for a game that was barely 18 months back?

[3pmkickoff 0]

As I''ve said before, a striker is only as good as the service he recieves. Ashton is the best forward player we''ve had since Sutton, even Owen had a barren spell. Saying that Crewe only produce players that do nothing elsewhere is pretty blinkered when you look at some of the players that have come from there.

[Salopian 1]

There is probably some truth in your argument, - he was more suited to

their system of play. But it has also to be said that we have not

learned how to use him. When he left Crewe their website showed many of

the goals he had scored. Very few, if any, were from long "hoofs" which

reached him with his back to goal and at shoulder height or higher.

Many of the goals he scored were from defence splitting passes along

the ground, and quite a number of these passes reached him when he was

not far into the opponents half. While he may not have blistering pace,

by running into gaps he was able to work up steam and was very

difficult to dislodge from the ball. I suggest that he has had very

little of this service at Norwich this season. He has had to forage for

the ball, sometimes out wide, and long balls take so long to reach him

that big defenders are in place when they arrive. We lack players who

are able to spot gaps into which he can run. It may have happened a few

times, but this is one of his strengths and it has not happened enough!

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

I have made the arguement myself that Norwich are failing to play to Ashtons strengths and he cannot hold the ball up unless it is played to his feet.

Equally, a player has to adapt and develop his game and Ashton is failing to do this.

The sucessfull Crewe originated players have gone on and done this, others have not, which is Ashton?

You could build a team around Ashton but this is not happening here, there does not now appear to be the time or funds to do so. Deano is therefore an asset which needs to be realised for the good of the club.

Everyone in football respects Gradi''s methods which have kept a small club overacheiving. He is bound to unearth the odd top player (as Norwich have done and latterly squandered through their debts Ipswich have done numerous times) but overall there is a flattery to deceive here.

It will be interesting to see how the Crewe ''artisans'' deal with our underacheivers this weekend. I feel Norwich are still a good side when they pass the ball, something they persistently refuse to do these days. Will they try and play football against Crewe or try to stifle Crewe?

If there is anything to learn from Crewe it is how to give opportunities to your own developed players; and this is an area of great frustration to me and which makes me question what exactly we are getting out of Academy status.

[breaker 0]

Ashton is only just 22 and this is his first really difficult/barren spell. All young players have a time like this (check out Henry''s & Bergkamp''s formative years) and they either come back better than ever or lose confidence & splip back - we need to help Dean come back stronger by believing in him.

By the way, you want a production line? What about West Ham - Glen Johnsn, Rio Ferdinand, Anton Ferdinand, Jermain Defoe, Michael Carrack, Matthew Etherington, Frank Lampard, etc

Or even Chelsea, thers''s erm......, and thingummy, no ................................er, maybe not