As the Football League returned from its World Cup hiatus last month, Sportsmail ran a feature discussing the promotion and relegation fights in each division.
‘Unlike previous years, League Two does not have a basket-case club,’ it read. It’s time to revise that theory. Welcome to the band of basket cases, Crawley Town.
Some more company for fans of Macclesfield, Southend, Oldham, Bury and Scunthorpe. We know the script: negligent decisions by a charlatan owner and, in course, a team ill-equipped to stay in the Football League.
Crawley Town are an absolute basket-case and they look ill-equipped to stay in League Two
Owner Preston Johnson has made some questionable decisions during his turbulent tenure
‘It’s been a challenging first year,’ says owner Preston Johnson, founder of a cryptocurrency sports company, in a revealing chat with Sportsmail. ‘We got thrown into the deep end and have been trying to learn to swim on the fly ever since.’
Sticking with the swimming theme, Crawley are flapping against the tide without a life raft and are in grave danger of sinking. The West Sussex club sit 20th in League Two and their situation could soon become perilous despite an improvement under latest boss Scott Lindsey.
Johnson’s firm WAGMI United – an acronym for ‘We’re All Gonna Make It’ – took over 10 days before manager John Yems was suspended for racial slurs he made to players. Since then the club has seen four permanent managers and Johnson himself has been on the touchline.
Former West Ham and Stoke winger Matthew Etherington was one and lasted just 32 days, while Kevin Betsy, the highly rated former Arsenal coach, was sacked after a torrid start.
Lewis Young was sacked after ‘being out-shot 87-28 in his last five games,’ according to another WAGMI puppet, Eben Smith. Don’t worry, it doesn’t make sense to us either.
‘WAGMI have tried to do things differently,’ explains Reuben Watt, interim chair of the Crawley Town Supporters Alliance. ‘Such as allowing non-fungible token holders to vote on the starting XI, giving trials to YouTubers and Johnson sitting in the dugout during one of our games.
Under WAGMI United, the club has seen four permanent bosses, including Matty Etherington
‘They scouted for players at a celebrity match and, from the outset, the owners have said that the conventional ways of running a football club were not working and that change was needed. Crawley were losing £1 million a year which is not sustainable.