Sunday, April 10, 2011

Crawley go up but their reputation has never been so low.

Normally, when a non-league side wins promotion to the Football League, a lot of people will be pleased for them. Not in the case of Crawley Town, however.

The Red Devils secured their place in the League's 92 clubs, yesterday, for the first time in their history and the West Sussex club will have undoubtedly partied the night away in celebration. Many fans of other clubs, however, may well be wishing that their hangovers are lengthy and painful ones.



Not that many people begrudge any long serving fans their shot at the big-time; the negative reaction - to their otherwise admirable season - will be directed at the way the club have operated and one man in particular: Steve Evans.

Before we get to Evans, though, lets look at the main reason for Crawley's wonder season: money.

The green stuff is painfully sparse in the lower echelons of both the Football League and, especially, the non-league system. Clubs are going bust left, right and centre; either through their own misadventure, dodgy owners or just plain lack of revenue. Not that you'd guess this at the Broadfield Stadium.

The newly-crowned Blue Square Bet Premier champions averaged gates barely over 1000 before this season yet still managed to throw more cash around than most League 1 and 2 clubs, thanks to their mystery backers.

The Red Devils threw around sums around and beyond the region of £100k for players with alarming regularity and seemingly gay abandon.

Is a striker who, two seasons ago, couldn't get a look-in in a mid-table Conference side and only had one-and-a-half good seasons under his belt worth £275k? Crawley apparently thought so when they signed Richard Brodie from fellow BSBP side York City.

Two-hundred-and-seventy-five THOUSAND pounds for a transfer between two NON-LEAGUE clubs. Just think about that, for a minute. Think how many Football League clubs can make transfer dealings of that size, let alone Crawley's non-league counterparts.

No-one else had a hope in hell when they could be blown out of the water so easily. They were Rosie and Jim's Ragdoll boat to Crawley's Bismark.

When you look at it like this, Crawley's promotion isn't well earned. It's expected. It's been bought. Bought by people whose identity still remains unclear.

Of course, when you think of money, you think of crooks.

Totally unrelated to the previous statement, it's about time we got back to Steve Evans.



His supporters - of which there are probably about 5 - will tell you that he is one of the game's 'characters'. What they won't tell you, however, is that the word 'character', when used in relation to a football personality, is usually interchangeable with the phrase 'gobby reprobate'.

In  this case, then, Evans is, indeed, one of the biggest 'characters' in football.

The brash Scotsman is never afraid to sound off and is, admittedly, a talented manager. He is always active on his touchline and his teams do know how to get results. He is also more than adept at being able to rub people up the wrong way.

Among the hoards of people he has managed to rile are the bods at HM Revenue and Customs. In 2006 Evans was convicted for being part of a £245k tax fraud, at former club Boston United; an episode that ended up seeing Boston plummet from League 2, down through the upper-tiers of non-league.

He was hit with a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years for the aforementioned fraud. Given this conviction, then, it is amazing that Evans was allowed to be near a position of power in a football club again, let alone one with as much loose change and as secretive owners as Crawley Town.

So, yes, it is wonderful that Crawley's die-hard fans have had such a wonderful season, but don't expect too many letters of congratulations. As a few Scousers once sang: money can't buy you love.

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