Other Games - 2010/11 Season

[Dave Cooper please]

Crawley's manager is the bloke who cheated Boston into the league by fiddling their taxes. Allegedly.

No "allegedly" about it, he was convicted of it:

Corrupt, cheating ******

[Dave Cooper please]

Dave Cooper is the go-to man on this. Basically they have spent more on players than most league clubs and consider themselves better than they are. They were cocky and disrespectful at Torquay, where they bullied and belittled everyone from the ground staff upwards. They want to give it the big 'un but they want to be the wide eyed scrappy underdogs too. Fuck them.

You would think a club (and it's supporters) would be a little bit humble considering they were passing the buckets around thier ground when they were on the brink of bankruptcy a couple of years ago, but oh no, not this odious bunch. It will be an absolute pleasure to see them in the Combined Counties League in a few years time when the money dries up.
The thing is, nobody actually seems to know who is bankrolling them! Their owner, Bruce Winfield, has only ever said that it is "friends and acquantainces" who have become passive shareholders. There is believed to be Arab involvement somewhere I think. All very strange.

[Brend'Watkins]

Aren't they regarded as the Man City of the Non League?  That's the most damning thing I've heard about them this weekend. 

[Small Rodent]

Didn't Julian Joachim end up playing for Boston Utd? Think it's where he went to school too.

There's an obscure book about their ground somewhere. It was attached to a nightclub called the Gliderdrome and had all manner of band splay there in the 60s..Hendrix etc.

[Somniloquism]

With any other non league club, a cup tie against Man Utd at Old Trafford can keep them going for a few years. Just a shame that it's Crawley there.

[Dave Cooper please]

With any other non league club, a cup tie against Man Utd at Old Trafford can keep them going for a few years. Just a shame that it's Crawley there.

The money from playing Man Utd saved Exeter from bankruptcy and got Burton Albion into the league.

[Dave]

Their owner, Bruce Winfield, has only ever said that it is "friends and acquantainces" who have become passive shareholders. There is believed to be Arab involvement somewhere I think. All very strange.

Guardian podcast said that there are three financiers from Hong Kong who keep putting in lump sums of cash every now and again.

They also gave the statistic that they spent more more on players last season than every club in the league above them combined.

[Dave Cooper please]

The amount spent is correct, they also have a wage bill that dwarfs a lot of League One clubs and probably a couple in The Championship.

Not sure who the pasive shareholders are, The Guardian may be correct although I was told they were from the Middle East, who knows, the owner ain't saying.

[Nev]

The media have their fingers in their ears and are humming when it comes to the truth about Crawley, it destroys their cliche driven FA Cup coverage.

I prefer the truth, it makes a refreshing story. And yes, I'm for Newton Heath in this one. (shudder).

[The Situation]

How do they spend so much money on player's when they're in the non-league? Are players joining them from League 2 and League 1?

A non-league team surely can't be spending upwards of £1M on a player?

[b23]

Im looking forward to an away win for Wigan tonight.

[Dave Cooper please]

How do they spend so much money on player's when they're in the non-league?

By having unknown benefactors (possibly from Hong Kong, possibly from the Middle East, no one knows) pumping money into the club.
When the new owner took over he paid off a huge amount of debt, all well and good, then he launched "Project Promotion" which was a no-holds barred attempt at getting into the Football League at any cost, and any costs would be covered by this mysterious consortium from fuck knows where.
They haven't spent anywhere near £1m on one transfer, but then they haven't needed to. Generally non-league players sign one year contracts, Crawley just offered to double (or more) the wages of every good non-league player so they would sign, and if a player they wanted was still in contract there are few clubs in non-league or even League 2 that can afford to turn down £100,000+.

[spangley1812]

Sunderland 1 Chelsea 0............Bardsley

[Somniloquism]

I'm expecting to hear "Who needs Darren Bent when we have Phil Bardsley?" from the Stadium of Light.

[CheeriOneill]

Wiemann 1-0 Watford - Excellent!!