8 ways Lee Bell has opened doors for Crewe

Being Crewe Alexandra manager can be hugely rewarding in some ways, and rather challenging in others, often depending partly on the stage of the cycle, due to the distinct make-up of the club which is almost unique in modern football, in England at least.

Perhaps what’s most impressive about Lee Bell’s first 10 months in charge is that he’s got through the hard part successfully, with perhaps even a flicker of a flourish, dare we say, and has delivered an excellent start to 2023/24.

EFL pundit Gab Sutton discusses how he’s done it, and what might be in store in the future.

1. Steadying the Ship

After a reasonable start to 2022/23 under Alex Morris, with just two defeats in nine after a 2021/22 campaign in which the team lost 31 times in the league alone, Crewe’s form faltered.

A seven-game winless run, and no-shows at Tranmere and Barrow, combined with unCrewelike, turgid football, pointed to the risk of a plummet, especially with Morris publicly airing frustrations on occasion, even after the goalless draw at Carlisle.

Eyebrows were raised when Morris merely switched places with Bell in November, and some argued it highlighted the lack of imagination from the club, who have had internally appointed managers since Guðjón Þórðarson left in 2009.

Bell, though, began with three successive wins over Leyton Orient in the FA Cup, then Swindon and Colchester in the league, which was all it took for him to get the permanent job.

Fears the club might have acted too hastily ensued with three wins in the subsequent 19 league games, although that sequence included, oddly, a seven-game unbeaten run, before the football began to flow in April.

The Alex began it five points clear of safety with a game in hand, and once they won 2-0 at Doncaster, the players started to play with a little more freedom and were able to put an arduous recent past behind them.

All in all, 39 points from 30 games was a great way for Bell to steady the ship at Crewe, and ensure they got through that difficult rebuilding season unscathed, with the next generation a year on.

2. Promoting the Next Generation

As a club, Crewe are badly equipped to deal with success, and superbly equipped to respond to failure.

The club is so close to its academy that it’s become dependent on it, which is great when it’s super productive, less so during the lean periods.

As such, when the club has a couple of highly successful seasons, the talent gets sold, and for not as much money (relative to the economy of the time) as it had done in different eras for various reasons, some being within the club’s control and some outside it.

However, when the club falls on hard times, all they have to do is sit tight for a year or two, as the next generation gets closer to being ready to become established first team players.

As such, perhaps we’d be stretching it a bit by giving too much credit for featuring eight academy graduates in the match-day squad that won 4-1 at Forest Green last time out, when being brave with youth is such a key part of the club’s ethos anyway.

3. Taking Tabiner’s Talent

He had a choice, though, of whether to make Joel Tabiner the first name on the teamsheet in midfield this season, and that’s what he’s done – the 19-year-old has started all seven league games.

Possessing the thrust and drive of Callum Ainley, now at Grimsby, only a little more refined in certain areas, Tabiner is creative, both in open play and from set pieces.

Without being super speedy, Tabiner gets where he needs to be effectively, and without being brutishly strong, he holds his own, with both knacks underlining his smart football brain.

The Liverpool-born midfielder looked lightweight initially, out on the wing, but has come into his own since moving into a central role, especially with a strong work ethic and an exemplary attitude – quiet, but always turns up to training with a smile on his face.

Tabiner could do with perfecting his right foot, and adding goals to his game – though the two he has scored have been stunners - and improving his durability will help with that which will come with time.

Even in the last 6-8 months, Tabiner has gone from a boy to a man and is far more comfortable playing men’s football, going from being largely on the periphery of games to having a consistent impact.

Capable of shining as either an #8 or a #10, the 6’0” man’s eye for a pass is his stand-out quality, along with dead ball deliveries, but it’s also his range of decent second-tier attributes that appeals.

The finished article? Far from it. But if he can find those extra gears, Tabiner is a talent capable of rising up the leagues in future – and helping Crewe ascend one of them in the meantime as a main creative force.

4. Set Piece Strength

Tabiner’s quality deliveries have helped Crewe score five set piece goals – the most in League Two – slightly counter-intuitively, perhaps, for a team that’s also playing tidy football and developing young talent.

However, the physical presence of defenders Connor O’Riordan and Mickey Demetriou, plus striker Courtney Baker-Richardson, has made The Alex a major threat and Bell deserves credit for perfecting an aspect of play the club haven’t had for 15 years.

5. Smart Recruitment

Regarding Demetriou, the former Newport stalwart looks an excellent acquisition, even if there’s room for defensive improvement as a collective.

After signing from Crawley, Jack Powell has brought a certain volume of class, control and creativity, which has been sorely lacking in Crewe’s midfield for the last two seasons.

Elsewhere, Ryan Cooney is a sound addition who will bring quality from right-back, Shilow Travey has injected pace into the front-three, while the loan market has been used sensibly too.

Bell has been able to attract an England Under-20s goalkeeper from Liverpool to the Alexandra Stadium, and while Harvey Davies hasn’t had a blinding start, exactly, he has the potential to grow into the campaign.

Highly-rated attacking midfielder Joe White, at Newcastle, has also been added while the club has thought outside the box to bring in Aaron Rowe.

Signing a 22-year-old on loan from Huddersfield might not be quite as exciting as getting an international talent from Liverpool but, two years ago, Rowe was showing the potential to become a top half Championship player.

Quick, exciting and strong on either foot, Rowe hasn’t hit the heights he should have done due to long-term injuries, but if the Railwaymen get lucky on that score, they’ve got an asset that belongs well above this level.

Plus, Rowe’s versatility could be very helpful, considering The Alex aren’t blessed with great depth.

All in all, recruitment has been excellent, to say the club came into the summer with a limited budget.

Much credit must be given to Head of Recruitment Josh Kennard, formerly of Millwall, but Bell has also had to sell the club, and his vision, to prospective recruits, plus parent clubs in some cases.

The likes of Demetriou and Powell are good League Two players who would have had offers, probably more lucrative ones, elsewhere, so the fact they chose Crewe speaks volumes.

6. Re-establishing the Style

Crewe were turgid to watch at times last season, especially under Alex Morris.

It’s hard to blame Morris too much for that, because so much of 2022/23 was about solidifying, and making sure the hangover from last season didn’t extend into this one.

In 2021/22, Crewe tried to play the right way, but they did it with midfielders who either weren’t good enough, weren’t ready, didn’t have their heart in it, were very one-footed, or were over-the-hill, and looked like they were carrying a sack of bricks on their back every time they collected from defence.

The Alex needed to change that pattern, somehow, and Morris felt that meant going away from “The Crewe Way” for phase one, just to hit the reset button.

You could argue that served a purpose, but it also bred different problems because knocking it long to Dan Agyei or Courtney Baker-Richardson made the team one-dimensional, and they struggled to create chances from open play in 2022-23.

A lot of their goals, in fact, came from set pieces, or speculative efforts from outside the box, and while Agyei still somehow managed to score 16 league goals in those circumstances, and Baker-Richardson grabbed a creditable eight, it was just nine goals from their midfield that season, and a lot of those were long-distance efforts that didn’t have much to do with chance creation.

This season, Crewe are having a lot more of the play because of the Powell signing, and Tabiner being another year on in his development, and as a result they’re currently joint-second top goalscorers in League Two, as opposed to joint-fourth fewest, which they were when Bell first took charge.

7. Getting the Forwards Firing

If Crewe are to challenge for the Play-Offs this season, keeping Courtney Baker-Richardson and Chris Long fit will be essential.

Long managed to grab 10 league goals in the 2021/22 side, he grabbed three in 10 appearances (four starts) in 2022/23, so 13 in 42 across those two seasons – almost one in three, in sides devoid of creativity for different reasons.

That shows the former Burnley forward can create chances out of nothing through his individuality, but that in a team that plays more progressive football, he could be a real menace – and sure enough, it’s three goals in seven league games for the 28-year-old this season.

Baker-Richardson, meanwhile, has three goals in five league games (three starts), and has already earnt admirers from opposition fans as well as his own.

As well as having an eye for goal, the former Swansea front-man is also selfless, and has previously in his career been able to facilitate other strikers grabbing the headlines, like Dom Telford at Newport.

The catch is keeping them fit, as it’s not unheard of for either to struggle with injury, and while the squad is not completely devoid of alternative options, those two are unique in their value to the team.

Baker-Richardson, for example, brings the physicality to spearhead attacks, something Elliott Nevitt, although a persistent runner who’s already scored three league goals himself this season, doesn’t have.

Likewise, if Long gets ruled out, Crewe are asking Shilow Tracey, Aaron Rowe and/or Matus Holicek to find goalscoring form as inside forwards and neither are likely to deliver that consistently.

For now, though, Bell is getting the very most out of both.

8. The Journey

This has the makings of a fun season or two for Crewe: it comes without the scars and strains of 2022/23, and without the expectation that might be there by 2025/26.

Bell has led The Alex through a campaign of healing, and into a place where they can start to look to the medium-term future again with some optimism.

Connor O’Riordan and Tabiner are established first-team regulars, Holicek could be by next season, over which time fellow winger Callum Agius, attacking midfielder Owen Lunt, and versatile full-back Zak Kempster-Down will also be phased into the fold.

It’s plausible that by 2025/26, Crewe will have a starting XI of 8-9 homegrown prospects, all of whom have developed and grown together and are ready to attack the league – and who better to take them on that journey?