I can be one of the best 10s in Europe - Crowley
In the summer of 2013, Dan Crowley was signed by Arsenal on the personal recommendation of Arsene Wenger. Wenger had watched a young Crowley at Aston Villa and so impressed was the Frenchman that he ensured the move happened.
Owing to Crowley’s tender years, Arsenal paid Villa just £209,000 to prise him away from Villa Park under the Premier League’s Elite Performance Plan, a fee which didn’t go down well in the second city.
In 2015, the attack-minded midfielder was involved in the Gunners’ pre-season visit to Singapore for the Asia Trophy, coming off the bench to replace Jack Wilshere in one game.
Despite the promise, Crowley never made an appearance for Arsenal’s senior team before moving to Holland in a bid to restart his career.
It was after his three year stay that the Republic of Ireland youngster admitted in an interview with Goal that he believed he had the attributes to be one of Europe’s best, despite admitting his frustrations with how it worked out at the Emirates.
“I do see players from my age group playing in the Premier League now and I think, ‘How are they playing there and I’m not?’
“Do I think I’m good enough to still be at Arsenal? One hundred per cent. But there are no real regrets because that’s just the way I am. Every career is different.
“I am ambitious,” Crowley said.
“I do massively believe in myself, I think I can be one of the best No.10s in Europe.
“I was this kid in a man’s world and it was really hard. Just because I was ready with my feet footballing-wise, it doesn’t mean that I was ready maturity-wise and I think that that is what people forget in football. That side of things is not really fair.
“You have to grow up so fast and I wasn’t ready to do that.
“I feel like I was a bit of a scapegoat at times. But don’t get me wrong, I didn’t always handle things in the right way.”
Before moving to Holland, Crowley had loan spells at City’s Yorkshire rivals Barnsley, Oxford United and Dutch outfit Go Ahead Eagles.
Following a 13-game loan spell at Oakwell, then boss Lee Johnson described him as the best 18-year-old he’d ever seen.
“I think that Dan’s had a fantastic time here, we’ve really enjoyed working with him,” Johnson said at the time.
“He’s probably one of the best, or the best, or most talented 18-year-olds I’ve ever seen.
“Obviously I came through the ranks at Arsenal as well, so there’s players like Ashley Cole that I include in that, players that have had very good careers. For me, it was fantastic to work with him, really enjoyed it, really appreciative to Arsenal.
“I think he had four or five really good effective games for us that showed his quality and where he could be.”
Before moving on loan to Oxford in League One in 2016, Wenger lauded him as a special talent, though he left the Kassam Stadium after a reported disagreement over the lack of game time.
“He is a player who has a huge talent,” Wenger told Arsenal’s website. “He’s very creative and he’s very good in the final third. He’s a special talent as well, he can finish and he can do the final ball.
“What he needs is to develop physically a little bit and already I think he has made a big strides forward there and also cope with the responsibility of being the playmaker.
“In the Premier League today, maybe it is a bit early for him but to carry that long process through, it’ll be interesting for him.”
Crowley then moved to Willem II in
Holland in 2017 where the spell started poorly before he took a significant wage cut to drop into the second division where he played for SC Cambuur on loan.
Back at Willem, Crowley’s luck changed and he became a regular performer including playing in a cup final defeat to Ajax going on to make more than 40 appearances in the Eredivisie.
A move back to England followed in the summer of 2019 when he returned to the Midlands with Birmingham City, where he’s fallen down the pecking order under recent appointment Aitor Karanka.
The Spaniard has changed formation in a bid to lift Birmingham’s flagging fortunes, and so he says Crowley doesn’t fit into his plans and will therefore be allowed to move on.
There’s some interest from other clubs in Crowley, and with him being out of contract in the summer, that list is only likely to grow.
Mccann’s interest is understood to be firm, and while it won’t be an easy deal to do, it would be quite a coup for the Tigers and their hopes of promotion.