CREWE ALEXANDRA

Last season was damned decent, to be honest – a brief flirt with the play- off places and zero worries about relegation at any point. The big talking point among the fans is our turnover of players. Needing six to eight each summer is normal for lots of clubs, not us.

This season will be different to last

because we have our sights set higher with renewed expectations.

I’ve really missed the family time – I attend games with my father, brother and son ( plus friends). This season, my daughter is being added to that list. It’s what life is all about. Instead of going to the football last season I saw far too much of B& Q... and the Amazon delivery guys. Never saved a penny!

Our most underrated player is

Luke Murphy, who does serious work in the middle of the park. An old head valued by those around him. Look out for several youngsters, as is the way at Crewe. Rio Adebisi, Travis Johnson, Regan Griffiths and Tyreece Onyeka all look promising. The force is strong in the academy. The one change I’d make would be increasing our marketing within the community. We live in the shadows of Manchester City, United and Stoke, but the club could attract so many more families to Gresty Road. The best Crewe social media account is The Railwaymen podcast, a truly great listen. The club’s own output has improved massively, too, even verging on witty and amusing! Other clubs’ fans don’t know that we don’t all drive ice cream vans, despite being home to the world’s leading manufacturers of them...

Our key player will be either new boy Chris Long or Mikael Mandron [ below], I suspect. We played good stuff but struggled to put the ball away last term. Time to be ruthless. The fans’ opinion of the gaffer is that David Artell [ above] pretty much walks on water. It would take a world war and a seriously bad string of results to force any change. We’ll finish 10th, says my head. My heart says 6th. Nowhere close to the bottom four, though.