Crewe Alexandra Football Club Company Ltd – 108^th Annual General Meeting – 28^th February 2008

Apologies from:

R Clayton

D Gradi

Minutes approved.

No matters arising from the minutes.

John Bowler explained that in April 2007, the club had had a visit from the Financial Advisory and Compliance Unit (FACU).  The club had taken part, three years ago, in the setting up of the unit and, in particular, in deciding what the terms of reference of the Unit were to be.

The FACU had checked the following:

·        Financial statements;

·        Financial controls;

·        Compliance with FA and Football League rules;

·        PAYE, NICs, Corporation Tax and VAT;

·        Player contracts;

·        Control of cash;

·        Corporate governance; and

·        Structure.

The review of the structure included a review of the subsidiary companies (Crewe Alexandra Developments Ltd and Crewe Alexandra Stadium Ltd) and the holding company (Crewe Alexandra Ltd).

After a three-day visit, the FACU gave the club a very clean bill of health.  The Unit concluded that the club was well managed by the directors and run on a sound financial footing.

N Hassall – Statement of Accounts

Mr Hassall went through the balance sheet and the profit and loss account.

A couple of things worthy of note – Varney was sold to Charlton for £2m.  £400k of that went to Quorn FC under the terms of the transfer contract when he moved to Crewe.

Projected loss for 2007/08 is thought to be about £800k.

There is money available for players but there is no way that the board would give permission to spend £2m for one player.

£260k was spent on transfer fees to bring players in in the year ending 31 May 2007.

Every year the club spends between £700k and £750k on the academy and a further £300k to bring in new players and that is every year, year in, year out.

What’s the story with the unsecured loan from Crewe Alexandra Football Club Company Ltd to Crewe Alexandra Developments Ltd?

Not unusual for companies within the same corporate group to loan each other money.  No point in securing it against assets of the corporate group.  It’s the same as securing a loan against the assets of the person making the loan.

Any other business

Outline of what’s happening on the commercial side.

Playing for Success scheme funded by the Department for Schools, Children and Families.

Voucher scheme – 13 games per season.  150 vouchers are offered to juniors.  They have to bring an adult who has to pay for his ticket.  1,000 new supporters who have never been to the Alex before have been brought in as a result of this scheme [Note:  Does this mean that we’ve actually lost 1,000 more supporters than we thought we had?]

The club is also targetting by email those who have been to a certain number of games to try to get them to come back again or more frequently.

Two very successful affinity schemes.  Thomas Cook.  The club got a £20,000 kick-back from this scheme and it brought £50,000 in savings for those booking their holidays at Thomas Cook.

Nicotinelle.  The club gets £1,000 for every person who quits smoking.  The Alex are the top of the League One Nicotinelle table.

The club is developing ‘utilization’ of its conference facilities.  These facilities are doing really well.  Made £74k profit in 2006/07 and they expect to make a £90k profit in 2007/08.

Profit on the Christmas function was doubled.

Kinderton’s Suite.  Open 15 times a season.  Expanding ground tours.

Empty too often?

New data will be used to target potential customers for Railway End.

AGM closed at 20:10

Neil Baker – Scouting structure.  Glyn Chamberlain and three part-time scouts.  We cover most of this country and have contacts in Ireland.  No coverage in Scotland.  We scout everything from the Premier League reserves to the North West Counties League.

We have to get in very quick if we want to get players – Colin Daniel and Luke Varney are good examples of where we’ve succeeded.  This year we made good offers to Conference players and it’s not been enough to tempt them away.

We probably tried harder this year to get new players in than we’ve ever done before.  Loan signings are probably more difficult to secure than permanent moves.

What about foreign players?  We have a contact in Iceland although it’s not been very productive.  We are working on a partnership with a club in Norway.  We simply don’t have the money to send scouts all around Europe.

Fordy – Any chance of reducing the size of the first team squad so that we can pay higher wages to less players?

In the closed season 2007, we dropped 19 professionals and replaced them with 6 pros and promoted 4 academy lads.

Not sure that it would make that much difference and you still need a reasonable sized squad to see you through the season.

Midfield has no pace in it.  The game on Tuesday evening (against Carlisle) suffered because of the wind but the midfield is slow.  Tried to sign Lee Peltier from Liverpool to correct that.  Schumacher might prove to be a partial answer.  He’s a better player than he’s given credit for.  Gary Roberts has done well in midfield as well.

What about the reserve keepers?  How do they get experience if they don’t play?  Don’t disagree.  That’s why we’ve loaned Tomlinson to Burton.  Fon Williams is away a lot with the Wales Under-21s.  We’ve not been putting a keeper on the bench ‘cos SH wanted more outfield options.  O’Connor and Pope are decent keepers who could do a job if we lost Williams during the game.

Bopp?  Undoubtedly a talented player.  He is trying to rescue his career.  There is a question mark over his defending but he has definite potential.  He doesn’t want to play wide.  Prefers to play in the centre of midfield but he creates holes in the midfield when he does.  Playing him off the centre-forward seems to suit him.

Ryan Lowe?  Ryan Lowe has been a terrific professional.

Tommo’s Question 1.  We remain ambitious.  We shall ensure tight financial control.  Particular attention give to the next two seasons.  We always work two seasons in advance.

We shall not let this club be run in a way that threatens it.  I accept that the fans are frustrated and I understand it.

No business can stand still but we cannot change for the sake of change.  We want evolution not revolution.

This industry is changing.  Stevie Gerrard said the other day that coming second is failure.  Football isn’t just a sport anymore.  It’s a hard-nosed business.

Our aim remains to get back into the Championship.  However, it is important to bear in mind that the average club’s players wages in the Championship is £6m a year.  We would need someone behind the club who could write off £3m worth of debts every year.

Change of management team

Steve Holland – I accept that I’m not the most popular man in the world given our league position.  The first team is mine. 

If Dario were offered a job, for example, at the FA, I would do my best to try to persuade him to stay here.

Dario – There is no-one in professional football in the UK now doing the job of manager that I was doing up until 1 July 2007.  Alex Ferguson doesn’t do the coaching.  He doesn’t have time.  It is too much for one man to be able to do.

Steve is now entirely responsible for first team matters.  Steve started the pre-season training with far more energy than I would have.  He does far more preparation than I have done.  He has learned all I can teach him and he’s learned from others too.  He will be a better manager than I was.

Steve deals almost exclusively with the first team now.  The casing vote, the final say on any matters relating to the first team is Steve’s. 

Neil Baker works harder than any of us.

Steve Holland – Neil had a chance to go to another job and asked us whether he should go.  We said that we wanted him to stay and he did.

Since the sale of Dean Ashton, we’ve just gone down and down.  There appears to be no urgency.

To sustain eight years in the Championship will need someone with a lot of money to come along.

Elliott Bennett - Elliott Bennett was recommended to Steve by Mick McCarthy.  When the end of his loan period came, Mick decided to keep him.

“I should like to thank Dario Gradi for the massive contribution he has made to this club over the last 25 years.”

Dario - We’ve lost four kids from the academy.  Three of them moved when two of our part time coaching staff moved to other clubs.

Everybody wants strikers and clubs are becoming far more aggressive about getting them.

When Norman Rowlinson offered me this job he told that my job was to ensure that this club continues to exist and that hasn’t changed since I took the job in 1983.

John Bowler – The board has fait that the management team can produce results.  If we didn’t believe that we would get rid of them.

If we were to get rid of Dario and Steve, the academy would collapse.  Make no mistake.  The reason that youngsters come to our academy is because of Dario and Steve.

<dissent>

Dario – We’ve just lost four kids who followed coaches from this club to other clubs and they were only part-time coaches.  If I were to move to another club, I would want the best kids in my academy and I would do my best to take the best of the lads at this academy with me.

Steve Holland – Dario wouldn’t have to ask them to go with him.  They would follow him anyway.

Where do you see this club in two years time?  We can plan financially.  It is difficult to plan our football future.  I can’t answer that question but our ambition remains to play at the highest level that we can play at.

We shall do all in our power to give the best management team in the country every support that we can give them to enable them to take the club to the highest level we can play at.

Getting players in – Difficult.  Dario’s reputation is such that when we make an offer for a player, if the agent mentions to other clubs that Dario has put in an offer, the other clubs will immediately put in a better offer.

Why don’t we speculate on a couple of good players?  Simply not worth it.  Not prudent.  Could all go pear-shaped.

Every club in the country is looking for a sugar-daddy but, make no mistake, sugar-daddies are in it for the money for out of benevolence.  They are out to make a profit.  They will come in.  Inject capital and sell up at a profit.  We are not looking for a sugar-daddy.

Why the change in style of play? – Steve’s beliefs about the way the game should be played are the same as mine (Dario’s) but if you don’t have the players in midfield to allow you to play open expansive football, you have to adapt.  In any event, we don’t play long-ball football.

Steve does everything I did and more and will be a better manager than me.

What players are we looking at currently?

Woods, Bridges, Horsefield, Robertson, Welch (or Welsh) Guy …

Goalkeepers – Why doesn’t Williams ever throw the ball out to start an attacking move?  He kicks it out every time.

Keepers are told to throw the ball out when it is appropriate but it is left to the keeper’s discretion.

Why Williams ahead of Fon Williams?  Williams has won us more points than he has lost us.  Fon Williams and Tomlinson are still young and inexperienced.

No sense in Fon Williams moving on to Premiership club.  At Crewe he is No. 2.  In a Premiership club he would be No. 4 or 5.

Replacement for Luke – Replacing Luke has been as difficult as it was to replace Ashton and Hulse.

What about Glen Murray?  Glyn Chamberlain didn’t think he was up to it.