Crewe Alex's 2025-26 Season Review Part 1 - The Bad

I'm mixing things around this year. Last season's final review was the good, the bad and then what's next. But this time, I'm going to reverse the first 2. I'm going to focus on what went wrong in 2025-26 first, to find the mistakes and highlight the issues the club is facing. But then I'm going to try and build back up in part 2, focusing on the positives. So, let's get the negative stuff out of the way first:

Injuries

The Alex came into the 25-26 season already suffering from a number of injuries and health problems. Shilow Tracey's broken leg, Jack Lankester's torn meniscus, Omar Bogle's painkiller addiction. Matus Holicek was nursing a persistent groin injury which saw him need 2 surgeries and in truth I don't think he ever fully recovered from it. Joel Tabiner went down with an ACL injury in the 2nd pre-season game. Notice how all 5 of those players are attackers?

How many teams went into the season with 5 attackers, all of whom would have been expected to start and be big contributors, all unable to play for whatever reason? I'm betting it wasn't many. I felt way back in July and August that the season would be an uphill battle given these absences.

So in some senses the Alex did better than I thought. But these injuries meant they were unable to rotate up front for the vast majority of the season, especially out wide as they lacked natural wide players. Their striker depth did improve slightly with the return of Bogle and the somewhat emergence of Thibaut, but they still heavily relied on the core 4 attackers in March, Tezgel, Agius and O'Reilly to produce.

In midfield, Conor Thomas and Jack Powell battled injuries throughout the season, which in turn limited their availability. Owen Lunt missed the last 13 games of the season after being laid low by a back injury, not the first time he's suffered that ailment. At the back James Golding went down with a groin injury and Mickey Demetriou battled a knee injury which saw him miss 8 games and then come back clearly not at 100%, with him sitting out several midweek games and play with his knee visibly strapped up. Josh March was banged up at various parts, Tezgel went down at a crucial time when he was bang in form. Lankester played just 12 games, a disaster of a season for him.

In fact, the only positions in the team which didn't suffer through any injuries were goalkeeper and full back. Injuries once again affected them, although as I'll discuss in part 2, I don't think they were as big a factor as some might claim.

Small Squad

Week in week out, we heard Lee Bell parrot the same phrase. "We've got a small squad". Here's the thing: They really didn't. They went into the season with 26 contracted players and 6 loanees at the club. That doesn't include Zac Williams of course. Yes, I'm sure Bell will argue that of the 26 contracted players, 3 were development squad players in Thibaut, Roberts and Croker, whilst a further 4 were first year pros. But I'm sorry, they still count. You are still paying them money to be in your senior squad, so I would expect any of them to be comfortable sitting on the bench if needed and maybe even contributing in a few short cameos as required.

If the Alex were lacking depth at any point, it was because the players they signed as depth simply weren't good enough. Maybe the issues upfront would have been easier to manage had they not signed Dion Rankine and Louis Moult and they signed someone actually decent. Who's fault is it that Sam Waller, Jay Mingi and James Golding didn't pan out?

Even at their most depleted point, which was late December, they still had around 20 names available to pick from. Only once did they put a scholar on the bench and that was down to choice, as they chose to put Owen Taylor in the squad and leave Moult and Rankine out. If the squad was small, it wasn't because of numbers, it was because of the lack of quality of their depth.

Transfers

Which brings me on to my next point. They knocked it out of the park with the signings of March, Hutchinson, Tezgel and O'Reilly. They can clearly spot some very good players. So how is it that they then looked at Jay Mingi, Rankine and Moult and thought any of them would actually be decent? Maybe they were panic signings, given Moult was signed after a trial and the other 2 joined late in the window. But all 3 failed badly and it left them short in areas they originally hoped. How on earth did they think Rankine would be worth a 2 year deal exactly?! And what on earth was the loan of Harvey Griffiths about exactly? Remember him? Signed from Wolves as a development loan, he played a few times for the U21s then disappeared, never to be heard from again. What a baffling transfer that was.

Maybe this criticism is with hindsight and maybe it's just par the course for a L2 team with a small budget that there are going to be misses. But I hope lessons were learned about how these mistakes were made and how to avoid them in the future.

Academy Secondary

Well, this section is getting a rewrite after the news that the club was dropping their academy category from 2 to 3. It reflects the changing market for youth players and how hard it has been for them to compete with the big boys in terms of scouting the best talent and bringing them through.

However, regardless of them dropping their status, the fact is that once again, the academy has failed to produce talent to the quality or depth of the golden eras of 2012 and 2019, or even come close to those seasons. This season they had 12 graduates in the squad, 11 if you remove Zac Williams. That number drops again to 7 if you remove the 4 first year pros. 7 players that were reasonably expected to play games and contribute to the season.

Now, of those 7, losing Tabiner to an ACL injury was a big blow, but after a fairly poor 24-25 from him, do we really know how much of a loss he was? As for the other 6, Finney was never likely to feature much and so he did. Tom Booth started the season as the clear number 1, but Bell soured on him and he dropped to the number 2 behind Ian Lawlor. What the future now holds for Booth is unclear.

Holicek and Agius had mixed seasons, with some good moments, but they also had large stretches where I honestly felt they were invisible and they didn't show up on the score sheet. 3 and 2 years into their development as pros and I still don't know what their best positions are. The only 2 homegrown players who can say they had good seasons were Lunt and Billington in my opinion.

It's a sign of how far the academy has fallen that this is your homegrown crop. From players like Westwood, Powell, Murphy, Kirk, Ng, Pickering and Dale to 5 players, of whom only 2 had truly decent seasons. And what's more, do any of them look close to being top quality L2 players, players good enough to help carry the Alex to the top 7? Nope. They are solid role players, but you aren't building your team around them.

Once again, for the most part free agent signings and loanees led the way in the performance rankings. Only Billington cracked my top 4 performers, with the other 2 being March, O'Reilly, Hutchinson. The academies relevance continues to dwindle, which raises some serious questions.

Away Issues

One of the biggest pillar's of their relative success in the last 2 seasons was their away form. They were hard to beat on the road in 23-24 and 24-25, losing just 6 games in both seasons. This season they lost 6 before New Year's Day and went beyond that by late January. There were some big successes, don't get me wrong. Heavy wins over Salford(their first ever at Salford), Fleetwood, Tranmere(their first there for 25 years) and Shrewsbury. But there were some horrendous lows. No-shows at Barrow, Newport and Accrington. Late collapses against Cambridge and Bristol Rovers, non-competitive and out of games before the hour mark against teams like MK, Grimsby and Chesterfield.

Why their away form struggled so much was bizarrely down to Bell's lack of pragmatism and his sides' inability to shut games down. In 24-25, they were able to grind out dull, low event draws. The all round performances were poor, but they were consistent and got the job done. This season though, that ability to get boring draws deserted them.

Let me give you an example. The Alex went 1-4-2 against the top 7 and 3-7-2 against the top half last season. This season, that record was 1-1-5 and 2-3-6 respectively. A big drop.

Lack of Balance

In 24-25, the Alex were defensively rock solid. 48 goals conceded, 16 clean sheets, the fewest conceded in a full season since 2002-03. But the obvious caveat was that it came at the expense of their attacking play, as they scored just 49 goals, their 2nd lowest total in the 4th tier since 1983.

Well, this season they were far more open and attack minded. That'll be something I highlight in part 2 as one of the positives from this season. But in being more open, they struggled defensively. They managed just 9 clean sheets and conceded 58 goals, a big drop/jump on last season's numbers.

So it raises questions. They go defensive, their attack suffers. They play more on the front foot, they can't keep goals out of their own net. So, as every team asks themselves at the end of a season, how do they find that balance? Because we're yet to see them look consistently dangerous in attack and consistently solid at the back at the same time.

Tactics

That brings me on to tactics. Don't get me wrong, they found a system that worked ok enough in the 4-2-3-1, but far too often they resorted to hoofing the ball down the field with little plan or tactics involved. There was no consistent style of play. One minute they were trying to build from the back. The next they were trying to sit deep and counter. At some points they were working it out wide, the next it was trying to go down the middle. It was confusing at some points to us fans, it must have been equally so for the players.

Then we have the subs. The management did improve in the 2nd half of the season when it came to using their bench and I know they were lacking a lot of the game changing options they'd have liked to have available due to injuries and a lack of depth. But on too many occasions, they made changes to try and chase a result and it made them worse. I'll give you some examples. Notts County away, Fleetwood at home and Walsall at home. All games where their attacking output plummeted in the 2nd half. And they were all games they were chasing from early on.

They lacked a clear plan B. They tried the back 5 on a few occasions and it worked, at times. But they had to be thankful that the 4-2-3-1 remained relatively successful, because the times when they needed a new formation, it was a struggle.

Poor middle, poor end

Across Lee Bell's 3 2/3 seasons in charge, a pattern has become clear. They often start reasonably well and are in a good position by the end of November. Indeed, if only those first 4 months counted, the Alex would be on an 80 point pace. But then for whatever reason, their form craters in December. It then recovers from January until February, before once again plummeting in March and April. Like clockwork.

Look at their results from this season. They were 11th as they reached December, but won one of 5 games in December to slip to 13th. In 2026, they went 7-2-2 in January and February, but then collapsed to finish 3-2-6. Why they struggle as soon as the Christmas lights come out and then again when Easter approaches is a mystery. But it's roughly the same every year and this season was no different.

Mentality

My hottest take from this season was that the Alex had the quality to not only make the top 7, but to make noise in the play-offs and even get promoted. However, what they lacked was the mentality. That statement comes with 2 points of evidence.

The first is in their struggles against the bottom half sides. They dropped points against Newport, Bristol Rovers and Harrogate at home, all from leading positions. 9 points turned into 3. They failed to turn up at Barrow, Newport and Accrington. 3 utterly baffling no shows.

The second is their wild swings of inconsistency. One week they would look strong and competitive, the next like relegation candidates. There were so many stretches that summed this up, but perhaps none are more pertinent than their 3 game run around Easter of playing Oldham, Accrington and Salford. Oldham were flying heading to Gresty Road, but the Alex halted that with an excellent 2-1 win. Yet, they went to Accrington, didn't show up and lost 2-0. A few days later, they then battled to a superb win over play-off bound Salford, keeping a clean sheet in the process.

Just bizarre sequence, and there were others. Only getting a draw at home to Newport, then battering Tranmere a few days later. Not showing up at Newport only to smash Cheltenham. Winning the opening 4 only to lose 4 of the next 5. If a team is capable of 19 wins and 67 points, they have enough talent. But if they also go and lose 18 games, then it's something not quite right mentally.

Save for a Rainy Day

When you have a limited budget, you have to spend it wisely. And as I've stated above, I think they wasted chunks of it in various places. But I also think they need to choose WHEN to spend it. They went and maxed out their budget in August and I understand why they did. They wanted a beefed up squad that could last them until January and potentially beyond.

It didn't work out that way, with various holes popping up by Christmas and it left them no wiggle room from which to go out and make more improvements in the winter transfer window. They were only able to sign Ian Lawlor and Alfie Pond, but the latter was a direct replacement for James Golding. They never tried to sign a replacement for Jay Mingi and they seemingly didn't have any budget to go and fill their 5 loan slots, as they took just 3 beyond January. In fact, they ended January with a smaller squad than they started the window with and didn't really address the lack of depth in some spots.

I think a possible strategy next season would be to leave 1-2 loan slots and maybe a bit of budget aside to use for January to address potential holes as they emerge. Because going all out in the summer left them no room to improve.

No Cup Run

The reason why they had no extra budget for January was yet again, they failed to manage a decent cup run. Yes, they did ok in the EFL Trophy, but I'm willing to bet the prize money for the 3 wins they managed barely covered their expenses for those games.

In the major cup competitions, they went out at the first hurdle in both the League and FA Cups. Yes, they had 2 very tough draws, away at Stockport and at home to Doncaster respectively, but they've now made the 3rd round the FA Cup once in the last 17 seasons and have made the 2nd round of the League Cup in just 7 times in that span. They've also been without a home League Cup draw since 2020-21 against Lincoln, which was behind closed doors.

They desperately need some draw luck in the cups next season and a good run in one or both of these competitions.

Left Behind

This isn't a criticism of the club, but there is increasing evidence that the Alex are getting left behind in League Two. Whilst I think the narrative that the Alex have a tiny budget is misleading, given the academy funding should be factored in, the likes of Salford, Chesterfield, MK Dons, Notts County all used their financial muscle to find their way into the top 7. Look at the top 7 in League Two and it's rare you find teams with a bottom half budget finishing in there any more, bar the odd exception.

Now, social media chatter regarding a takeover changes this potentially. This of course is just rumours and nothing concrete has been revealed, so as it stands, the Alex have the same issues they've always had, where they are an increasingly small fish in an increasingly big pond. Unless this rumoured takeover happens, then you get the sense the Alex will be increasingly left behind as teams invest more and move past them.

Not the guy?

All this brings me on to my final point. Is Lee Bell the guy? Ask a certain section of Crewe fans and they'll passionately tell you no. And you can see why they'd think that way. Whilst Bell has gotten them to 60 points(58, 72, 62, 67 in his 4 seasons), they don't seem to be able to push much beyond that and into the 70s, which is what is needed to qualify for the top 7 each season.

The lack of a clear identity, the lack of tactical nous, the lack of consistency, mistakes in the transfer market. All fall on him in some way. It's fair to ask what will be different next season as well, should the rumoured takeover not materialise. I have no doubt they'll probably get somewhere around 60 points, but what evidence is there that things will be different from what we've seen at various points over the last 3 seasons? Not a lot is the answer.