Tommy Lowery - The Return of "Miniesta" or Lazy Recruitment?

Find yourself someone who loves you as much as Crewe Alexandra love former players. Yes, the Alex continue their trend of bringing back former stars with the signing of midfielder Tommy Lowery, who has rejoined the club on loan until the end of the season after a hit and miss 2 1/2 seasons at Portsmouth. Now this, like the signing of Connor O'Riordan to a certain extent, has split the fan base. Much like the returns of Luke Murphy in 2021 and Charlie Kirk 12 months ago did. So, will this gamble pay off with promotion? Or will the Alex be left short wondering if they'd have signed someone else, the outcome might have been different?

The Bad

Tommy Lowery is listed at 168cm tall. How is a player of his height and stature that going to mesh in a Lee Bell side that only a few days ago dropped 2 of it's better technical players in Sanders and Powell just to accomodate more height? This is not a team that plays to his strengths. Is he really going to be the difference maker against the teams of giants like Wimbledon, Salford and Bradford amongst plenty of others.

Ok, some will retort that he showed he could hack it against physical teams in 19-20. True, but that was a much better team playing much better football. That group were a team full of technically excellent players who controlled possession and created chances at will. Yes, he was superb in 20-21 and then in 21-22 once Dave Artell started to pick him, with 7 goals and 11 assists across 2 seasons. But that was under a different manager with different team mates. Much like Luke Murphy and much like Charlie Kirk. So is it so hard to imagine his impact will be as minimal as Kirks was 12 months ago? Not for me.

Then we look at his fitness record, which was an issue during his peak years with the Alex and arguably has gotten worse. He's made 26 league appearances and played just 1,500 minutes of football across 2 1/2 seasons. That's not good. Can we honestly expect anything more from him than a player who'll be in and out of the team? Why are they signing another player with a questionable fitness record when they have 4-5 of those players already?

Then we look at the position he plays. He's a CM. So are Jack Powell, Joel Tabiner and Matus Holicek. They have 3 players there who should be highly creative from open play but aren't at the moment for various reasons. Is Lowery going to succeed where they can't? Where does he even play? In the number 10? Alongside 2 of the aforementioned players in a midfield 3?

Given the struggles Bell has shown in getting the midfield to function as he should, is Lowery good enough to rise above that and start churning out match winning efforts on a regular basis? If someone said to you that Lowery's return will go exactly the same way Kirk's did 12 months ago, on what grounds would you disagree with them?

The good

Lowery is a fantastic footballer. For him to rise as high as he has despite his small stature speaks to the attitude and determination of him, as most players like him don't make it in professional football. We question his fitness record, but across 125 league starts and 26 sub appearances for the Alex, he put up 13 goals and 18 assists. For a midfielder those are some decent numbers, especially considering they all came in his final 114 appearances for the club. That's a goal or an assist every 3.7 games.

He is equally capable of sticking the ball in the net as he is providing the ball to another player to do the same. He was one of the shining lights in the 21-22 season after Artell finally put him back in the team. I'm sure Lee Bell has done his due diligence and has already worked out a plan to get him in the team and to find a way to get him doing what he does best, which is creating chances.

As much as I'll mock the Alex for bringing back former players, I'll still maintain Charlie Kirk wasn't a mistake or a bad signing. He was an unfortunate bounce away from 3 assists last season and a goal line clearance away from a goal. And Connor O'Riordan has looked excellent since he returned from Blackburn on loan. So it's not written in stone that former players coming back is a poor move.

Lowery knows the club inside and out. He's a Holmes Chapel lad and he's adored by the fan base for what he did a few years ago. He clearly wants to come back and help the club do well. Could we really say the same about another loanee who will come in with no ties to the club? Probably not. He'll give his all every single week.

His attitude is fantastic, given he never whinged or complained or downed tools after Artell benched him in the early part of the 21-22 season. He came back in like nothing had happened and was the star player in a dreadful team. Imagine what he can do in a team that ok isn't as good as the 19-20 one was, but also isn't a bad one either.

Conclusion

Lee Bell is going all in with this signing. If it works and the club finish in the top 7 or even better, the top 3, with Lowery leading the way, then he's be lauded and rightly so. But if this move doesn't quite work out as he hopes, then a lot of questions will be asked about why he chose to use his limited funds to bring in 2 former players in positions that they are arguably well stocked in, CB and CM, rather than address other more pressing areas, such as wing back or attacker.

I still think they'd be wise to sign another attacker in this window, as I don't think a quartet of Bogle, Long, Tracey and Hemmings are consistent enough in terms of fitness or quality to fire them to promotion(happy to be proven wrong if they do). But in bringing back Connor O'Riordan and now 'Miniesta', Bell is gambling on former players helping fire Crewe Alex promotion. Now we wait and see if it pays off.