Crawley Town director of football meets with club's supporters' alliance - here is everything that was discussed

The CTSA has been calling for a meeting with Galley in the last few weeks after the transfer window the club’s decent down the table.

Here are the minutes from the meeting which was attended by Chris Galley - Acting CEO and Director of Football, Crawley Town FC, Reuben Watt – Chair, CTSA, Sam Jordan – Board Member, CTSA, Hugh McKinney – Fan Representative, CTSA

Questions and discussion with Chris Galley

Board issues

Question: When will there be a board meeting? Response: Chris doesn’t know but he is aware that these need to take place on a regular basis and he is trying to sort out a convenient time for the next meeting. Ultimately these need to occur regularly and this would be part of the role of the new CEO

Question: CEO role timings and when will the Terms of Reference be approved? Response: Chris does not see his job as CEO and he has no intention to continue once a suitable candidate can be hired. He is currently interim CEO as a stop gap measure after he was asked by WAGMI if he would fill in until an appointment is made. He has very limited time to fulfill the responsibilities. WAGMI United is currently actively searching to recruit and a number of candidates have been identified. There is no real time frame for the appointment other than he hopes it will be soon. His time at present is spent concentrating on getting the playing side right, which is one of his main priorities

The Terms of Reference would be a matter for the new CEO, however Chris said he’d take a look at these in the interim as these can’t wait for the new CEO.

Question: When will the club be addressing the current safeguarding actions that are currently in breach of the EFL Section 11 Safeguarding Regulations? Response: This is a high priority and a member of staff has been given responsibility to resolve this – the club will be bringing in a new hire to look after this area too and maintain compliance with the regulation.

Question: What plans do the owners have to be more visible generally? Response: The owners did not intend to be less visible. Preston’s visibility has reduced as he undergoes cancer treatment and he made it clear and in public that he would be less visible until that is resolved. He intends to increase visibility soon. Chris is planning on doing a monthly blog in his role as Director of Football and the fans forum with Scott (see below).

PR and Communication

Question: What steps are the club taking to improve the PR role to avoid poorly worded messages such as Tom Nichols being too small?

Question: Did you know that Tom Nichols was a fan favourite when you sold him? Response: Chris accepts that the PR side was badly handled and the club is always looking to improve.

Question: Can the club provide more frequent injury updates? – needn’t be definitive eg weeks/months. Response: The intention is to do this on a regular basis in match previews and this will also be provided through Chris’ blogs and through social media. We need to ensure that we are striking a balance between keeping the fans informed and not giving away tactical information to the opposition

The role of Statistics

Question: Some attributes in football cannot be reflected in the stats, such as loyalty, desire, passion and emotive response. How do you correlate the stats based outcomes with

non-stat based performance? Response: Chris was fully aware that statistics aren’t everything but are useful for decision making. Decisions should not be made on the basis of statistics alone but they can help identify and inform the decision

Question: What are the most important stats? Response: Expected goals is one of the most important. Individual player stats can be helpful but possession stats are misleading and not particularly useful

Playing staff

Question: Are the club currently scouting existing free agents? Response: The club are always looking to recruit the best players available. They are actively trying to bring in free agents and have currently identified five potential candidates. He confirmed that clubs are not always able to sign their first choices and it is more a case of balancing need in the squad against what is available. He also confirmed that January is not the best time to be looking for players and that most clubs share the same requirements at this time of year – players to stop goals (goalkeepers & defenders) and players to score goals (strikers).

Question: Does the club understand that age and experience are not necessarily conflicted and older players can add value by playing a major role at a club?

Response: This question was redundant after earlier responses that confirmed that age was not necessarily a barrier to signing

Club/supporters’ cooperation

Question: What plans does the club have to improve connections with the fan base? Response: They are actively engaging with the CTSA and will maintain this engagement on a regular basis. A monthly meeting will be taking place between the CTSA and the club. The next one will be in March. The club wants to be more involved in local schools and local leagues, aligned to the Community Foundation, where young players can be assessed by the coaches. There is not enough reach to local players and this has to step up

Fans questions

Question: What is being put in place to avoid relegation? Response: The new manager and the players brought in during the transfer window will help us to face into this challenge. The club are doing everything they can to avoid relegation and Chris is confident Scott is the man to keep us up.

Question: What plans are in place if we were to get relegated? Response: There is a comprehensive plan in place in the event of relegation. If relegation is unavoidable WAGMI are committed to reclaim league status quickly

Communication

Question: Are there any plans to have a Fans Forum at some point? Response: Yes. Immediately. A Fans’ Forum will be scheduled before the end of March

Question: Do you see any way the club can make it up to fans and try to repair the relationship? Response: Being open and transparent on both sides is crucial. Sometimes confidentiality is unavoidable and the club cannot be more responsive to the supporters or share information on some issues but the confidentiality exists for good reasons and this needs to be understood and respected

Chris Galley

Question: Do you think your time at the club has so far been successful? Response: He has only been here since the final few days of August and many of the issues surrounding the club existed before he joined. He is trying to place the club generally on a more professional basis across the different roles and lift the professionalism within the club to Championship levels. Chris feels the squad has been too large and has been working to reduce this.

Question: What are your credentials for doing a DoF role? Response: Chris pointed out his hugely successful time at Brentford and his role with clubs abroad

Question: Are you getting enough support from WAGMI United? Response: Yes

Transfers

Question: Do you regret letting go of Morris and Nichols to Gillingham? Response: Following Glenn’s loan spell at Gillingham both Glenn and Chris felt it was important to continue playing football. This isn’t something the club could guarantee him here so they felt after his length of service it was the right thing to allow him to move on so he could play regularly. Tom was out of contract in the summer and we weren’t planning on renewing his contract so felt it was the right thing to accept the transfer fee in January. The club didn’t play him in December as they didn't want him getting injured. They tried to sign a striker in January but weren’t successful with our attempted targets.

Question: What is the situation with the B team? Response: The B team is currently on the back burner whilst we put all our focus and attention into the first team. It is a good idea but it may not necessarily be the best way forward. Youth programmes are key to football clubs and he would like to see Crawley run an academy. The ideal first team squad size is 22-26, depending on our youth setup at the time.

Question: How much say do CG and Wagmi have over player selection? Response: The manager has sole responsibility over player selection