'If you can try to keep the death threats to a minimum...' - Crawley Town co-owner on dealing with criticism and abuse from fans and media

The fans, the players, the managers, and the owners – that’s right, the owners – have all had their troubles. And one man who has taken a lot of the heat is co-owner and co-chairman Preston Johnson. He has been the face of WAGMI United as far as the fans are concerned and he has been the subject of criticism and abuse - some of it, including death threats, is unimaginable.

But Johnson is not looking for sympathy, he knows mistakes have been made and he has addressed them and noone is more hellbent on correcting those errors.

In a video update posted by the club on Saturday, Johnson was visibly emotional as he talked about the trust with the fans being broken. And when we sat down with Johnson on Wednesday (January 11) before he flew back to the US, he said he has been hurting, seeing what had happened.

"I think some people think we don’t care or I don’t care any more. I did get emotional, I’m an emotional, vulnerable person anyways, I am probably different to most owners or chairmen.

“It hurts to see people who you had gained their trust and feel you were in a good place with, turn on you.”

When Johnson and the WAGMI consortium took over the club, they promised transparency and initially – mainly through Johnson – they were. But as the season has gone on and more and more issues are discovered and arise, the fans have been frustrated by the silence on a lot of matters, most notably the absence of George Francomb, Tony Craig and Jake Hessenthaler from the first team squad. ‘Sensitive legal issues’ is a phrase that fans on social media are not accepting as an excuse for silence.

Johnson is fully aware of this. “I think it’s painful a little bit because we can’t go into every little detail yet that has to remain private within the ownership group and the club but it will get come out in due course,” he said. “That’s been a difficult part because I can’t explain myself in full yet.

“Ultimately, at the end of the day if you thought it was a genuine video or not, I know it was genuine, I did get a little emotional because I really do care about the people. It really hurts me to consider letting you guys down, that’s why I am doing everything I can to keep that from happening.”

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The events at Crawley Town have been highlighted by the national media and fans have seen WAGMI as making the club a laughing stock. The ownership group have faced criticism from all angles – especially over the Christmas period which saw Tom Nichols sold, Matty Etherington leaving after just three games in charge, Johnson sitting in the dugout for an game and details of contracts coming to light including bonuses for a defender winning headers, among other things.

But Johnson says the criticism is fine as long as it’s accurate, but when it comes to abuse, there is a line that can be – and has been – crossed.

"The media coverage itself doesn’t bug me unless it’s incorrect and there has been a lot of misinformation over the last couple of weeks,” he said.

"That’s why I did the video update to try and address those things. The CTSA also put out a statement to try and smooth things over. Other than than that I have been trying to tell people since I have been here, as much as it hurts me to see people’s reactions and see how upset they are, like the Stevenage game, they have the right to vent however they want. It they want to chant at me in the dugout, that part doesn’t bug me, they deserve it, this is their club.

“I think it [the criticism] is fair assuming the information is correct and a lot of media outlets didn’t in that five to six day run. We have resolved some of those issues and misinformation.”

But it’s the abuse Johnson can’t accept. He said: “I haven’t personally opened my DMs in the last couple of weeks because what’s the point? I already know what they are going to say.

“But other people, if you can try to keep the death threats to a minimum; or if you are looking up spouse addresses of where they work and sending us screenshots, that goes a little too far.

“As long as you are not going there and the information is concrete and correct you can say what you want, we deserve some criticism and we deserve feedback too.”

Did Johnson know running a football club would be so hard? “We have been dealt an interesting hand, especially about two weeks into our acquisition and takeover,” he said. “We weren’t anticipating that one, if there was a book to read on how to handle that one I should have read that one, I don’t know if anyone has it?!

“It’s been hard to be brutally honest. It would have been easier if we came in to more stability, learning and letting things sit for a year, seeing what works and what doesn’t, that was our initial plan but things changed and we had to adapt. We have made some mistakes but we are going to be in good shape for 2023.”