Norwegian Crewe?

Crewe may be on the verge of forging ties with a club from Norway in the coming weeks. This announcement was made by John Bowler at the AGM a few weeks ago but went largely unpublicised.

At the AGM it was said that while the club still has links with Icelandic team IBV, the club was also looking to collaborate with an unnamed team from Norway. John Bowler said that talks were underway but as of yet nothing has been officially announced.

For a while now the Alex chairman has been saying how he would like the club to follow the example set by Sheffield United and their foray into world football. United have links with teams all over the world and have invested heavily in a team from China renamed the Chengdu Blades and have recently announced another investment in Belgium club Royal White Star Woluwe.

John Bowler has regularly spoken in the past about his admiration for the Blades PLC Chairmen Kevin McCabe and how he has forged links and investments with teams all over the world, saying he would like to follow their example and try and bring the same sort of ideas to Gresty Road.

Links with a large European team could bring many benefits for Crewe and Bowler should be commended for pursuing such avenues for a modest team such as Crewe. Not only would the Alex be able to extend their scouting network to Scandinavia but would be able to look at the best crop of talent from the specific club, send our own youngsters over there for a different experience and maybe even tour with the first team through pre-season.

At the moment we are unsure how advanced talks are, but if the Sheffield United example is the benchmark to be followed, Crewe may be looking to spread their horizons across not one but a few football team`s right across the globe. Maybe this would be a tad ambitious for a club that is on the verge of relegation into the fourth tier of English football but who knows, watch this space.