John Yems reacts to Crawley Town off-field developments

WAGMI United completed their takeover of Crawley Town this week and they have a unique view on club ownership in League Two.

The group with strong links to cryptocurrency have taken control at Crawley after showing interest in a handful of EFL clubs.

With a lot of unknowns around the currency and WAGMI United’s intentions, current manager John Yems offered his response to the takeover when he spoke to The Athletic.

He said: “When you talk about crypto, I thought that, to be honest with you, was the stuff that kills Superman.

“I ain’t got a clue.

“But how many people in football know what their owners do?, or where they get their money from?

“Every club has got their traditional revenue streams.

“Other clubs have got different ideas for additional revenue streams, and this is ours.”

As one of the smaller clubs in the EFL, Yems has conducted a very good job in the last two and a half seasons, comfortably stabilising the club in the fourth tier and producing some very memorable days on the pitch.

He is a straight talker and speaks for the majority of people surrounding the club, when confirming that he is not sure how the new owners’ approach will go.

The Verdict

Yems’ strong links to the local non-league pyramid have helped Crawley’s recruitment enormously in recent years, and it will be interesting to see if that strategy continues under new ownership.

The club are not able to compete at the top end of League Two financially, and therefore Yems’ smart signings from the lower leagues in the form of Max Watters and Jack Payne have played a key role in keeping the team competitive in the fourth tier.

The new owners’ plan to increase the club’s organic revenue streams using cryptocurrency will be very interesting to observe,