'I don't blame WAGMI United..but they need to get the right people in the right place' - Former Crawley Town owner who helped put club on the map has advice for new owners

Phil Jarman has been there and done it with Crawley Town Football Club. As a former non executive director and co-owner, he helped them avoid a winding up order before seeing them get promoted to the football league and also face Manchester United at Old Trafford in the FA Cup third round as a non league club.

Jarman, a British Grand Master Barber who now runs The Phil Jarman Academy, first got involved in Crawley as a non executive director when the Majeed brothers Chaz and Anwar ran the club, the latter of whom was subsequently convicted of tax fraud and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

Crawley were only an hour from being wound up when the administrators accepted a proposal to pay creditors half the money they were owed – and Jarman became the Companies House secretary. He helped get the people together – the likes of Vic Marley as chairman and businessman Bruce Winfield – to save the club and move it forward.

Jarman said: “It was a massive gamble to get the people together and become a co-owner of the club. I was never the money man but I knew the people who were. Bruce Winfield, Tom Scott, the Mansells and the Carters all became directors. Vic Marley became the chairman.

“That was to stabilize the club. Then we got the big hitters in like Paul Hayward, who was a godsend to the club. At that time we pulled that club from extinction and we were responsible for putting Crawley on the map when we got into the Football League, we played Manchester United. It’s all about community, the feelgood factor in the town and when your football team is struggling and in the headlines for the wrong reasons, it’s terrible, it’s a bad vibe.”

And that’s why it is so sad for Jarman to see them making headlines for the wrong reasons this season. Ever since WAGMI United took over, there has been a lot of bad press for the club. From John Yems’ suspension, to three managers so far this season – including Matty Etherington who left after just 34 days and three games in charge - co-owner and co-chairman Preston Johnson sitting in the dugout for a game and talks of contracts offered to players which include bonuses for the amount of headers they do – some of the national media have gone to town on them.

Fans have been angered and say the club is now a laughing stock and they have aimed all the blame at the hands of Preston Johnson, Eben Smith and the rest of the WAGMI consortium.

But Jarman does not see it that way. He believes Johnson and WAGMI have the right intentions, they just need to listen to advice from the right people who have been there and done it.

"I do feel for them,” he said: “You don’t do any favours, you come in from a Crypto background, you have more money than sense but it’s all to do with who you surround yourself with at the football club.

“To build any business you need structure and a structure starts from the bottom and your work your way up and he’s not put the foundations in place to create a good football environment which is going to be successful.

"You have to give them credit, they have come in and pumped money into the club. The fans can sit there and have a pop at them, but how many of them, even if they had it, would shell out to put it in the club. It was a very brave thing of them to do, they just need to get the right people.”

And it’s also the fans he feels sorry for. "I am sad for the fans and the community. It’s shame if people are going to talk about Crawley like they are. I am not blaming the owners, if the advice they had has not been great. If they wake up to what people who have been there are saying to them they can go forwarded.

“It’s not about the changing owners. Get the right people in the right places.”

This week, Gillingham, who have a new majority shareholder in Florida-based property tycoon Brad Galinson, have appointed Kenny Jackett as director of football and Andy Hessenthaler as head of recruitment. And Jarman believes that is the way WAGMI and Crawley should go. “Kenny Jackett was 4/1 at one stage to become the new Crawley manager and if he got the job that would pretty much solve a lot of problems in one hit,” he said.

Jarman is still friends with Steve Evans, Crawley’s most successful manager who is enjoying a superb season with Stevenage in League Two. Jarman cited him and Stevenage as a good example.

"It’s more than luck when you have 20 plus teams in League Two, and you have to look at Stevenage and ask why they are doing well. It’s because they have a strong chairman, who may not even have as much money as WAGMI, and it’s not about throwing the money at it, it’s about having the right people to spend it.

“Look at Steve Evans, look at Paul Raynor, look at the scouting system they have got. They have the basics back in place that we had at Crawley and what worked.”

So if Preston Johnson and WAGMI approached Jarman to help out, would he return to the club he loves? “I would never say no, I would definitely be involved if he was up for listening. I am just so up for the club and the town doing well, I spent a lot of time in Crawley. I just want to see them doing well.”