Dario the womble...

Wimbledon come to Crewe 13 places behind us in the league table. It's a far cry from the days when Dario was manager at Plough Lane. In the late 1970's Dario Gradi was given a chance at the top level, with it being his first managerial post, with Wimbledon in the old Division 4 by, the then chairman, Sam Hammann. Dario took Wimbledon into the old Division 3 only to be relegated back down to Division 4 and ended up getting the sack and last year, in his own documentary, said:

"I took Wimbledon into Division Three, that was my work. The players took us down the next year, that was their work."

Dario's philosophy of "We'll go where the kids take us" was first set off, by him, at Wimbledon. With the same idea of taking Wimbledon to be the Crewe what we see today, he set up the youth system and after 23 years Dario believes his work is now reaping it's rewards for the crisis club:

"They have given their youngsters a chance like us. I started that (youth system) at Wimbledon and they've had the foresight to see it through and it's been the saving of them so far, as it has with us. The kids have been a godsend to us and to them."

Dario used Crewe to get wake up his Wimbledon team, he recalls he brought his team to Crewe as a wake up call. With Gresty Road a dump not fit enough for league football he asked his players "Is this where you want to be.".

He left Wimbledon after four years, in 1981, after Sam Hammann thought things were no longer heading anywhere. Little did the Italian Gradi know, the club he used to wake up his team were going to make him a British football legend.

Wimbledon went to play at the very top and win a FA Cup. Whilst Dario was given time by Crewe to build his club, he assured Crewe fans that things wouldn't be changing overnight and slowly but surely he will prove youth would be the key to success.

Twenty years, 5 months and 25 days on and his club will be facing a club who didn't give him the time but in his 4 years 23 years ago he has managed to give todays Wimbledon a life-line - the youth.

A world class academy, a team with an average age of 23, 11th in Division One, a secure financial future, a ground no longer dreaded by other clubs and a manager who is yet to finish with Crewe. A good second half of the season could see us in the play-offs, a dream that not one Crewe fan thought they would ever see in touching distance.

It's all to do with a genius who only Crewe took the chance on. Whilst we are delighted to be in the 2nd best league in Britain and are grateful for every day of it, there is no limit to where Dario can take us.

The words that only seemed to make sense to Crewe:
"We will go where our players take us, not get the players to go where we want to go."