Crawley's long awaited takeover was finally announced this week.

But the new owners should not expect their arrival to be greeted with fanfares and celebrations from supporters.

Reds fans have been spun the usual line that there are exciting times ahead'.

But following the reign of the discredited Majid brothers, most are far too sceptical to raise their hopes too highly.

Crawley lurched from one crisis to another during the three years Chas and Azwar Majeed were in charge and the fans have suffered along the way.

The club has consistently tried to cover up bad news with lies or ambiguous statements, only for the truth to eventually emerge.

Crawley followers have grown suspicious as a result so it was no surprise that many are not convinced the takeover will signal a bright new dawn for their club.

The new owners have not helped win over the sceptics with the way news of the buy-out was presented.

If there was a league table for scoring PR own goals Crawley would be top of the pile.

Understandably, fans want to know every detail of who will be running their club, the identity of the new owners and their backgrounds and why they have taken over.

But all they got was a six paragraph statement on the club website which left more questions than answers.

Former owner John Duly and local hairdresser Phil Jarman were reported to be part of the consortium. Both are names supporters can relate to and would respect.

But there were no details about the company who now own the club - Prospect Estates Holdings Limited.

No wonder there are already doubts about their credibility.

The fact it was only registered two days ago and are based in Boston, Lincolnshire has not gone down well either.

More inquisitive supporters cannot help think that the company is in some way connected to associates of manager Steve Evans, who had two spells as Boston boss in the space of nine years before moving to Crawley last summer.

It seems wholly appropriate that the announcement was also made on April Fools' Day.

The new owners will look like fools if they do not make their first priority trying to win over the supporters by revealing everything about the deal.

They can talk about big investment in the team and their aim to reach the Football League all they like but the one things Reds fans really crave at the moment is transparency in the dealings of the club's owners.

They just want to be told what is going on, which is not much to ask.

An official press conference followed by a fans' forum where everyone involved in the takeover should front up is the least they should do.

That would be the first step in trying to regain the trust of supporters who lost faith a long time ago.

Crawley fans: What's your view on the takeover?