Best Of

Not once this season have I thought....

I wish we still had Stocko between the sticks (and I am a massive Stockdale fan)

Outfield players often take the plaudits, but Max deserves a special thread in my books. Immense for us this season. Has won us more points than we probably give him credit for with some sensational keeping.

I have full trust and faith in him.

I think the Bishop/Man U bullshit was a blessing in disguise 🙏

What a wonderful result. It’s always so satisfying to beat them. We really put them in their place tonight.

What a wonderful talent Anis Mehmeti is. It’s such a joy to watch him play.

I still haven’t changed my mind about this season’s narrative. Nevertheless I am very impressed in Gareth Ainsworth’s attempt to change that narrative. I think this might be his best season yet, given all of the challenges he’s faced.

This really is one of the best times to be a Wycombe Wanderers supporter. We are very lucky to have Gareth Ainsworth as our manager. He’s given us a team to be proud of.

On the subject of Oxford, can we all just wait until we have had all three sides of the story?

‘In fairness to Mr Swann’ is a phrase I never thought I would read on the gasroom and I would never want to read again. He has never been anything other than unfair and unprofessional in his diatribes about our club and our manager and does not deserve an ounce of respect.

Wycombe Wanderers have, for the vast majority of the time, been a major part of my life since 1968. The decision to move from Basingstoke (the place we were dispersed to as part of the Government’s wider plan to move staff out of London) to High Wycombe was, I’m slightly ashamed to admit, very strongly influenced by my love of the local football club. So I’ve had over fifty years of pleasure, excitement, transient disappointments, highs and lows etc but, above all, I’ve made some very good friends along the way.

WanderersTV, the Gasroom, Dave Gardner’s Wycombe Wanderers Friends Facebook page and telephone conversations with Dave and other friends have been major compensations for not actually being able to savour the atmosphere at close quarters (!), the banter/general discussion before, during and after games and, not least, the numbing sensation of sitting with feet in an inch of freezing water in the front row of the top tier in the Frank Adams stand - admittedly a pretty rare occurrence !

Finally, a wonderfully unexpected development. Against all expectations and a background of unswerving allegiance to Arsenal FC, my son-in-law and grandson have been to a couple of recent games at Adams Park and say they hope to go to more games in future. They live in Lane End so it’s a slightly less arduous journey and a wee bit less expensive than the trip to Highbury or whatever it’s called these days.

It’s all pretty positive. COYB.

It was a great afternoon in no small part to efforts off the pitch as well as on. To make todays game happen in such difficult circumstances many staff went way beyond what many would expect. By way of just one example, our under pitch heating is on its last legs (understand it will be replaced close season), as a result a member of staff remained at the stadium all night so that when the system tripped and switched itself off they were there to manually switch it back on. And there are many many more examples where that one came from. We are lucky to have such dedicated staff. Let’s cut them some slack and give the club a break, time for some festive cheer folks.

I'm hoping he just turns to Dobbo and says "get the guitar" then plays 'Free Love on the Free Love Freeway'

RC is convinced that WW should be a Championship club & wants to build a stadium to match. When we were promoted to the Championship the club didn’t overspend & were able to use the income (albeit without fans during Covid) to cover the £3 million loss.

The problem this year is that Pete Couhig drew up 3 playing budgets in the summer, “A get back to the Championship quick” budget, a moderate budget & a frugal budget. They chose option one. If you look at the current L1 table the likes of WW, Oxford & the team from MK are very much under-performing, given their recent history.

Putting all our eggs in one basket (striving for the Championship) has seen us go out of cup competitions with a whimper. The FA Cup in particular could have brought in big prize money. WW are re-configuring the ground to bring in £20-25,000 v Ipswich. A win alone over Walsall would be £47,000.

My gripe with this is you can’t simply “budget for promotion”. Sunderland have proved this over the years. We got promoted by being “little Wycombe” with some great characters at the club. The bigger clubs simply couldn’t work us out.

Off the field I’d rather see us develop the ground cautiously. Let’s have an architect’s model of what it would look like - but only do it once (or if) we are in the Championship. I get the FA Stand needs urgent repairs, the pitch needs completely relaying & the terrace needs repairs. I believe there is a cultural difference here in so far as RC believes if you build a fantastic “facility” people will want to come. They will only do so if there’s a match they want to see.

In summary, we have gone for promotion this season with an unsustainable budget. At the start I predicted we’d finish 10th. Sides losing play-off finals often have a moderate season the year afterwards. The season is by no means finished & we could still go up - but it’s looking less likely. Having had a taste of it we’d all love to be back in the Championship but that can’t be bought - especially with a small club like Wycombe. We are now witnessing the fall-out.

Had a few hours to sleep and ponder the shambles of last night.

Firstly a lot of the animosity has been created by The Trust. The very people who are there to protect our interests. Not having the balls to shout out when they saw this financial trajectory is unforgivable. Not representing the 'tone' of the fans to the owners just simply jumping on the RC positivity train. And finally not being capable of communicating with the very people they claim to represent last night. Everything about The Trust screams unfit. Well meaning, innocents, staring at the headlights, whatever, the result is the same.

Onto Rob. I don't think he has bad intentions. On the contrary I think he has good intentions. Whether those intentions are possible in world he does not understand is my concern. And whether he feels the risks are relatively low, it's not as if he lives in Totteridge and the majority of the new debt he is planning will not be his.

At the end of the day we are passengers and have been since he took over. We are fortunate we still have a club but it is no longer our club, it his his club. Wether we are heading for a cliff we can't do a lot about it. We can try and express our wishes as a fan base but what are those wishes? The threads on this message board about who we should be signing next are always the most popular, so we have a hunger for success. I'm sure all fans do. So did Derby fans. At the end of the day Rob has simply tapped into this hunger and is offering to deliver. Why people are angry at that is confusing. Do we doubt him? Do we see that it is not possible? In our heart of ours do we know that our desire to sign a shiny new striker is a fantasy as we can't have that guy we can afford someone who has dodgy knees and is slipping down the leagues.

So I guess it down to a little soul searching. Do we want the dream of success at all costs? In which case get behind Rob and support him all the way. Do we want a sustainable club in league 1 (occasionally league 2) then prepare to cut your cloth on and off the field.

And a final note. If anyone is aiming personal abuse at Rob on social media or even on the terrace when you have had a shandy just do one. Seriously, do one. You embarrass yourself and your club. And for what aim? Just don't

The league and non league is full of clubs of rolled the dice to have a go at reaching the promised land (whatever that is to them). Sometimes financed by a sociopath sometimes by debt mountains. Even those clubs who made it subsequently failed as their dreams weren’t sustainable.

It might seem defeatist but sometimes you just need to know your limit and be at peace with that. For some of us we are in the promised land. Just because someone who had never heard of our little club til 4 years ago thinks differently doesn’t mean that they are right.

Just saying.