Ainsworth
The Harriman deal demonstrates again how lucky we are to have Ainsworth as manager. Clearly has a strong reputation for developing young players (along with his staff) who apear to want to be here. And for me the man oozes class and integrity.
Two thoughts -
1) where is he on the ranking ladder for managers since promotion to the league - OK not up with St Martin yet, but given the resource issues, must be at or close to second place now in terms of what he has done for the club
2) Has there ever been a manager of a fotball club held in such different regard by his supporters and those of opposition clubs - vast majority of our supporters have the upmost respect for him not only for results but also the way he conducts himself , very significant numbers of opposition supporters regard him as equivalent to a Westley. Odd.
Comments
I don't buy all the resource stuff, its just designed to take off the pressure. We have a good squad of players that won't be cheap.
@DevC I'd imagine he's close to overtaking Sanchez in the achievement stakes. I know Sanchez's time here was soured by his final months, relationship with the players and some seriously ill-advised comments about fans, but easy to forget he rescued us from the brink of seemingly inevitable relegation before taking a patchwork team to the cup semi-final in arguably our most memorable season since joining the league. Ainsworth's achievements might seem, to an outsider, far more modest, but given the financial situation at the club, he's worked some real wonders after an unimpressive start. And, unlike Sanchez, he appears to be a genuinely likeable chap.
On that last point - over the years we've so often had the old cliché about "he reminds me a lot of O'Neill" trotted out by talking heads at the club about new managers, but Gareth is the only one who actually does - articulate, intelligent, incredibly passionate and somehow different to the clichéd idea of a lower league football manager.
@DevC I think all managers have contacts in the game and will know of players they either played with or maybe managed at some point. I suppose is how well you use them and build up new relationships, and to be fair he is making a good job of it.
@DevC I couldn't agree more - I fell back in love with this club at Torquay on May 3 2014 and it's been a fantastic ride since then. I enjoyed 2014/15 more than any season since 1993/4 and this season is shaping up nicely too. GA is a very likeable and intelligent person and his passion for the club is deep and genuine. I met him with my daughters at a trust forum in half term in Oct 2014 - along with 3 players - and he could not have been more pleasant and giving of his time. He has the rare gift of the human touch - which is what undoubtedly lies behind in attracting decent players over the past 18 months. Nothing lasts for ever and people would do well to put performmaces like last Saturday into context - I have no doubt we will look back on the GA era very positively - as the saying goes: sometimes you don't know what you've got until it's gone...
Ainsworth was bloody unlucky not to get us automatically promoted last year, history will not remember him as well as it should because of it. Any other season, winning 23 games and finishing with 84 points doesn't leave you in 4th position.
The only real fault you could find with Ainsworth is tactical knowledge. Sometimes his substitutions seem Waddockesque, ie often too late and seemingly odd decisions. However this is something that is only going to improve with time, as if he moves up the leagues he would be likely to have some more tactically aware coaches around him to help out. I think he is defnitely one of the best managers since MoN.
Trevor Stroud's comment at the last Trust AGM though, where he said that reaching the play-off final and losing was the best commercial outcome for WWFC. Although said with tounge slightly in cheek I wonder what GA thought at that point. Too many comments like that by the Trust/Board might hasten GA's exit from the club.
Hopefully though GA will be with us until we are firmly established back in League 1...at least.
..sorry tongue...
@bill_stickers Unfortunately i dont think 84 points will get you into the top 3 this season either.
I think a key factor, is now that Gaz has tied down Harriman on a long term deal, we have him,Pierre,Jacobson and O'Nien that any team in this division would snap your hands off, if they were made available.
If the quality of those four could be extended to 6 or 7 off our own players by next season, then we really do have a solid platform to push on.
@Gordon_Ottershaw what a strange comment from Trevor Stroud.
@wwfcwill - sorry, don't agree. I can think of no better manager (in all-round terms - personality, likeability, integrity and total passionate commitment to the Wycombe cause etc etc) since Martin O'Neill. He is so incredibly positive, rarely (if ever) makes excuses and, unlike his illustrious sainted predecessor, never criticises officials in his public utterances. Yes, there may be occasions when we mere mortals think this player or that is favoured unjustifiably or that one or two are getting a raw deal in terms of limited opportunities to stake a claim to be in the side and there are comments from time to time about the timing of substitutions and/or who to bring on/take off. But, as Peter Taylor said to me when (as a younger, more innocent man) I wrote to him regarding some of his selections "we never see your team play, do we" and therein lies the rub - for all we know the decisions which GA makes may be the best. We will never know.
So what I disagree with @wwfcwill is your contention that "he is ONE of the best". There is no doubt in my mind that he is THE best since Martin.
@peterparrotface - not strange at all. I think you will find that, in the context of the financial situation at the time and bearing in mind the 5 year plan, this was virtually a unanimous opinion amongst the hierarchy. As the plan progresses (and, let's face it, incredible strides have been made already) the prospect of "coming straight back down again" reduces. That happened too much in recent years.
To be fair, I'd rather have watched a Wycombe team managed by you than by Peter Taylor @micra
@micra I know what he means, I just find it strange that his best commercial outcomes are at odds with winning at Wembley and playing in a higher division.
You can't guarantee that any side that wins promotion will be better prepared and less likely to be relegated than another.
Judge the Play Off semi side against the side that played Morecambe last Saturday and I know which one I'd back to come straight back down.
It was never a serious comment, was it?
I guess the differences in crowd size between the two divisions are relatively small, while going up would necessitate significant promotion bonuses, wage renegotiations and the need to sign better quality players on higher salaries to compete.
I wasn't at the meeting but I'm sure he then followed up by saying something like "...but as a fan of the football club first and foremost, of course I would never have wished for anything other than promotion".
I think in terms of personality and heart Gareth is definitely up there as the best manager since Martin. Personally though I rate John Gorman as my personal favourite in terms of watching us play. The football under him was an absolute thrill to watch home and away until it all went horribly wrong with the accident to Philo and his own personal tragedies as the season ground to a halt
I think that what he has been given to work with (both in budget and playing staff) and the players he has bought in, Gareth has done a fine job. To almost get promotion last year and to still be in contention this year despite a poor run and some injuries, is very impressive. I can see what Trevor means...but I'd have preferred another run to Wembley from L1 myself. We get castigated for style of play, but you cannot fault the back four for effort and Harriman, Jacobson, Hayes and Thompson for wanting to get forward and attack and O'Nien is starting to come good in the middle.
" Judge the Play Off semi side against the side that played Morecambe last Saturday and I know which one I'd back to come straight back down."
@peterparrotface - couldn't agree more. The performance against Morecambe if replicated through the season would virtually guarantee relegation from League 1. But that (I trust!) was a one-off and, in general, performances and results have been broadly comparable to last season and I don't think the hierarchy would have felt able to invest significantly more on the playing side this season without jeopardising progress being made towards balancing the books.
@micra I'd qualify the Morecambe job as a blip rather than a "one-off". We seem to have overlooked the appalling 0-2 at home to Newport back in October which, in my view, was much worse than last Saturday. A week and a half later the boys went to Mansfield and put it all right.
We have to put the blips into perspective - which we will all do after we've murdered Villa this Saturday!
We also followed up the turgid 3-0 Rovers loss with the 2-1 Millwall win.
So, we've done well to show how good, and bad, we can be.
Even top Premier teams have blips. Liverpool won 4-1 at Man City and then a few weeks later lost 3-0 at Watford.
Liverpool. "Top Premier team?" Them were the days (but take your point)
Mooneyman probably meant it was a blip for Man City!
I think it was a blip. Both teams were dire on a poor surface, and we were not great after going behind but the other results over Christmas give lie to richmayes 'shower of shite' claim. Cliche as it is, I still think any team can beat any team in this division!