Torquay
Did a bit of tidying up last night and came across my programme for the famous Torquay game (they must have given them away, I am far too tight to have bought one)
A couple of things struck me, none of them rocket science to be fair.
1) this happened less than two years ago. It feels far far longer ago, almost a different age. Two years ago rather than moaning about whether or not we would make the playoffs again and maybe missing out on another trip to Wembley, we were worrying about the very existence if the club. An incredible transformation.
2) Torquay themselves offering a sobering warning as to what almost happened. They have teetered on the edge of extinction. On Saturday while we were playing Bristol, they were playing Bognor. Next season they will have league games against Maidenhead and Concord Rangers (?). Would our club have survived this?
3) the back of the programme listed each teams full squads. We had 28 players, Torquay 29. This year we would be struggling to name 20. How times change.
4) two years on, just three of those 28 players have been contracted to us throughout. One more has gone and returned, one then on loan signed for us, one more on loan has gone, returned on loan, gone again, returned on contract and been loaned out and another gone returned to us on loan and now presumably gone again. The other 21 (75% of the squad on that day) are no longer related to the club. One or two have gone upwards, one or two still knock around the lower levels, the vast majority have disappeared. A remarkable turnaround in playing staff.
As I said nothing new here, but made me at least reflect a little bit.
Comments
That is interesting. Though now I'm struggling to work out who "one more on loan has gone, returned on loan, gone again, returned on contract and been loaned out" and "another gone returned to us on loan and now presumably gone again" are.
Danny Rowe and PCH, I imagine.
Very interesting and thought-provoking @DevC . Really does show how far we have come, and how far we could have gone the other way too. And does highlight just how OTT the criticism has been when we've gone on the odd 'bad' run of results.
We really should thank our lucky stars that the club stuck with Gareth Ainsworth that season - whatever the reason behind it was. The transformation since that day is quite remarkable and I can't see that would have happened if we'd brought in just another manager from the lower league merry-go-round.
Good post, although I did need a pen and paper to work out the "gone again, back again, gone again" parts. Reminded me of a maths O level question.....
....does feel like more than two years ago though I'll give you that.
The programmes were free by the way. Found one in my car only last weekend.
Would be interesting to see if that two year turnover cycle was pretty normal in the last ten years at Wycombe and elsewhere. It doesn't feel like we've had a massive clearout of players but the facts state otherwise.
Really good post by @DevC I suspect the player turnover is pretty normal. It's usual for the first team to change by about 5 or 6 each year, and the fringe players moving on is, I suspect, even more normal and at the same time less noticeable.
It makes me reflect again what a great servant Mattie Bloomfield has been to the Club and how disrespectful some of the comments are when he has the odd bad game, usually playing out of position
I was thinking about this the other day while trying to explain to my missus why it's interesting that Bloomfield has done 12 years at the club. I wonder if that will ever happen again. Who is our second longest serving current player?
Depends how you define it. Gareth Ainsworth joined in 2009 although he isn't really a player any more. Max Kretzchmar played his first game in August 2013 but has been at the club since 2007. Wood's debut was August 2012. So one of those three.
Have to count Woody from those three really.
It'd be ridiculous to give Kretzch a testimonial next year for instance, so probably not right to count the years before he was anywhere near a first team game.