Funny old game. Saturday we were at the lowest ebb since Torquay. Today there's a major psychological boost to the club saying we don't need to roll over for anyone now. Does seem a little brighter now. Just need the quality of football (allegedly) to carry on from Tuesday
Feels like good news but would be great news with a few words from the man himself or even better a new contract being signed. Good to know I'll see some more of one of my favourite players
I hope Aaron Pierre sees it as very, very positive news. To be fair, he probably does. Who wants to go to Swindon (other than Keith Scott). Play well for half a season more and maybe a championship club will come sniffing.
This is great news. Although looking at the Facebook group you wouldn't think that. There's a lot of revisionist nonsense on there suggesting that Pierre is the source of all our woes this season, isn't actually that good, and it would be best if he left so that Will De Havilland can take his place - apparently he's a better defender now, following 2 cup appearances for us...
The Facebook group has been hilarious lately. Full of double standards.
People are putting Pierre down simply because he isn't a ball playing centre back. Apparently his defensive qualities and physical attributes don't come in to it! @Fidget as you point out he has made many more appearances for us than WdH.
What are these fans' expectations? I didn't realise we were in fact a La Liga side.
Conjecture on my part I know, what we will never know about last nights activity is if this is really the outcome the club planned. Perhaps the 'Pierre stays' message is spin? Did the club hold out for too much money and Swindon / QPR et al all walk away quite literally at the eleventh hour? Howard is a tough operator who has a need to look like he is in charge of all negotiations/agendas (like the way he runs the club), so, I would not be surprised if this is actually 'positive spin' on a cock up, certainly Pierre has been performing like a player with one foot out of the door for the last few weeks. Lets hope his head is right for the important fixtures over the next few weeks.
i had a look at who the mods are on the WWFC group, and a couple of them are the most negative argumentative characters on there. So the group has no real chance!
The anti Pierre stuff is incredible, it's like they're describing someone a lot more limited like Winfield, rather than a quick, super strong, colossus of a defender.
People with negative attitudes may do great damage to the club in the period ahead I fear.
To pick up Mr Albion's point, the fact that the club were tweeting round 6pm that there may be further action later and indeed arguably later tweets around 10pm suggesting more news at 11pm, suggests that the club were open to a deal and hence that the "football over finances" comments may at least in part be spin. It also suggests that Aaron himself was interested in whichever club was in discussions.
Suggests to me most likely scenarios were either
a) the proposed buying club refused to meet WWFC minimum selling price
or
b) a deal was agreed but conditional on another deal for an incoming player that fell through.
It is a massive leap from this to seeing it as a cock-up and I for one am rather pleased that we have a "tough operator who has a need to look like he is in charge of all negotiations" at the helm. If the buying club didn't meet our valuation, I see it as sensible to walk away not a cock up.
As for Pierre, if he saw it as a good career opportunity, then he is likely to be disappointed and perhaps that may affect him negatively in the very short term. If he has any sense, and I suspect he and his advisors do, he will very quickly work out that his best chance of getting an equivalent or better move in January or the summer is to do all he can to ensure his performances are at his extremely high top level for the games ahead. I am confident he will.
To help him along that way, it would be very good if the supporters took a mature attitude and demonstrated their understanding and support for the lad. I am less confident that will be the case sadly.
@perfidious_albion if this was a cock-up then it's a magnificent one. Watching an attacker kick the ball past Pierre and then try and do him for speed is one of the (few) joys of watching Wycombe at the moment.
@DevC No reason at all- I must have missed what they said. All I saw was the late night tweet which said he was staying, which I read as reassurance to those who'd been concerned he might leave, rather than a message that there had been active discussions.
The whole thing strikes me as remarkably sensible.
Take a player on a three year deal, giving us some certainty that we'll get value if he does well (either through performances, sale or both), while committing him to an affordable contract. Similarly, a young player gets a stable three yrs of football knowing there is a chance to progress if he does well.
To my mind turning down an offer is simply a case of saying we think there's more value in having him for a season than selling him. In the long run this may turn out to be false (particularly if we sacrifice future value through sell ons) but at least we are in a position to make that judgement, rather than being forced sellers (presumably because we've been able to improve financial position).
When you consider that we badly needed some stability in defence in order to give us a future in the football league (Pierre signed after we nearly went down on the back of a season of awful defending) I think it has been a remarkably successful deal. Even if he leaves on a free, we've still had three years of an excellent defender, without which we might still be shipping goals and the last two seasons could have been very different indeed.
It is easy to speculate about whether we should have taken an offer last night or not. But when you look at the recruitment of Pierre over the long-term it has been an excellent piece of long-term planning.
Keeping Aaron Pierre as a Wycombe Wanderers player for the next half-season makes perfect sense and I am glad that a player of his abilities has been retained. Maybe if Max Müller was fully fit and had proven himself a suitable replacement there would be more scope for letting Aaron go, but that is not the case.
Some people seem to have noticed that one or two of Aaron's performances this season have not been up to his usual high standard and are claiming disappointment that he has not been sold. I don't agree with that and believe it will prove to be just a short-term blip. I will freely admit that I thought Aaron seemed very out of sorts at Crawley, but that was just one match, and when I next saw him against Grimsby I felt he was pretty much back to usual.
He returned rather too soon following injury against QPR. He may well be very disappointed not to have moved to one of the higher division clubs who've been targeting him but he's a mature character and he knows that it's only a matter of (short) time before he moves on to better things. He's 24 in February so I imagine January is likely to be departure time.
He will probably get wise counsel from "Tools" against the background of his own travails last year and put in performances in the meantime which will ensure increased competition for his signature.
Good luck Aaron and great to have you at AP for another few months.
Surely no-one would be that disappointed at not going to Swindon. I suppose there's the money to consider but he'll be in a much better negotiating position come the summer, provided he plays well this year.
The sneers at Swindon remind me very much of the sneers at Barnsley when Scowen went there.
Much bigger club than us,higher division, with a history of the top level, and able to pay 4-5 times more.
I probably wouldn't knock Swindon. It's not like it's some northern gash in league 2 with 1,000 attendances
Must remember too before we knock other places that most of us have lived in High Wycombe for at least part of our lives. People in glass houses............
Comments
Thank FFT a very pleasant surprise
Funny old game. Saturday we were at the lowest ebb since Torquay. Today there's a major psychological boost to the club saying we don't need to roll over for anyone now. Does seem a little brighter now. Just need the quality of football (allegedly) to carry on from Tuesday
Hopefully that will mean we sell out at least the initial 780 tickets for Luton. Should really be taking 1000+
Thank you Jordon Ibe!
Feels like good news but would be great news with a few words from the man himself or even better a new contract being signed. Good to know I'll see some more of one of my favourite players
I hope Aaron Pierre sees it as very, very positive news. To be fair, he probably does. Who wants to go to Swindon (other than Keith Scott). Play well for half a season more and maybe a championship club will come sniffing.
This is great news. Although looking at the Facebook group you wouldn't think that. There's a lot of revisionist nonsense on there suggesting that Pierre is the source of all our woes this season, isn't actually that good, and it would be best if he left so that Will De Havilland can take his place - apparently he's a better defender now, following 2 cup appearances for us...
The Facebook group has been hilarious lately. Full of double standards.
People are putting Pierre down simply because he isn't a ball playing centre back. Apparently his defensive qualities and physical attributes don't come in to it! @Fidget as you point out he has made many more appearances for us than WdH.
What are these fans' expectations? I didn't realise we were in fact a La Liga side.
Conjecture on my part I know, what we will never know about last nights activity is if this is really the outcome the club planned. Perhaps the 'Pierre stays' message is spin? Did the club hold out for too much money and Swindon / QPR et al all walk away quite literally at the eleventh hour? Howard is a tough operator who has a need to look like he is in charge of all negotiations/agendas (like the way he runs the club), so, I would not be surprised if this is actually 'positive spin' on a cock up, certainly Pierre has been performing like a player with one foot out of the door for the last few weeks. Lets hope his head is right for the important fixtures over the next few weeks.
i had a look at who the mods are on the WWFC group, and a couple of them are the most negative argumentative characters on there. So the group has no real chance!
The anti Pierre stuff is incredible, it's like they're describing someone a lot more limited like Winfield, rather than a quick, super strong, colossus of a defender.
He is not the main reason we play hoofball!
Can confirm I am one of the mods
People with negative attitudes may do great damage to the club in the period ahead I fear.
To pick up Mr Albion's point, the fact that the club were tweeting round 6pm that there may be further action later and indeed arguably later tweets around 10pm suggesting more news at 11pm, suggests that the club were open to a deal and hence that the "football over finances" comments may at least in part be spin. It also suggests that Aaron himself was interested in whichever club was in discussions.
Suggests to me most likely scenarios were either
a) the proposed buying club refused to meet WWFC minimum selling price
or
b) a deal was agreed but conditional on another deal for an incoming player that fell through.
It is a massive leap from this to seeing it as a cock-up and I for one am rather pleased that we have a "tough operator who has a need to look like he is in charge of all negotiations" at the helm. If the buying club didn't meet our valuation, I see it as sensible to walk away not a cock up.
As for Pierre, if he saw it as a good career opportunity, then he is likely to be disappointed and perhaps that may affect him negatively in the very short term. If he has any sense, and I suspect he and his advisors do, he will very quickly work out that his best chance of getting an equivalent or better move in January or the summer is to do all he can to ensure his performances are at his extremely high top level for the games ahead. I am confident he will.
To help him along that way, it would be very good if the supporters took a mature attitude and demonstrated their understanding and support for the lad. I am less confident that will be the case sadly.
@perfidious_albion if this was a cock-up then it's a magnificent one. Watching an attacker kick the ball past Pierre and then try and do him for speed is one of the (few) joys of watching Wycombe at the moment.
The people complaining that he's staying are literally the same people who complain that the fees we receive from other clubs are too low.
There's some proper bed wetting going on all round.
Couple of undeserved wins and everything will be right in the world.
Might it just be that there was no interest at all in AP and that if anything was happening at all, it was GA trying to bring in a third loanee?
Well only if the club is lying, Mr Wig. Why would they
I'm staggered that there are people who see fit to claim Aaron Pierre is not up to scratch. These people are beyond words.
Indeed. Imagine thinking Pierre wasn't very good. Remarkable
But those people are in the minority. Pierre is one of our most popular players, surely?
@DevC No reason at all- I must have missed what they said. All I saw was the late night tweet which said he was staying, which I read as reassurance to those who'd been concerned he might leave, rather than a message that there had been active discussions.
The whole thing strikes me as remarkably sensible.
Take a player on a three year deal, giving us some certainty that we'll get value if he does well (either through performances, sale or both), while committing him to an affordable contract. Similarly, a young player gets a stable three yrs of football knowing there is a chance to progress if he does well.
To my mind turning down an offer is simply a case of saying we think there's more value in having him for a season than selling him. In the long run this may turn out to be false (particularly if we sacrifice future value through sell ons) but at least we are in a position to make that judgement, rather than being forced sellers (presumably because we've been able to improve financial position).
When you consider that we badly needed some stability in defence in order to give us a future in the football league (Pierre signed after we nearly went down on the back of a season of awful defending) I think it has been a remarkably successful deal. Even if he leaves on a free, we've still had three years of an excellent defender, without which we might still be shipping goals and the last two seasons could have been very different indeed.
It is easy to speculate about whether we should have taken an offer last night or not. But when you look at the recruitment of Pierre over the long-term it has been an excellent piece of long-term planning.
Keeping Aaron Pierre as a Wycombe Wanderers player for the next half-season makes perfect sense and I am glad that a player of his abilities has been retained. Maybe if Max Müller was fully fit and had proven himself a suitable replacement there would be more scope for letting Aaron go, but that is not the case.
Some people seem to have noticed that one or two of Aaron's performances this season have not been up to his usual high standard and are claiming disappointment that he has not been sold. I don't agree with that and believe it will prove to be just a short-term blip. I will freely admit that I thought Aaron seemed very out of sorts at Crawley, but that was just one match, and when I next saw him against Grimsby I felt he was pretty much back to usual.
He returned rather too soon following injury against QPR. He may well be very disappointed not to have moved to one of the higher division clubs who've been targeting him but he's a mature character and he knows that it's only a matter of (short) time before he moves on to better things. He's 24 in February so I imagine January is likely to be departure time.
He will probably get wise counsel from "Tools" against the background of his own travails last year and put in performances in the meantime which will ensure increased competition for his signature.
Good luck Aaron and great to have you at AP for another few months.
Surely no-one would be that disappointed at not going to Swindon. I suppose there's the money to consider but he'll be in a much better negotiating position come the summer, provided he plays well this year.
@Chris I didn't have Swindon in mind!
The sneers at Swindon remind me very much of the sneers at Barnsley when Scowen went there.
Much bigger club than us,higher division, with a history of the top level, and able to pay 4-5 times more.
I probably wouldn't knock Swindon. It's not like it's some northern gash in league 2 with 1,000 attendances
Must remember too before we knock other places that most of us have lived in High Wycombe for at least part of our lives. People in glass houses............
Still behind Hause, Johnson, Williamson, Mawson, McCarthy (the earlier one) and Bates in my view but still plenty of time to match/outdo those.
Don't forget John Delaney in the list.