Yes @floyd, that was the same game. We beat Col U stiffs 5-0 with those three on trial plus a left back called Danny Murphy who we didn't sign. Bell scored a hat-trick and Mapes scored direct from a corner. Can't remember who got the 5th. Maybe Baird?
Bell did ok for us I thought and got a few goals, but never really got much of a run out and I think possibly went before the end of the season.
Bell disappeared shortly after Sanchez didn't he? York City and then maybe Oldham? He was the only one of the trio to play in the football league again, i think.
Just looked up the match report on COTN. We had 5 players on trial and signed the 3 mentioned. The left back Murphy looked very good, but I'm pretty sure he joined Blackpool. It was Luke Oliver who got the 5th, which suggests it must have been one bad Col U team out that day.
I only vaguely remember Andy Bell from some excerpt in the press years later about how small his wages were. Ok if he'd played and scored, but borderline minimum wage otherwise
Did we once offer Simpemba 12k a year as a full squad player salary. An offer so pony he found a bit of warehouse work and non league a much better combo
If anyone's interested in some niche Wycombe players;
Ex-Spurs youngster Mapes got 3 goals in 15 league games (10 starts) but was released by Adams at the end of the season, before spells at Crawley and Canvey Island.
Dell made just three starts for Wycombe. I seem to remember he joined Eastbourne Borough.
Andy Bell, an ex-England U16 international signed from Blackburn, got 3 goals in 3 league starts (making a further 8 sub apps). Was released in February and joined then-Div 3 York. Did the rounds at northern non-league clubs including Fleetwood and in 2016 was playing for AFC Darwen in the North West Counties League.
Danny Murphy, on trial from QPR, joined Swindon, not Blackpool and later did the rounds in Scotland and Ireland, playing for Motherwell and enjoying three separate spells at Cork City where he apparently did well and won a few honours. Was at Leatherhead last season.
@Wendoverman said:
Depends when it was EwanHoosaami Mrs W - late 80s very early 90s...certainly a possibility. Apparently every Saturday afternoon the male patients, like the Walking Dead, would amble over to the windows and stand there motionless for 90 minutes.
Ah, then not as this was in the mid 70's. I'm clearly older than I appear!
@Malone@floyd Yeah I remember that. He'd been on loan to Woking, but when Adams offered him a crap deal he went to Crawley instead. He wasn't a senior player or anything, but still a pretty shoddy way to treat one of your players.
Had look at Tony Adams' new book 'Sober' online and funnily enough, this quote popped up; "Ian Simpemba came in to tell me that he had been offered the same money - £500 a week - to go part time with Crawley and he could also work as a gym instructor."
(I assume that was £500 a week before tax.)
He also says he released Andy Reilly to do him 'a favour' so he could take a place at Cambridge University, instead of giving him the new deal he wanted. Reilly wasn't very happy about it apparently. Smacks of arrogance on the part of Adams. Fair enough if he wanted to release Reilly because he thought he wasn't good enough (I remember him being a cracking prospect and a Scotland U21 international at 17) but who the hell was Adams to dictate the young man's future to him?
Simpemba, who I'd forgotten was capped at various youth levels by Ireland, has gone on to have a good career at the top end of non league football, spending several years in the Conference with Crawley, Aldershot and Ebbsfleet and never dropping lower than Conference South level. He is currently in his fifth year and still playing regularly at Conference South side Eastbourne Borough, alongside captain Sergio Torres.
I don't know if Reilly ever did go to Cambridge. He was at Barnet the following season (04-05) but doesn't seem to have played much if at all. He then spent the next season at Arbroath in the Scottish 3rd Division. COTN says he later played for Chesham. Such a shame as he looked a real gem when I saw him.
Sorry if my digging up ex-players is boring to read, but I'm off work and quite enjoying the nostalgia!
I’d forgotten about Andy Reilly, what a great prospect he was. The story I heard was the he just got sick of football, or perhaps Tony Adams, which is why he left so suddenly. Your story certainly makes sense of part of that equation @Jonny_King
@Jonny_King , not boring in the slightest pal, especially not for guys in and around our age (I may be doing you a disservice, you're probably a bit younger)
£500 for Simpemba sounds a lot more than i'd remembered. double! Maybe the deal offered was that much less, which would be an insult.
But £500 a week for the level he was in our team doesn't sound too unreasonable to me.
I thought i'd remembered Reilly decided to quit to take up his studies, not that it was "forced" with a release. The much younger me, remembers thinking what a waste to give up something that has to be done now,.ie football, with something he could potentially pick up later (uni)
Yes I thought £500 a week sounded pretty good too, so can only assume that's before tax. No idea what it would have looked like once HMR&C had taken their slice, but would surely still be better than 12k a year. It can't have been that much though, if he could earn the same amount playing non league and working part time.
That is a fascinating read! The man sounds like an utterly deluded clown.
Instead of saying, "yeah, the guy I didn't even think could defend in the 4th tier, successfully made it as a Premier league defender", he plays it down as some sort of super brief occurrence, when in reaity he was a great success for Cardiff in the champ, and then Birmingham for a number of years, before the actual meltdown.
The stuff from Cawley, well, we knew he what he was like anyway.
The Uhlenbeek stuff is pretty unbelievable and over exaggerated
All in all, a woeful decision to appoint him, and it's pretty clear why he hasn't succeeded as a manager at all since.
Completely airbushes out the fact he wrote off any idea of us staying in tier 3 as soon as October or so, cheesed off two of our most loyal and dedicated players Simmo and Currie, and used us as some sort of vanity project.
Takes us down, with almost a whole season , then leaves us midtable the division below.
Cheers mate.
Comments
Yes @floyd, that was the same game. We beat Col U stiffs 5-0 with those three on trial plus a left back called Danny Murphy who we didn't sign. Bell scored a hat-trick and Mapes scored direct from a corner. Can't remember who got the 5th. Maybe Baird?
Bell did ok for us I thought and got a few goals, but never really got much of a run out and I think possibly went before the end of the season.
Bell disappeared shortly after Sanchez didn't he? York City and then maybe Oldham? He was the only one of the trio to play in the football league again, i think.
Just looked up the match report on COTN. We had 5 players on trial and signed the 3 mentioned. The left back Murphy looked very good, but I'm pretty sure he joined Blackpool. It was Luke Oliver who got the 5th, which suggests it must have been one bad Col U team out that day.
I only vaguely remember Andy Bell from some excerpt in the press years later about how small his wages were. Ok if he'd played and scored, but borderline minimum wage otherwise
Did we once offer Simpemba 12k a year as a full squad player salary. An offer so pony he found a bit of warehouse work and non league a much better combo
No idea on the numbers, but it's true he made more as a personal trainer playing for Woking (or maybe Crawley?) than he would have with us.
If anyone's interested in some niche Wycombe players;
Ex-Spurs youngster Mapes got 3 goals in 15 league games (10 starts) but was released by Adams at the end of the season, before spells at Crawley and Canvey Island.
Dell made just three starts for Wycombe. I seem to remember he joined Eastbourne Borough.
Andy Bell, an ex-England U16 international signed from Blackburn, got 3 goals in 3 league starts (making a further 8 sub apps). Was released in February and joined then-Div 3 York. Did the rounds at northern non-league clubs including Fleetwood and in 2016 was playing for AFC Darwen in the North West Counties League.
Danny Murphy, on trial from QPR, joined Swindon, not Blackpool and later did the rounds in Scotland and Ireland, playing for Motherwell and enjoying three separate spells at Cork City where he apparently did well and won a few honours. Was at Leatherhead last season.
Ah, then not as this was in the mid 70's. I'm clearly older than I appear!
And you've made me feel like a youngling again @EwanHoosaami as I was still celebrating Cloughie arriving at the City Ground in the mid-1970s!
@Malone @floyd Yeah I remember that. He'd been on loan to Woking, but when Adams offered him a crap deal he went to Crawley instead. He wasn't a senior player or anything, but still a pretty shoddy way to treat one of your players.
Had look at Tony Adams' new book 'Sober' online and funnily enough, this quote popped up; "Ian Simpemba came in to tell me that he had been offered the same money - £500 a week - to go part time with Crawley and he could also work as a gym instructor."
(I assume that was £500 a week before tax.)
He also says he released Andy Reilly to do him 'a favour' so he could take a place at Cambridge University, instead of giving him the new deal he wanted. Reilly wasn't very happy about it apparently. Smacks of arrogance on the part of Adams. Fair enough if he wanted to release Reilly because he thought he wasn't good enough (I remember him being a cracking prospect and a Scotland U21 international at 17) but who the hell was Adams to dictate the young man's future to him?
Simpemba, who I'd forgotten was capped at various youth levels by Ireland, has gone on to have a good career at the top end of non league football, spending several years in the Conference with Crawley, Aldershot and Ebbsfleet and never dropping lower than Conference South level. He is currently in his fifth year and still playing regularly at Conference South side Eastbourne Borough, alongside captain Sergio Torres.
I don't know if Reilly ever did go to Cambridge. He was at Barnet the following season (04-05) but doesn't seem to have played much if at all. He then spent the next season at Arbroath in the Scottish 3rd Division. COTN says he later played for Chesham. Such a shame as he looked a real gem when I saw him.
Sorry if my digging up ex-players is boring to read, but I'm off work and quite enjoying the nostalgia!
Apparently, Arsene Wenger does not ask Adams for his opinion, despite the younger man's massive success in football around the globe.
I’d forgotten about Andy Reilly, what a great prospect he was. The story I heard was the he just got sick of football, or perhaps Tony Adams, which is why he left so suddenly. Your story certainly makes sense of part of that equation @Jonny_King
I think I only saw Andy Reilly play once but he looked really good.
I really liked Reilly. Wasn't it Ainsworth who bust his acl in the night of nights at Selhurst Park in the Wimbledon replay?
@EwanHoosaami that was Andy Baird.
Reilly came through around 2003/2004.
Showing my age, early signs of dementia!
@Jonny_King , not boring in the slightest pal, especially not for guys in and around our age (I may be doing you a disservice, you're probably a bit younger)
£500 for Simpemba sounds a lot more than i'd remembered. double! Maybe the deal offered was that much less, which would be an insult.
But £500 a week for the level he was in our team doesn't sound too unreasonable to me.
I thought i'd remembered Reilly decided to quit to take up his studies, not that it was "forced" with a release. The much younger me, remembers thinking what a waste to give up something that has to be done now,.ie football, with something he could potentially pick up later (uni)
Yes I thought £500 a week sounded pretty good too, so can only assume that's before tax. No idea what it would have looked like once HMR&C had taken their slice, but would surely still be better than 12k a year. It can't have been that much though, if he could earn the same amount playing non league and working part time.
I understood that Reilly had chosen to leave too, but according to Adams, Reilly wanted a three year deal and Adams chose to let him go. https://books.google.co.uk/books?redir_esc=y&id=-C76DAAAQBAJ&q=simpemba#v=snippet&q=simpemba&f=false
That is a fascinating read! The man sounds like an utterly deluded clown.
Instead of saying, "yeah, the guy I didn't even think could defend in the 4th tier, successfully made it as a Premier league defender", he plays it down as some sort of super brief occurrence, when in reaity he was a great success for Cardiff in the champ, and then Birmingham for a number of years, before the actual meltdown.
The stuff from Cawley, well, we knew he what he was like anyway.
The Uhlenbeek stuff is pretty unbelievable and over exaggerated
All in all, a woeful decision to appoint him, and it's pretty clear why he hasn't succeeded as a manager at all since.
Completely airbushes out the fact he wrote off any idea of us staying in tier 3 as soon as October or so, cheesed off two of our most loyal and dedicated players Simmo and Currie, and used us as some sort of vanity project.
Takes us down, with almost a whole season , then leaves us midtable the division below.
Cheers mate.
Some astonishing remarks in that text!