@Malone said:
True @mooneyman , but I can't see they thought highly of him if they released him! And he was going to have to make a go of it at non league before we came in.
We count Roger Johnson and Ibe as "Our" players, even though in reality Johnson had been at Portsmouth and Bournemouth, and Ibe at Charlton.
They released him at the end of his contract after getting promotion from the Championship. It was felt that he wouldn't achieve Premiership standard, that doesn't mean he was thought highly of.
He was one of the very few youth players at the time who was awarded a professional contract and did actually play a game in the Championhip.
Wholeheartedly agree with everything that’s been said about Luke, top player and top bloke. Clubs in our position really have no viable alternative but to sell in these situations and you have to consider the player’s own ambitions as well.
However, I’m sure that Luke would be the first to agree that we’ve won games without him in the past and we’ll win games without him in the future.
In recent years we have survived the loss of top players like Ibe, Scowen, Ingram, Hause, Pierre, Beavon etc and we will do so again. We’ll miss him but let’s not get too downbeat before a ball has been kicked in anger.
This move marks a real opportunity for Luke. An opportunity to get the chant he deserves.
"Oh, oh, oh
Sweet Luke O'Nien
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Sweet Luke O'Nien"
Other than that I'm desperately sad. Probably my favourite Wycombe player in the few decades I've been supporting the team. Hugely influential, a wonderful footballer and appears to a great guy. They'll love him at Sunderland.
Good luck for the future Luke, and thank you for 3 great years.
Of course it is a great loss to us, but it is inevitable that a young player who makes a big impact not only will be be popular with the fans, he will also attract the attention of bigger clubs. For a small club to survive accepting reasonable offers is a necessity.
Rather than see this as a negative, we should view it as a positive. It shows WWFC as a club where young players can develop and progress, and as a league one club a more attractive place to come. This also creates an opening for other players at the club to step up and establish themselves. Dom Gape filled in well at fullback, but is better in midfield, and Curtis Thompson has the potential to develop and improve.
Gutted to see Luke go, is it just me or were our results better when he was in the team? I think there was a point when he was injured last year and our results dipped. However, Dom Gape really came into form at the end of last season and I think it is telling that he got more nominations for the Players' Player of the Year than Luke. I hope he can step up to take the place of Luke and now we have Curtis Thompson we have a number of options for the 100% commitment, battling midfielder. I would be tempted to have Gape, Saunders and Thompson.
If the figure of £380k + sell-on is correct it represents a good deal for both WWFC & the player (especially with only a year left on his contract). Hopefully, other talented youngsters will see the club as s stepping stone to greater things & be attracted to come to Adams Park.
A good move too for Luke, who will always carry fond memories of his time at WWFC (& tell other players at other clubs what a good club WWFC is). The key to deals like this is having a list of possible targets to join the club as a result (not necessarily to replace Luke).
@colonel_splaffy - I also had your feeling that we struggled when Luke didn't play. On checking the records, Luke didn't start in 9 league games of which we won 3 drew 4 and lost 2.
Gape suffered a serious injury last year, then came back to apply himself well in whichever position he was picked to play. Compare that to players who seem to sulk if they don't play in their favoured position, and it's not difficult to see how a player could gain the respect and appreciation of the dressing room that is reflected at the end of the season.
If Mooneyman’s research is correct- and I’m sure it is-then a similar return over 46 games without Luke would give us 65 points and I think we’d all settle for that!
Of course, that’s ignoring a number of factors like higher division etc but it proves that one player doesn’t make a team. We’ll miss Luke but he’s not indispensable.
To read some of the ill informed and downright ridiculous comments on the FB page, we might as well prepare for relegation before a ball has been kicked.
@colonel_splaffy - I also had your feeling that we struggled when Luke didn't play. On checking the records, Luke didn't start in 9 league games of which we won 3 drew 4 and lost 2.
Thanks for checking, it seems like did improve the results but perhaps it wasn't as bad without him as my gut feeling suggested.
I struggle to understand people acting like 380k is some sort of rip off for a guy really with only a few seasons of league 2 action.
He's not a attacking teen wonderkid, like the really big fees we've maybe seen from league 2 before, so 380k plus a sell on percentage seems decent indeed.
@Malone He has proved to be a significant player for WWFC over the last two, if not three seasons. At a perfect age of 23, £380k is some sort of rip off given his influence.
Scandalous? That’s the kind of over-the-top comment that should be posted on the FB page.
1.The quoted fee is a rumour, the clubs say the fee will be undisclosed.
2.Even if the rumoured fee is correct, who knows what it will amount to after add ons and a future sale clause.
3.Whatever the fee is, it represents a 100 per cent profit on what we paid for Luke.
4.He could have left at the end of the season and we wouldn’t have received any fee at all.
5.It might have been the only offer received for Luke and one that the player himself would have been understandably keen for the club to accept.
How on earth can you describe the club’s actions as scandalous?
I've described the rumoured fee as scandalous not the club's actions.
But the rumoured fee comes from once again a fan-owned club announcing an undisclosed fee.
He also could have gone in January having proved himself in League One or signed a new contract. I think he is worth far more than £380k and if that was the fee it was a big mistake to accept. Certainly the comments on the official website suggest it was not a clear cut offer and a lot of contemplation went on.
If Wycombe become known as a club who stand in a player's way when the want to progress then it has longer term implications on our ability to attract talented young players
Conversely, if Gareth and the board can point to actual examples of players that have developed here, progressed as footballers and moved on then it might just make the difference between choosing us or another club
I'm pleased we had Luke for 3 years, I enjoyed seeing him develop as a player and establish a genuinely affectionate rapport with the fans, and I'm sad he won't be here this season.
I'm also pleased for him as a player and excited to see what he will go on to achieve in the years to come
I think you need to be more realistic. If the club had said no then I’m sure Sunderland would have looked elsewhere and that could have left Luke unhappy and demotivated. You think he’s worth more but Sunderland clearly don’t agree with your valuation.
We are still in debt and need to address our financial situation as quickly as possible. Waiting till January could have driven the fee even lower because he would have been nearer the end of his contract and could also have suffered a serious injury. Sometimes you have to take the best offer that’s on the table.
For all those people advocating that Dominic Gape steps up into the Luke-shaped hole, I agree but don't forget he also only has one year left on his contract. A strong start to the season and we could easily see him leave in January. I suggested at the beginning of summer that one of Gareth's big priorities this close season should be to pick up a couple of raw, talented and discarded youngsters in the LON / DG mold so we could train them up ready for when those two inevitably moved on.
Subsequently I've posted about my slight disappointment only to have seen one on trial, Chris Regis against West Ham, who was subsequently let go after that match despite playing really well. I do hope there's time for Gareth to come up with a solution before the beginning of the season - at least one of LON and DG leaving at this stage was hardly unforeseeable for a club in our financial predicament.
It’s the usual amusing argument from the same people. Why aren’t we signing new players that are brilliant? Why are we selling our players?
Basic economics ladies and gents
Get another 1000 on the gate and we can maybe afford to do both.
Comments
The biggest army to have left Wycombe since the Cup Final in 1931. Sunderland away. Be there or be nowhere
They released him at the end of his contract after getting promotion from the Championship. It was felt that he wouldn't achieve Premiership standard, that doesn't mean he was thought highly of.
He was one of the very few youth players at the time who was awarded a professional contract and did actually play a game in the Championhip.
@DJWYC14 absolutely superb post
totally agree @DJWYC14
Great stuff @DJWYC14 ??
Wholeheartedly agree with everything that’s been said about Luke, top player and top bloke. Clubs in our position really have no viable alternative but to sell in these situations and you have to consider the player’s own ambitions as well.
However, I’m sure that Luke would be the first to agree that we’ve won games without him in the past and we’ll win games without him in the future.
In recent years we have survived the loss of top players like Ibe, Scowen, Ingram, Hause, Pierre, Beavon etc and we will do so again. We’ll miss him but let’s not get too downbeat before a ball has been kicked in anger.
@glasshalffull good words. I took this news rather badly yesterday but having slept on it things don't seem so bad
This move marks a real opportunity for Luke. An opportunity to get the chant he deserves.
"Oh, oh, oh
Sweet Luke O'Nien
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Sweet Luke O'Nien"
Other than that I'm desperately sad. Probably my favourite Wycombe player in the few decades I've been supporting the team. Hugely influential, a wonderful footballer and appears to a great guy. They'll love him at Sunderland.
They’ll love him at Sunderland and at any other club he may move on to. Season’s loan at Wycombe, anyone?!
Good luck for the future Luke, and thank you for 3 great years.
Of course it is a great loss to us, but it is inevitable that a young player who makes a big impact not only will be be popular with the fans, he will also attract the attention of bigger clubs. For a small club to survive accepting reasonable offers is a necessity.
Rather than see this as a negative, we should view it as a positive. It shows WWFC as a club where young players can develop and progress, and as a league one club a more attractive place to come. This also creates an opening for other players at the club to step up and establish themselves. Dom Gape filled in well at fullback, but is better in midfield, and Curtis Thompson has the potential to develop and improve.
Gutted to see Luke go, is it just me or were our results better when he was in the team? I think there was a point when he was injured last year and our results dipped. However, Dom Gape really came into form at the end of last season and I think it is telling that he got more nominations for the Players' Player of the Year than Luke. I hope he can step up to take the place of Luke and now we have Curtis Thompson we have a number of options for the 100% commitment, battling midfielder. I would be tempted to have Gape, Saunders and Thompson.
If the figure of £380k + sell-on is correct it represents a good deal for both WWFC & the player (especially with only a year left on his contract). Hopefully, other talented youngsters will see the club as s stepping stone to greater things & be attracted to come to Adams Park.
A good move too for Luke, who will always carry fond memories of his time at WWFC (& tell other players at other clubs what a good club WWFC is). The key to deals like this is having a list of possible targets to join the club as a result (not necessarily to replace Luke).
@colonel_splaffy - I also had your feeling that we struggled when Luke didn't play. On checking the records, Luke didn't start in 9 league games of which we won 3 drew 4 and lost 2.
Gape suffered a serious injury last year, then came back to apply himself well in whichever position he was picked to play. Compare that to players who seem to sulk if they don't play in their favoured position, and it's not difficult to see how a player could gain the respect and appreciation of the dressing room that is reflected at the end of the season.
If Mooneyman’s research is correct- and I’m sure it is-then a similar return over 46 games without Luke would give us 65 points and I think we’d all settle for that!
Of course, that’s ignoring a number of factors like higher division etc but it proves that one player doesn’t make a team. We’ll miss Luke but he’s not indispensable.
To read some of the ill informed and downright ridiculous comments on the FB page, we might as well prepare for relegation before a ball has been kicked.
Leave the Facebook asylum to the lunatics @glasshalffull
As> @mooneyman said:
Thanks for checking, it seems like did improve the results but perhaps it wasn't as bad without him as my gut feeling suggested.
@A_Worboys Usually I agree with you. But if that price is true it would be scandalous in my opinion and certainly not a good deal for WWFC.
@midlander I think if its £380k its an amazing bit of business. Therefore I suspect its a LOT less.
I struggle to understand people acting like 380k is some sort of rip off for a guy really with only a few seasons of league 2 action.
He's not a attacking teen wonderkid, like the really big fees we've maybe seen from league 2 before, so 380k plus a sell on percentage seems decent indeed.
But like @TheAndyGrahamFanClub says, most likely 380k is optimistic.
Wasn't Scowen 250k when he went? A guy who quickly moved to the championship?
O'Nien also had a year left on his contract. Could have been snapped up on a free in less than a year's time.
@Malone He has proved to be a significant player for WWFC over the last two, if not three seasons. At a perfect age of 23, £380k is some sort of rip off given his influence.
Scandalous? That’s the kind of over-the-top comment that should be posted on the FB page.
1.The quoted fee is a rumour, the clubs say the fee will be undisclosed.
2.Even if the rumoured fee is correct, who knows what it will amount to after add ons and a future sale clause.
3.Whatever the fee is, it represents a 100 per cent profit on what we paid for Luke.
4.He could have left at the end of the season and we wouldn’t have received any fee at all.
5.It might have been the only offer received for Luke and one that the player himself would have been understandably keen for the club to accept.
How on earth can you describe the club’s actions as scandalous?
I've described the rumoured fee as scandalous not the club's actions.
But the rumoured fee comes from once again a fan-owned club announcing an undisclosed fee.
He also could have gone in January having proved himself in League One or signed a new contract. I think he is worth far more than £380k and if that was the fee it was a big mistake to accept. Certainly the comments on the official website suggest it was not a clear cut offer and a lot of contemplation went on.
What a change to see so many wonderful post about a player. Luke you should be very proud of yourself. Good luck.
If Wycombe become known as a club who stand in a player's way when the want to progress then it has longer term implications on our ability to attract talented young players
Conversely, if Gareth and the board can point to actual examples of players that have developed here, progressed as footballers and moved on then it might just make the difference between choosing us or another club
I'm pleased we had Luke for 3 years, I enjoyed seeing him develop as a player and establish a genuinely affectionate rapport with the fans, and I'm sad he won't be here this season.
I'm also pleased for him as a player and excited to see what he will go on to achieve in the years to come
I think you need to be more realistic. If the club had said no then I’m sure Sunderland would have looked elsewhere and that could have left Luke unhappy and demotivated. You think he’s worth more but Sunderland clearly don’t agree with your valuation.
We are still in debt and need to address our financial situation as quickly as possible. Waiting till January could have driven the fee even lower because he would have been nearer the end of his contract and could also have suffered a serious injury. Sometimes you have to take the best offer that’s on the table.
For all those people advocating that Dominic Gape steps up into the Luke-shaped hole, I agree but don't forget he also only has one year left on his contract. A strong start to the season and we could easily see him leave in January. I suggested at the beginning of summer that one of Gareth's big priorities this close season should be to pick up a couple of raw, talented and discarded youngsters in the LON / DG mold so we could train them up ready for when those two inevitably moved on.
Subsequently I've posted about my slight disappointment only to have seen one on trial, Chris Regis against West Ham, who was subsequently let go after that match despite playing really well. I do hope there's time for Gareth to come up with a solution before the beginning of the season - at least one of LON and DG leaving at this stage was hardly unforeseeable for a club in our financial predicament.
It’s the usual amusing argument from the same people. Why aren’t we signing new players that are brilliant? Why are we selling our players?
Basic economics ladies and gents
Get another 1000 on the gate and we can maybe afford to do both.