@chairboyscentral said:
Ibe would be a 'project' and we don't need that kind of baggage in our first Championship season.
Agree, and he'll be cheaper next year.
If he was desperate to train with us and willing to pay per play til January or something maybe but that seems very unlikely straight from Prem and £40k a week or whatever he was on.
He did say he found himself longing for home..so who knows.
But maybe it is too soon.
However, you can't necessarily leave it for ever or we might have the Hogan Ephraim situation of a player whose hunger falls off an absolute cliff very early.
@Malone said:
He did say he found himself longing for home..so who knows.
But maybe it is too soon.
However, you can't necessarily leave it for ever or we might have the Hogan Ephraim situation of a player whose hunger falls off an absolute cliff very early.
Always got the impression with him that he thought he'd do a few games here and then a US team, or Man Utd would be in for him. Not really in the Ainsworth Dobbo work ethic mould and didn't need the job. That podcast he did with Beanie just highlighted what a good pro Beanie was.
@chairboyscentral said:
Ibe would be a 'project' and we don't need that kind of baggage in our first Championship season.
Agree, and he'll be cheaper next year.
If he was desperate to train with us and willing to pay per play til January or something maybe but that seems very unlikely straight from Prem and £40k a week or whatever he was on.
Isn’t Ibe currently on £0k a week though? I think all our signings will happen very late on, when players holding out for big wages realise that playing for Wycombe is better than nothing at all.
We must be the lowest payers in the Championship, but we can offer a great team culture and a platform to prove others wrong and re-ignite a failing playing career.
I know I’ve been getting a reputation lately for living in dreamland and some may feel that Jordon Ibe returning to reality and the warmth and comfort of Adams Park and the training ground would be the stuff of nightmares but I’m not so sure.
I know he has seriously derailed over the past few years and my Bournemouth supporting friend was stating the bleeding obvious a fortnight ago when he said that Jordon had been a complete waste of money. But (and I know it doesn’t carry much weight now) I was privileged a few years ago to be part of an OWWSA group invited to have a guided tour and lunch at the training ground. There were half a dozen academy youngsters in the refectory (?) and they were asked to introduce themselves to each of us individually. Jordon was so pleasant and polite - a nicer and more engaging lad you couldn’t wish to meet.
During the lunch, talk inevitably turned to this unbelievably talented young man. GA made the point that you couldn’t really coach a talent like that. That remark (obviously!) has stayed with me and it was very much on my mind when my AFC mate said the other day (and had said on several previous occasions) that he understood that Eddie Howe was frustrated by Jordon’s failure to perform the role they were trying to inculcate.
Bearing in mind the miracles that Gareth and Dobbo have wrought over the years, I don’t think you can rule out the possibility of a contrite Jordon Ibe returning like the prodigal son to the fold and accepting a massive cut in wages. Not quite in the Mawson mould at one extreme or the Anthony Stewart mould at the other.
@chairboyscentral said:
I would hope none of our signings come just because Wycombe is better than nothing.
Semantics maybe, Of course we offer a lot to the right players , the championship is a platform, the spirit and coaching are top notch, but also as a club that can't compete financially or claim to be pushing for top of the league we will have be on the lookout for players who wouldn't probably have been in range before the crisis. You can be sure due diligence is being done.
Will Ibe be taking a “cut” in wages though, if he’s currently on £0k . He’ll possibly be taking a cut in his wage expectations , but in return you hope he’ll see that Wycombe would be getting his career back on track and pushing his value back up.
@micra said:
I know I’ve been getting a reputation lately for living in dreamland and some may feel that Jordon Ibe returning to reality and the warmth and comfort of Adams Park and the training ground would be the stuff of nightmares but I’m not so sure.
I know he has seriously derailed over the past few years and my Bournemouth supporting friend was stating the bleeding obvious a fortnight ago when he said that Jordon had been a complete waste of money. But (and I know it doesn’t carry much weight now) I was privileged a few years ago to be part of an OWWSA group invited to have a guided tour and lunch at the training ground. There were half a dozen academy youngsters in the refectory (?) and they were asked to introduce themselves to each of us individually. Jordon was so pleasant and polite - a nicer and more engaging lad you couldn’t wish to meet.
During the lunch, talk inevitably turned to this unbelievably talented young man. GA made the point that you couldn’t really coach a talent like that. That remark (obviously!) has stayed with me and it was very much on my mind when my AFC mate said the other day (and had said on several previous occasions) that he understood that Eddie Howe was frustrated by Jordon’s failure to perform the role they were trying to inculcate.
Bearing in mind the miracles that Gareth and Dobbo have wrought over the years, I don’t think you can rule out the possibility of a contrite Jordon Ibe returning like the prodigal son to the fold and accepting a massive cut in wages. Not quite in the Mawson mould at one extreme or the Anthony Stewart mould at the other.
It all totally depends on what sort of character he is these days. We can only go off the totally one sided press articles and guesswork.
You'd have met him at 15 or so, he's now 24. That's a huge decade in someone's life, to change.
It'd be an absolutely superb story if he came back, humble (for this division) wages, and got his talent and life back on track under home comforts.
It'd be truly brilliant all round, and we'd be getting a quality player worth millions on the free!
Let's see how things pan out, he could at least come in and train with us, which is no risk to anyone, and see how it goes.
@chairboyscentral said:
I would hope none of our signings come just because Wycombe is better than nothing.
True, but I would not expect Wycombe to be top of every player list of clubs to play for in the Championship, if they still think they have half a chance of signing for Derby on 20K a week.
I'm enjoying all the wild Ibe speculation. It's incredibly unlikely, but then again I thought it was incredibly unlikely we'd get Pierre, or Fred, or Wheeler. It's fun to daydream about who we could get now we've gone all big time.
It's unlikely, but not impossible I suppose. I could see most Championship sides not wanting to go near him after his recent off-field issues and he may have to set his sights (and wage demands) quite a bit lower to find a new club. To be fair to WW, we've actually got plenty to offer him, including guidance and the chance off-pitch stability, but also, perhaps most crucially - plenty of game time.
@chairboyscentral said:
I would hope none of our signings come just because Wycombe is better than nothing.
True, but I would not expect Wycombe to be top of every player list of clubs to play for in the Championship, if they still think they have half a chance of signing for Derby on 20K a week.
True. I guess there's a difference between players who are willing to compromise and those who have to be dragged kicking and screaming - not that we'd go anywhere near any of those anyway.
@chairboyscentral said:
I would hope none of our signings come just because Wycombe is better than nothing.
True, but I would not expect Wycombe to be top of every player list of clubs to play for in the Championship, if they still think they have half a chance of signing for Derby on 20K a week.
We have a lot in our favour for new signings.
We're on the up, fresh ownership, stable management, a history of both managers and strings of players going on to better things, and being located near London.
Now we've reached the championship, our appeal will only go up. Even Gareth said something a while back about us not having to wait until everyone else had made their choices this time round.
I was unaware of Hogan Ephraim before he arrived at WWFC and, quite frankly, he flattered to deceive in the appearances I saw. It was, for me, an experiment that didn't work.
Was he any good earlier? Did anyone see any element of that in any of the games for us? If so, in which games?
@Thicketblue said:
I was unaware of Hogan Ephraim before he arrived at WWFC and, quite frankly, he flattered to deceive in the appearances I saw. It was, for me, an experiment that didn't work.
Was he any good earlier? Did anyone see any element of that in any of the games for us? If so, in which games?
100+ games in the championship. He had superb pedigree. One of those players you think, wow how have we got him.
Alas by the time we'd got him, his interest in the game was almost dropping off a cliff.
Jordan was released by Charlton in 2007 and came to Wycombe. Dobbo was part of the youth set up at the time and Ainsworth arrived two years later.
He moved to Liverpool in January 2012 when Dobbo was head of youth. I would suggest he has a huge amount of respect for Dobbo and to a lesser extent Gareth.
We can’t match other people’s wages but we can give him stability, guidance and an opportunity to build his career again at the tender age of 24
Thanks for that response @wwfcblue. I did wonder if you were referring to that sequence of events but as far as I know that was a straightforward transfer of a young lad who was unhappy and/or rejected. Parallels there of course with the present situation and with the situation that Fred found himself in, possibly each time he returned “home” to this very special club. I’m still dreaming.
@Thicketblue He was quite highly rated at QPR at one stage and had a string of caps at various youth levels for England.
I remember his (I think) debut for us away at Oxford. He came on when we were trailing and immediately skinned their left back to whip in a perfect cross for either Murphy or Hayes to equalise. He changed the game and we went on to win (I believe that was the same game Hylton sent his last minute penalty into the bowling alley). I thought we’d made a real coup with that signing, but as someone said, his heart really didn’t seem to be in the game anymore and apart from a fluked winner at Cambridge, he didn’t do much else.
That said, didn’t we offer him a new contract at the end of the season, only for him to turn it down?
Thanks Jonny. I remember that brief appearance, so maybe my memory is being unfairly harsh on him. But I do recall thinking he was no better than others we had at the time.
Though there are those who will bemoan a lack of ambition I assume we are hoping for survival but planning for relegation and so signings will be made on that basis and as Gareth has said will make financial sense for the club. Anything above those two options will be gravy. I too think that we have players who will thrive in a more skillful league with better officials. Gape. Wheeler. Samuel. Stewart. Possibly Freeman. And though we will get beaten regularly there are enough teams we could take points from to be optimistic and we are bound to have the odd surprise victory or we would not be Wycombe! If we draw one of the big teams early on i would not be surprised to see our first game televised!! As for Ibe not sure he is in the Tyson mould for a glorious return yet but if he does as others have said maybe Dobbo might be the one to save him.
Comments
Agree, and he'll be cheaper next year.
If he was desperate to train with us and willing to pay per play til January or something maybe but that seems very unlikely straight from Prem and £40k a week or whatever he was on.
He did say he found himself longing for home..so who knows.
But maybe it is too soon.
However, you can't necessarily leave it for ever or we might have the Hogan Ephraim situation of a player whose hunger falls off an absolute cliff very early.
Always got the impression with him that he thought he'd do a few games here and then a US team, or Man Utd would be in for him. Not really in the Ainsworth Dobbo work ethic mould and didn't need the job. That podcast he did with Beanie just highlighted what a good pro Beanie was.
Isn’t Ibe currently on £0k a week though? I think all our signings will happen very late on, when players holding out for big wages realise that playing for Wycombe is better than nothing at all.
We must be the lowest payers in the Championship, but we can offer a great team culture and a platform to prove others wrong and re-ignite a failing playing career.
I would hope none of our signings come just because Wycombe is better than nothing.
I know I’ve been getting a reputation lately for living in dreamland and some may feel that Jordon Ibe returning to reality and the warmth and comfort of Adams Park and the training ground would be the stuff of nightmares but I’m not so sure.
I know he has seriously derailed over the past few years and my Bournemouth supporting friend was stating the bleeding obvious a fortnight ago when he said that Jordon had been a complete waste of money. But (and I know it doesn’t carry much weight now) I was privileged a few years ago to be part of an OWWSA group invited to have a guided tour and lunch at the training ground. There were half a dozen academy youngsters in the refectory (?) and they were asked to introduce themselves to each of us individually. Jordon was so pleasant and polite - a nicer and more engaging lad you couldn’t wish to meet.
During the lunch, talk inevitably turned to this unbelievably talented young man. GA made the point that you couldn’t really coach a talent like that. That remark (obviously!) has stayed with me and it was very much on my mind when my AFC mate said the other day (and had said on several previous occasions) that he understood that Eddie Howe was frustrated by Jordon’s failure to perform the role they were trying to inculcate.
Bearing in mind the miracles that Gareth and Dobbo have wrought over the years, I don’t think you can rule out the possibility of a contrite Jordon Ibe returning like the prodigal son to the fold and accepting a massive cut in wages. Not quite in the Mawson mould at one extreme or the Anthony Stewart mould at the other.
Semantics maybe, Of course we offer a lot to the right players , the championship is a platform, the spirit and coaching are top notch, but also as a club that can't compete financially or claim to be pushing for top of the league we will have be on the lookout for players who wouldn't probably have been in range before the crisis. You can be sure due diligence is being done.
Other teams will discover they exist?
Will Ibe be taking a “cut” in wages though, if he’s currently on £0k . He’ll possibly be taking a cut in his wage expectations , but in return you hope he’ll see that Wycombe would be getting his career back on track and pushing his value back up.
It all totally depends on what sort of character he is these days. We can only go off the totally one sided press articles and guesswork.
You'd have met him at 15 or so, he's now 24. That's a huge decade in someone's life, to change.
It'd be an absolutely superb story if he came back, humble (for this division) wages, and got his talent and life back on track under home comforts.
It'd be truly brilliant all round, and we'd be getting a quality player worth millions on the free!
Let's see how things pan out, he could at least come in and train with us, which is no risk to anyone, and see how it goes.
True, but I would not expect Wycombe to be top of every player list of clubs to play for in the Championship, if they still think they have half a chance of signing for Derby on 20K a week.
I'm enjoying all the wild Ibe speculation. It's incredibly unlikely, but then again I thought it was incredibly unlikely we'd get Pierre, or Fred, or Wheeler. It's fun to daydream about who we could get now we've gone all big time.
It's unlikely, but not impossible I suppose. I could see most Championship sides not wanting to go near him after his recent off-field issues and he may have to set his sights (and wage demands) quite a bit lower to find a new club. To be fair to WW, we've actually got plenty to offer him, including guidance and the chance off-pitch stability, but also, perhaps most crucially - plenty of game time.
True. I guess there's a difference between players who are willing to compromise and those who have to be dragged kicking and screaming - not that we'd go anywhere near any of those anyway.
We have a lot in our favour for new signings.
We're on the up, fresh ownership, stable management, a history of both managers and strings of players going on to better things, and being located near London.
Now we've reached the championship, our appeal will only go up. Even Gareth said something a while back about us not having to wait until everyone else had made their choices this time round.
Randomly to go back to Hogan Ephraim who was mentioned earlier.. he's still only 32 now!
Such a waste of talent really.
I was unaware of Hogan Ephraim before he arrived at WWFC and, quite frankly, he flattered to deceive in the appearances I saw. It was, for me, an experiment that didn't work.
Was he any good earlier? Did anyone see any element of that in any of the games for us? If so, in which games?
That is genuinely shocking. (Not least in my very dodgy memory he was that age when he was here)
100+ games in the championship. He had superb pedigree. One of those players you think, wow how have we got him.
Alas by the time we'd got him, his interest in the game was almost dropping off a cliff.
I seem to remember he was the stand-out player in a pre-season friendly at The Meadow. Those were the days.
If anyone can harness the talent of jorden ibe then it is our management team
We’ve already done it once. His mum might be an influence in his next move now he’s unattached and fallen
Already done it once @wwfcblue ?
Jordan was released by Charlton in 2007 and came to Wycombe. Dobbo was part of the youth set up at the time and Ainsworth arrived two years later.
He moved to Liverpool in January 2012 when Dobbo was head of youth. I would suggest he has a huge amount of respect for Dobbo and to a lesser extent Gareth.
We can’t match other people’s wages but we can give him stability, guidance and an opportunity to build his career again at the tender age of 24
Thanks for that response @wwfcblue. I did wonder if you were referring to that sequence of events but as far as I know that was a straightforward transfer of a young lad who was unhappy and/or rejected. Parallels there of course with the present situation and with the situation that Fred found himself in, possibly each time he returned “home” to this very special club. I’m still dreaming.
@Thicketblue He was quite highly rated at QPR at one stage and had a string of caps at various youth levels for England.
I remember his (I think) debut for us away at Oxford. He came on when we were trailing and immediately skinned their left back to whip in a perfect cross for either Murphy or Hayes to equalise. He changed the game and we went on to win (I believe that was the same game Hylton sent his last minute penalty into the bowling alley). I thought we’d made a real coup with that signing, but as someone said, his heart really didn’t seem to be in the game anymore and apart from a fluked winner at Cambridge, he didn’t do much else.
That said, didn’t we offer him a new contract at the end of the season, only for him to turn it down?
Thanks Jonny. I remember that brief appearance, so maybe my memory is being unfairly harsh on him. But I do recall thinking he was no better than others we had at the time.
On paper he was a very exciting signing, but I think you're absolutely right.
Though there are those who will bemoan a lack of ambition I assume we are hoping for survival but planning for relegation and so signings will be made on that basis and as Gareth has said will make financial sense for the club. Anything above those two options will be gravy. I too think that we have players who will thrive in a more skillful league with better officials. Gape. Wheeler. Samuel. Stewart. Possibly Freeman. And though we will get beaten regularly there are enough teams we could take points from to be optimistic and we are bound to have the odd surprise victory or we would not be Wycombe! If we draw one of the big teams early on i would not be surprised to see our first game televised!! As for Ibe not sure he is in the Tyson mould for a glorious return yet but if he does as others have said maybe Dobbo might be the one to save him.
Different mould altogether but what an exciting prospect. We guys start to mature a little as we approach our mid twenties, don’t we?
Oh stop it @Wendoverman !