Mockery of Gareth Ainsworth and the blindness to what makes us great
Though much of the mockery of Ainsworth's long hair, open shirt etc. can be a little amusing at times, it really does go over the top. Almost every opposition forum seems to end up with a derailed thread with everyone taking turns at their version of mockery.
I am sure it would be water off a duck's back to him, but the deep irony to me is that they are all mocking the very thing that makes us great, which Bayo described perfectly - a culture where everyone is encouraged to unashamedly be themselves. It is funny seeing fans try to dismiss our success as a product of cheating, when in reality it is a product of that which they deride the most - a man who is happy to be himself and allow others to be the same, which creates what I truly believe to be the most unified culture among all 92 league clubs.
Comments
Long may it continue. It's very much to our benefit.
For balance, I've heard plenty of talk in various media outlets about what a brilliant manager he is
Very true!
I think even a lot of fans begrudgingly say he is a good manager, even while mocking his hair, etc. It just seems they think he is a good manager because he "has got us to where we are" or "is a master of the dark arts." The reality of what has been built here seems to fly over a lot of heads!
Some of it is absolutely repulsive - such as a tweet from an MK fan which I was pleased to see our lot reporting to the police. I won't repeat what was said here, but some of you have probably seen it.
As Mackie correctly got a slating it's probably right to mention Clinton Morrison who has spent time on Quest with Colin Murray and was very complimentary about the way we go about our business the other night
Superbly put @Shev. Nailed it!
That's hardly a badge of honour getting praise from Clinton Morrison, the worst tv pundit, I've ever come across. He can hardly string a coherent sentence together.
He's clearly not the brightest spark in the box, but he's a good laugh and doesn't take life too seriously. I like him!
Clinton is great
Clinton predicted us to win the playoffs a few months ago as he knows we play with 100% commitment and most teams struggle against us.
To this day, only Clinton Morrison knows if this was a waistcoat or ridiculously high trousers
Best line I saw was that he looks like he should be running the dodgems but some of the other stuff is just grim and unpleasant, lacking any wit.
I think the prize should go to the Oxford fan who said 'He looks like he's having three midlife crisis at the same time'
Always find Morrison a difficult watch to be honest.
This is so true. I’ve just responded to a couple of Sunderland fans who said we cheated our way into the playoffs two years ago. Until the final day when we didn’t play (due to face Bury) we were never lower than 4th (Sunderland never higher than 4th), led the table throughout November and December, held 2nd place throughout January and February.
Clinton Morrison, pretty awful pundit but a good character.
It's a waste of time and breath trying to justify our last promotion...might as well say we did not invite lightning to help us abandon a Rovers game or try to put plucky Derby County out of business...
There are so few characters in the management washing machine these days we should all drink in these days of GA as they won't come again. His appearance is a total distraction to others who would bite our hands off to have him as their manager. Sure there are nice managers out there but watching Quest etc and hearing the dull indentikit post match interviews is tiresome to say the least. Whether I liked their styles or teams gone are the days of Holloway, O'Neil, Warnock etc
Agreed except it should be a badge of honour that we qualified for the L1 play offs again at the first attempt when people who should know better were so adamant that we only either fluked or cheated our way there last time. Well it would be if they weren't biased unstable morons.
For the record...eighth or not, I was pretty confident we would have made the L1 play-offs last time around if the season had played out. The improvement in the team/squad has been immense and I have found the last three seasons pretty darn exciting!
It's the same this time around. The line during the Milton Keynes games was that we 'gatecrashed the play-offs on the final day,' ignoring the fact that, like last time, we'd been in the top 6 all season.
I find it interesting that we sank as low as 8th this season owing to a bad run, around the time the past season ended with us in 8th before PPG adjustment. Instead of falling away (as was predicted in 19/20) we had a great finishing kick to get in. There is no reason why that would not have happened in 19/20, especially as we had already turned around the form somewhat (5 wins in 8 before Doncaster, I think?) and were more or less level with everyone up to third with a game in hand.
You'd have a hard job using such logic against other club's bitternesss.
2 years ago - didn't deserve to be in the playoffs, cheated to get up, as we wanted to stop the season, yet still ok to play those games.
(Wilfully ignoring that we'd been in the playoffs for about 8months of the season, and actually won the play off games!)
This year - sh!thoused our way into the play offs on the last day, don't deserve to go up because other teams play such fine football etc etc
(Wilfully ignoring that we were in the playoffs most of the season again, and that there are plenty of teams who mix it up there too).
Oddly, it seems we're becoming a bit like Millwall to other clubs and we should copy their banner that says "Nobody likes us and we don't care!"
We're really not. The vast majority of neutrals will want us to win
I know we supposedly have less pressure than Sunderland, but personally I feel this is actually a more vital game for us. We all know they will get up sooner or later, so boohoo if they have to wait. Whereas for us, we certainly hope and expect to keep being there or thereabouts in L1, but the division seems to get more and more difficult with the big clubs coming down to slum it - we have far less certainty over getting into this position again than Sunderland.
Win, and we get at least a Champo season in front of crowds, more of a cash injection, an even better base should we get relegated again - not to mention the possibility we might stay up and have a little run of being a mini-Brentford, punching far above our weight. The prospect is absolutely salivating, and would further transform the club, one feels.
Not to mention this is Bayo's last dance. Win, and he goes off into the sunset reaping all of the good vibes he has sown ("and in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make") a hero in the greatest arena. Lose, and it will feel a little like slapping a dolphin.
I don't think the players themselves will feel as pressurized as the Sunderland lads, but I do feel that in reality, a win would mean more for us (transformation) than for them (one year closer to being inevitable PL whipping boys again).
It's undoubtedly huge @shev.
So close to having a proper season of touring some great grounds, and properly experiencing it.
More chance of keeping Vokes, and bringing in Mawson and the likes.
And being able to put our knowhow from last season into operation, hopefully this time not massively handicapped by having our best striker and defender out for half a season, and with all due respect fielding a lower league centre mid combo for the first month.
Very true @Malone - we are so much better set now. Instead of signing Uche and Taffs, we already have Vokes and Taffs in house, with the likes of GMac and Scowen, and would be adding to a much stronger base this time around!
I also think this game is much bigger for the club than most people think. Ainsworth won't be here forever, and our current squad is aging. Our Championship windfall pretty much runs out after next season too. We won't get too many better opportunities than this to make the Championship!
On the plus side, if we do win next weekend, then I really fancy us to stay up and establish ourselves this time. Ainsworth has experienced it now, we have a stronger squad, and there are a load of basket case clubs in the league above
@Shev @Malone @WanderingDays
You are articulating my thoughts and fears. As a Wycombe supporter this COULD be as good as it ever gets.
In the natural order of things we are not a top 50 club and are significantly out-performing based on our resources.
This is probably the biggest and most important game (I wasn’t there at Torquay) I will have seen us play in during 55 years as a supporter.
Lose, and of course I will feel immense pride in the team and squad and look back fondly on a brilliant season that has exceeded all my expectations. But when the dust settles I will wonder where we go from here.
Quality (and application) wise this is probably the best squad of players we have ever had in our history. Will we have the finance to replace those we will and may lose with equal-level players?
But then again I probably thought (and said) much the same thing before the Southend play-offs and losing that didn’t do us any harm…
We'll be fine. It might take another couple of seasons, but we've got a great recruitment model and are developing players like Anis who we'll sell for decent money - and, hopefully, things gather pace from there à la Brentford (albeit on a smaller scale obvs). And the longer Gaz stays, the longer I think he'll be here til he retires (for various reasons, which I might write something on at some point).