Close Quarters Season - where are they now?
It struck me recently how very few of the promotion winners from 19/20 have kicked on to a higher or more positive point. Using upper L1 as the benchmark, I looked at where everyone is in relation to that nowadays. Some of these could potentially go in a different spot (Darius could be argued as positive, though in a different career, and Sido and Stocko could be neutral as their situation is somewhat relative to their age) but it is interesting to see how many over achievers with us did not end up in a better spot.
On a happier note, despite their injuries, the penny only just dropped for me that Gape and Kashket get to carry on their bromance at Sutton!
BETTER SPOT:
Ryan Allsop - starting goalkeeper for Hull
Paul Smyth - playing for QPR
Fred Onyedinma - on the books of Premier League Luton, loaned to Rotherham in Championship
NEUTRAL SPOT:
Adebayo Akinfenwa - retired
Darius Charles - retired as pro, though working for Man City
Nick Freeman - a very similar spot for a small L1 club punching above it's weight, but not always in the team
Craig Makhail-Smith - retired
STILL AT WYCOMBE:
Joe Jacobson - still at Wycombe, longer injury and not making many appearances
Jack Grimmer - recently recovered from long injury
David Wheeler
Matt Bloomfield - struggling as manager
WORSE SPOT:
Gareth Ainsworth - out of work
Richard Dobson - out of work
Cameron Yates - reserve goalkeeper for Dundalk
David Stockdale - goalkeeper for York City
Sido Jombati - plays for Salisbury
Anthony Stewart - disastrous move to Aberdeen, now at MK Dons on loan
Jamie Mascoll - bounced around the non leagues, currently at Cray Wanderers
Giles Phillips - plays for Waterford
Dom Gape - injury blighted career, now injured at Sutton
Alex Pattison - at Bradford, struggling to get in the team
Curtis Thompson - injury blighted career, now at Cheltenham
Jacob Gardiner-Smith - at non-league Hanwell
Nnamdi Ofoborh - terrible health situation
Scott Kashket - injury blighted career, now injured at Sutton
Alex Samuel - struggling to get in the Ross County team
Josh Parker - at National League Oxford City
Comments
Samuel playing in front of 50,000 at Celtic and Rangers in the Scottish Prem living in idyllic Scottish Highlands
Parker on international duty in the Caribbean
Stuart on Scottish Premiership wages but playing in the town where his family home is
Gaz and Dobbo with long contract payoff cash in the bank spending time with family
Seems ok given the fragility of pro football
nb: thought J G-S was playing for Beaconsfield?
Yes, there are definitely some silver linings. I am not even surprised that there are not several more success stories, as that season was so much about team spirit achieving against the odds...we did not even have a Mehmeti type player (aside from Fred, perhaps) that we all expected to kick on. So though it can seem like a negative post, I think it sheds even more light on how amazing that season was. If you go through the list and look at the players, you would be hard pressed to think that it is a squad who could lead L1 for much of the season!
Hard pressed indeed @Shev. It was a truly remarkable achievement at the peak of the Ainsworth/Dobson partnership.
Lots of those players were only able to be brought in because they were cheap or old and frankly nobody else really wanted them, the collective achievement was amazing , but then probably not too much surprise that if you take players from L2 or lower, or treatment rooms, up to the championship that the pinnacle is just that. Some unfortunate ones in there with injury