No one is claiming that our preparations for the season were exactly ideal, but calling it a shambles ignores some serious misfortune. No one could have predicted injuries to McCarthy, Tafazolli, Forino and particularly Vokes, all first choice players. The goalkeeper situation has been well chronicled, but it is a fact that Manchester United changed their mind late in the day regarding Bishop. I’m not sure how we could have legislated for those setbacks without the benefit of hindsight.
Mmm. Certainly several of the teams would be, but I’m still scarred from John Sutton, who could bang them in at that level, but not so much for us in the heady heights of L2. I know, I know, a sample size of one, but still…
Before a ball has been kicked this season there were people on here asking what our plan was should key players such as Ryan Tafazolli and Sam Vokes were to suffer injury. Surely this can be legislated for? Not least as we’ve been working within the framework of defined transfer windows and squads for years now. I think the most baffling aspect is Gareth Ainsworth usually has this under control. What’s different this summer? I wonder if something has changed internally.
Didn't Waddock start off the year after Hayes cleared off with about 9 players in one go, most of whom turned out to be rubbish and end it with a new Aldershot reserve every week? Did sign Ainsworth though.
Looking from outside it is easy to throw the shambolic claim at our recruitment strategy this summer, but in doing so we have to accept that we are doing so on very limited actual information.
Pretty much all of us have gone on here to praise GA’s policy of judging the character of the person almost as much as their football ability and the amount of groundwork that goes on in the background to try and ensure that any new players is the right fit.
We know (or have enough evidence to surmise) that GA saw Mawson and (almost certainly) Bishop as the right players to rebuild the spine and was prepared to wait as long as necessary for the players he saw as being the best for Wycombe in the long term.
The apparent fall through of the (probable) Bishop loan obviously was unexpected but I would be surprised if Stryjek wasn’t on our radar before it all went pear-shaped.
Regarding replacing Bayo I wonder whether we have not gone for an out and out back up target man deliberately, so that we can better evolve an alternative style.
Our strategy may at the moment appear to have backfired a little, but what we don’t know is whether the characters of the new players was worth the wait and the risk of a few dropped points.
It isn’t something we can find out quickly either and it probably won’t be until the end of the season that we can really take an informed view of whether GA got it right or not.
I know we’ve had a very poor week results wise but in the last seven days we’ve signed Alfie Mawson who is already beginning to show his class with very little match practice and and what seems to be a fairly useful keeper who looks as though we can take care of himself in the box. In addition we are signing young players up for the development side as though it’s going out of fashion which is a good omen for the future. Obviously hoping we get something out of the trip to Barnsley on Saturday but it’s not the end of the world if we don’t over 40 games to go
Yeah, we won't, but there should be space for someone as I can't see all of Wakely, De Barr and Young sticking around. Parsons going out on loan has already freed up one senior outfield space.
Keeping Stockdale, Signing Bishop, Signing the new guy, the other young guys, presumably approaching the guy at Burnley and scouting others, and blooding Dickinson were clearly all plan A. Or was it all an accident as they've done sod all this Summer, something like that
Bad news, I’m afraid @leeronhagg. Wanderers82 is no longer with us. On a more positive note, some believe that he has been re-incarnated as @Quartersman80. Similar style and idiosyncratic grammar, spelling and punctuation but arguably rather more literate/articulate.
Not sure how this justifies a downward thumb. Just a statement of fact, d’ya nae think?
I'm surprised that anyone has described our recruitment this summer as shambolic given that we have Man Utd as the current yardstick by which to measure shambolic (lack of) recruitment policy.
I hope my use of the term yardstick doesn't offend anyone who is now only familiar with metric measurements.
That was me I believe. Always happy to be the Debbie Downer of the Gasroom (I know others take issue when @aloysius describes himself as Wycombe's answer to Cassandra).
As for Max, I will reserve judgement until I see how he organises a defence, comes for the ball and how quickly it takes for him to secure the confidence of his teammates. None of which can be seen though any shot-stopping highlights video packaged together by his agent (let's hope the club also watched a video of goals he conceded before signing though...)
I would be interested to know whether he was genuinely considered an option over the early summer before they opted for Bishop or whether the club waited until after Burton before consulting the transfer database for whoever was available on a cheap deal and low salary.
The club were happy to trumpet its new recruitment analysis team when it was introduced 18 months back. Let's hope they've proven their worth with Max. I guess we'll see over the coming weeks.
Comments
No one is claiming that our preparations for the season were exactly ideal, but calling it a shambles ignores some serious misfortune. No one could have predicted injuries to McCarthy, Tafazolli, Forino and particularly Vokes, all first choice players. The goalkeeper situation has been well chronicled, but it is a fact that Manchester United changed their mind late in the day regarding Bishop. I’m not sure how we could have legislated for those setbacks without the benefit of hindsight.
Mmm. Certainly several of the teams would be, but I’m still scarred from John Sutton, who could bang them in at that level, but not so much for us in the heady heights of L2. I know, I know, a sample size of one, but still…
Before a ball has been kicked this season there were people on here asking what our plan was should key players such as Ryan Tafazolli and Sam Vokes were to suffer injury. Surely this can be legislated for? Not least as we’ve been working within the framework of defined transfer windows and squads for years now. I think the most baffling aspect is Gareth Ainsworth usually has this under control. What’s different this summer? I wonder if something has changed internally.
I watch quite a bit of it on Sky and BBC Scotland and,apart from Rangers and Celtic, I don't think it is.
Didn't Waddock start off the year after Hayes cleared off with about 9 players in one go, most of whom turned out to be rubbish and end it with a new Aldershot reserve every week? Did sign Ainsworth though.
@StrongestTeam It was the sensational six:
Gary Doherty
Matt Spring
Sam Wood
Lee Angol
Dennis Oli
Richard Logan
“We’ve come a long way, baby”
Looking from outside it is easy to throw the shambolic claim at our recruitment strategy this summer, but in doing so we have to accept that we are doing so on very limited actual information.
Pretty much all of us have gone on here to praise GA’s policy of judging the character of the person almost as much as their football ability and the amount of groundwork that goes on in the background to try and ensure that any new players is the right fit.
We know (or have enough evidence to surmise) that GA saw Mawson and (almost certainly) Bishop as the right players to rebuild the spine and was prepared to wait as long as necessary for the players he saw as being the best for Wycombe in the long term.
The apparent fall through of the (probable) Bishop loan obviously was unexpected but I would be surprised if Stryjek wasn’t on our radar before it all went pear-shaped.
Regarding replacing Bayo I wonder whether we have not gone for an out and out back up target man deliberately, so that we can better evolve an alternative style.
Our strategy may at the moment appear to have backfired a little, but what we don’t know is whether the characters of the new players was worth the wait and the risk of a few dropped points.
It isn’t something we can find out quickly either and it probably won’t be until the end of the season that we can really take an informed view of whether GA got it right or not.
I think we will just call him Max
I know we’ve had a very poor week results wise but in the last seven days we’ve signed Alfie Mawson who is already beginning to show his class with very little match practice and and what seems to be a fairly useful keeper who looks as though we can take care of himself in the box. In addition we are signing young players up for the development side as though it’s going out of fashion which is a good omen for the future. Obviously hoping we get something out of the trip to Barnsley on Saturday but it’s not the end of the world if we don’t over 40 games to go
Stree-yek
Did we pay a fee for Mighty Max?
Waddock kept raiding Aldershot even though they were the league below. Was truly the worst contacts book in football bar Sanchez.
Can’t see us getting anywhere near Ali Koiki with Glasgow Rangers and Derby in the hunt for him.
Yeah, we won't, but there should be space for someone as I can't see all of Wakely, De Barr and Young sticking around. Parsons going out on loan has already freed up one senior outfield space.
The plan for an injured Taff was Mawson, the plan for an injured Vokes was Hanlan.
Apparently nothing up front but a sliding scale based on performance, clean sheets & promotion.
Keeping Stockdale, Signing Bishop, Signing the new guy, the other young guys, presumably approaching the guy at Burnley and scouting others, and blooding Dickinson were clearly all plan A. Or was it all an accident as they've done sod all this Summer, something like that
Who's the guy at Burnley?
Sam Wood was a decent player.
Dennis Oli was absolutely terrible.
Maybe we could swap Kaikai for Koiki and they would never know.
Agreed about Wood. I don't remember Doherty being bad either? The rest though...
Yes Doherty was decent.
Top half is Rangers and Celtic. Bottom half is everyone else.
One of the few cases of two halves not being equal in size.
Scottish Premiership. John Sutton. Nuff said.
I can’t believe we haven’t heard @Wanderers82’s positive vibes on this signing yet!
I’m betting something along the lines of:
1) Bishop was going to be the second coming of Jesus H Christ. It’s GA’s fault for not signing him.
2) Stryjek isn’t fit for Wealdstone let alone Wycombe. It’s GA’s fault for signing a dud.
3) GA doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Bad news, I’m afraid @leeronhagg. Wanderers82 is no longer with us. On a more positive note, some believe that he has been re-incarnated as @Quartersman80. Similar style and idiosyncratic grammar, spelling and punctuation but arguably rather more literate/articulate.
Not sure how this justifies a downward thumb. Just a statement of fact, d’ya nae think?
I'm surprised that anyone has described our recruitment this summer as shambolic given that we have Man Utd as the current yardstick by which to measure shambolic (lack of) recruitment policy.
I hope my use of the term yardstick doesn't offend anyone who is now only familiar with metric measurements.
That was me I believe. Always happy to be the Debbie Downer of the Gasroom (I know others take issue when @aloysius describes himself as Wycombe's answer to Cassandra).
As for Max, I will reserve judgement until I see how he organises a defence, comes for the ball and how quickly it takes for him to secure the confidence of his teammates. None of which can be seen though any shot-stopping highlights video packaged together by his agent (let's hope the club also watched a video of goals he conceded before signing though...)
I would be interested to know whether he was genuinely considered an option over the early summer before they opted for Bishop or whether the club waited until after Burton before consulting the transfer database for whoever was available on a cheap deal and low salary.
The club were happy to trumpet its new recruitment analysis team when it was introduced 18 months back. Let's hope they've proven their worth with Max. I guess we'll see over the coming weeks.
Max seems an affable chap from the video today, but the real revelation is that @bluntphil is apparently a fan of the New York Islanders!
Welcome to the club Max looking through his highlights on youtube looks a good penalty saver.