The last seven days
Is anyone else feeling totally and utterly bereft after these last seven days?
I was only 19 when Martin O’Neill left and this had felt completely different.
I’ve barely even begun to mentally process what’s happened.
Gareth Ainsworth AND Richard Dobson leaving AND Matt Bloomfield returning.
It’s so overwhelming.
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Bloomfield coming in felt like a quick relief.
But the nerves of how it'll pan out are very real. Feels like still at an utter crossroads this summer.
I adjusted to the change itself pretty quickly, but I agree the possible reality of the mid- to long term has now sunk in.
It’s certainly been an interesting week and it has been a bit of an emotional roller coaster.
i remember thinking after the Bolton (and Derby to an extent) game that this was the first time that I thought we actually belonged in the top third of League One and just how much GA had grown into the job.
Once it became likely he would be offered and would accept the QPR job I felt really pleased for him, disappointed for us but on the realisation that he would go sometime at least he was leaving us on a high.
Appointing MB also created a mixture of feelings, pleased to see him return but worried that GA is an impossible act to follow and fear that it will end in tears.
Selfishly it feels that GA going will mean that football wise the season will basically fall away a bit (the play offs always felt a long shot even with GA).
So yes it’s been some week
I’ve feel like we’ve been jilted, for something better.Watching GA walking around Loftus Road clapping QPR fans after that defeat - what’s he doing there just not right. It feels like we have been on a roller coaster ride the last 10 years, and we went screaming up one of the last peaks, but the car has careered off the rails.
Personally it does feel a bit like when I was jilted in my younger days by a girl at my stomping ground in Wokingham. She jumped ship from me to a certain Roger Daltry guy whose band was in its infancy. What he had that I hadn’t perplexed me for years. C’est la vie.
Who?
I get that this club generates a range of emotions in people but I do think some might need to get a slight sense of perspective. Gareth Ainsworth was a fantastic manager who proved doubters like me wrong time and time again. But he's moved on to further his career. That's football. Now someone else has come in, who happens to be a fan favourite player, and we can get all excited about how he might change the style, bring in fresh players etc. That's also football. Rejoice in the circle of football. It moves us all in despair and hope. But I'll personally save feeling totally and utterly bereft for things like pandemics, wars, earthquakes etc.
I've never gotten over Bluey the Swan being replaced by Roger the Bodger.
Through some strange masochism which I've not yet understood, I paid particular attention to QPR's socials over the weekend, and it just felt wrong. To think barely a week ago we watched a fantastic win over promotion chasing Bolton, and looked well set to continue our push up the table under Gaz, seems bizarre. Seeing him in the leather jacket applauding QPR fans was like a strange mirage. I'm also a little irritated at the idea of this great pull Rangers had for him, when he spent almost twice as long with us than them, but you can't blame Ainsworth at all for taking a Championship job with more money, a new training ground on the way, and a club with better financial stability... in theory.
The heartbreak of him leaving was diminished by the joy of Blooms returning. Whether that was part of the Couhig's plan, or if Matt was just a slightly cheaper option for owners who may not know about a lot of other managerial prospects, and have only really known success as part of the 'Wycombe culture', we cannot say.
As I've said before here, I think we'd have struggled at Shrewsbury even with Ainsworth in charge, and after a turbulent, exhuasting week for the players, it was always going to be extremely tough.
Like many have mentioned, thinking about the mid to long term with Blooms in charge is worrying, as there's likely to be huge squad churn in the summer, and whether we have the money to do anything exciting with that is up for debate.
I think Blooms was always going to be our manager one day, and we can only hope that, like when Lampard took over at Chelsea, it hasn't come too soon for him.
It was all quite exciting in a way but when it comes down to it we've lost a hugely experienced management team for a popular young Wycombe legend who needs time to settle in and get going, luckily the league position with a possible but unlikely play off run means even if we do dip we'll be ok this year and the contract situation means that we'll have potential for a rebuild if desired. Far too early to make any conclusions beyond that, give him time, he'll need it.
The club has been outperforming for a number of years buoyed by an exceptional manager and very possibly an excessive budget. We have been competing as equals with Sunderland, Derby, Bolton, Ipswich, Sheffield Wednesday - all beyond our wildest dreams not so May years ago.
Now we face the prospect of perhaps a reduced budget and an untested manager who might be good might be average might be weak but is statistically unlikely to be as good as the best manager we have ever had. The most likely scenario is that we now begin a journey reverting to our mean - which might end up as mid table league 2.
but it might not end up like that - maybe Matt B will excel and this will be the beginning of new exciting adventures. That uncertainty is surely why sport is so enjoyable. Worst case we will have glorious memories of recent times to sustain us when times are tough.
someone once said “never too high, never too low”. Just enjoy the ride
Fans won't accept League Two mediocrity. We belong in League One.
You sound like an Oxford/Derby fan.
We are so better than that.
I'm not sure how saying we belong at the level where we've spent most of our EFL history is in any way comparable to Oxford/Derby levels of delusion.
Copy and paste, copy and paste zzzzzz
16/30 seasons League One or higher
We've spent 1 more season in League One than League Two since 93/94.
Probably more relevant is we have spent 12 of the last 20 years in League Two and only 7 in League One, finishing in 17th, 21st, 22nd and 24th in League One up until the first Covid season.
In turnover, attendances, ground size, away followings etc we are a middle to upper League Two side. We have just been blessed with the last five 1/2 seasons.
It's a good thing those factors don't ultimately determine a club's level, then! We are an established League One club again; we might not always be competing at the top end, but this division should be where we see ourselves.
You can prove anything with facts
Thirty seasons now in The Football League if you include this season. Where has the time gone.
Did you know the PNL (Oxford) have only finished above us on 12 out of those 30 seasons and we gave them a 6-0 head start until we met in the old Football League Division Two in 1999/2000. Imagine how many more years we would have been above them without all that pension money.
I was so puzzled by some of the pessimistic comments in this thread that I had to do a double check on the league table. I can now confirm that we are indeed just four points behind the playoff places with two successive home games to come. We have won 5 of our last 6 games and taken maximum points from nine of the last 13. Our rivals for a playoff place arguably have a tougher run in than us, so why the gloom and doom? Blooms now has a week to get his ideas across to the players who have got us into this strong position and I see no cause for alarm regarding the rest of this season. Beyond that, who knows?
I think many of us are a little concerned with the huge overspend this season and of course the huge loss of Ainsworth, Dobson, Mehmeti and Mawson in the last month. We have a lot to be thankful for as well and you've touched on those very valid points. We have had an incredible 5 1/2 seasons.
Matt has a great opportunity to get us in the Playoffs and beyond, we all know he will give it his all along with his team and the squad.
The summer will be one of huge transition irrelevant of what League we are in. Currently we only have the following signed up beyond this season
Gape
Forino
Wing
Young
Hanlan
Skura
We must look beyond this season to make sure we are balancing the books and more importantly getting players like Scowen, Stryjek, Grimmer, Wheeler etc on new contracts. Matt has a lot of work to do with the Couhigs between now and August.
The very one.
We actually don’t know what overspend we have or haven’t got. Rob mentioned a possible £3m overspend by end of season but since then we have reduced the squad, sold Mehmeti, received compensation for GA, had a number of large gates etc, etc.
I think we need to stay positive about squad retention and Matt will also have his own ideas regarding acquisitions once he has sorted in his head who he wants to let go etc.
This amazing pessimism regarding financial and league position is not justified at all.
Cheery stuff.
When the majority owner of our club says we have a possible overspend of 3M on a turnover of 5-6M this season then we as fans with 25% should be very worried indeed. As you mention we have done well to reduce that since the turn of the year but we still have a huge black hole to plug for this season and more importantly next.
You simply don’t know that and as I say we have reduced any deficit but again has we don’t know what Mehmeti went for, none of us can know the actual numbers. I am also a Trust member but I am probably a bit more optimistic.
I understand that we are still planning to tear the pitch up and relay at the end of the season and that is not a cheap exercise at all.
So many of the responses here are from people using their cerebrum rather than their amygdala.
I was more interested in what you are feeling rather than thinking.
I just want to beat Exeter.
Feeling like we’re going to lose in the play-off final again.