“I think this season has certainly taken it out of me.”
This is a Matt Bloomfield quote taken from the BFP article above.
Not sure when I last agreed with a quote quite so much. I feel it to my very marrow.
I can’t remember when I wanted a season to end as much as this one.
The loss of Anis Mehmeti, Alfie Mawson, Richard Dobson and Gareth Ainsworth in the space of three weeks has been more difficult to bear than I dared imagine.
The look on Matt’s in the Vere Suite after the Lincoln walkover will haunt me for some time. He looked a broken man.
We don’t need to look too far back into our history to know how difficult it is to follow a successful manager.
I fear for Matt. Following Gareth Ainsworth is an almost impossible task.
That said, I saw at first hand on several occasions how dedicated Matt was to his playing career. I don’t think there has ever been a Wycombe Wanderers as professional as Matt.
I hope Matt can get the break he needs during the close season and he’s ready to take on this job and make it his. I wish him all the luck in the world. He has my 100% support.
Comments
I reckon there will be a lot of decent free transfers to be had this summer.
I fear more that we need to find suitable replacements for GMac and Taff.
Matt is an intelligent man, he does not strike me as a screamer or a ranter. I am sure he will reflect and self-critique himself. I have great confidence that he will grow every minute he is with us as manager. I hope that he can surround himself with strong coaches who support him like Dobbo supported Gareth.
I have absolute faith in him to deliver a long term success for our club. I hope the fans give him the patience he has earned.
This is the first time in ages I’ve felt glad to see the end of the season. We only really hit top gear for a brief spell of 10-12 games and the majority of the season felt like an endless struggle against injuries, form, player and managerial changes and so on.
Over the summer it is probably time to move on from talking about Gaz in interviews and alike. It is hard to avoid if you’re asked the question, but Matt needs to do his own thing and not worry about comparisons to his predecessor.
I’ve been very frustrated that we chose to change shape and strategy mid-season when we were winning and the play-offs were within reach. But now that’s done it is time to start with a fresh slate.
Kicking off with a couple of good results would really help confidence I imagine. That’s obviously the case with any team, but especially so when you’ve had a slightly dispiriting end to the last season. Hopefully we’re in good condition for the first game and put out a decent side for whatever the League Cup fixture is in the second.
At least Matt has had a trial run though. It was still extremely unlikely we got promoted if he just tried to copy Gaz. Can’t wait to see how he blends his style through over summer.
Absolutely right that the new manager follows the path he and his team believe in. Failure would be inevitable if he just tried to guess what and then copy what others would have done.
History shows - not just here after O'Neill but for example Arsenal after Wenger and Man U after Ferguson - taht it is extremely difficult for a new manager to come in and be successful after a very long serving manager has left. But there are examples (eg Liverpool after Shankley) when it has worked.
Whatever, we are now in that situation and have to make the best we can of it. I am sure we all wish Matt nothing but the best in hopefully building a new dynasty greater even than Gareth's one.
The players need to step up. They have already let Matt Bloomfield down since he returned, most notably against Cheltenham Town. That is the kind of performance that gets managers sacked.
I hope it has served as a valuable lesson and Matt now knows which players are going to back him up and which are going to throw him under the bus.
Not once have they got anywhere near the levels of performance shown against Derby County and Bolton Wanderers.
The last 12 games of Gareth Ainsworth’s reign we had a record of: W9 D1 L2
The 15 games under Matt we had a record of: W4 D4 L7
There are plenty of excuses if the players want them. They need to stop saying how much they respect Matt and start actually showing it with their performances on the pitch.
It’s all well and good supporters having faith in Matt but if the players don’t then we’re screwed.
I cannot see that any of the players, knowing their characters as we do, necessarily threw Blooms under a bus, but even if he was suddenly changing tactics (which again was not that obvious to me) there was enough skill and experience on the pitch for the last four or five games to have secured a playoff place in my opinion. We will just have to blame the late season disruption and move on. To follow up @DevC 's example, of course Shanks was followed by one of his coaches. 🤞
Does Mr Meticulous have all the badges, comfortable doing the analysis, been on all the St George’s Park away days?
”most definitely so”
Can Mr Motivation turn up to inspire players, demonstrate passion, get players 110% commitment?
That is the test for Matt.
Not the JMacs or TJ’s they are ‘through brick wall’ players, but the game changer GMacs or Horgans (remember him) of this world.
Does he have that in his locker? I hazard a guess maybe not and that will make any comparisons with the Gaz/Dobbo era very difficult to follow.
These are my thoughts too. There’s no doubt in my mind that Blooms is 100% in his preparation and will most likely create a talented and creative squad.
However he does sound a bit robotic and dare I say boring in interviews. Hopefully motivation comes from the assistants or whoever will be captain.
Interesting how Gaz once said that Dobbo would often tell him that the players could sense when he was feeling down. As a result Gaz was always the positive and uplifting one of the duo and the players would feed off it
I will be waiting until the season starts until I decide if the job is too much for him. If like last season we are already out of the play-offs after ten games I will be calling for his head. Most definitely so.
Tough to tell the serious posts from the parodies these days.
Agreed
“most definitely so”
I agree with what you're saying, except for the first part. I believe there was a 23 game run (so half a season) where our form was only second to Sheffield Wednesday and saw us on about 2.2 PPG. In terms of performance, I would be more inclined to agree that from just after Christmas to GA leaving we looked at our best.
I'm sure one of the resident stattos will either confirm or deny this.
I think @Shev summed up our season as 'relegation form, automatic promotion form, relegation form.'
I'd say that's a pretty fair reflection, yes!
I believe there is a facetiousometer somewhere in the building.
6 points from our last 10 games was certainly very disappointing and the season fizzled out somewhat. If we had shown mid table form during these games then we would have been comfortably in the play-offs.
However, finishing 9th was no disgrace when you look at the size of a number of the clubs in league 1.
Slightly worried such a young manager is already talking about 6 or 7 months as a manager already taking it out of him.
Hopefully more important is that he acknowledges it needs hard work and that's just what he'll guarantee.
While unlike Perfid Albo I couldn't give a rat's ass about any supposed repetition of a stock phrase, maybe he does need to stop referring to Gaz as "the gaffer"
Just like Ainsworth found at the start, maybe if Blooms is using that around the place round the players, they might think lesser?
Does that measure the amount of residue you might find in a kettle?
yes, if nothing else, he may need to work on his catchphrases a little