The Matt Bloomfield thread
I thought I would start a thread dedicated to the manager, partly in response to the suggestion that all rumours could go in here, but also as a place to put thoughts and analysis.
I'd like to open with the following: Bloomfield's winning percentage is now 49%, going from one of the worst in our history to (currently) the best among permanent managers (I think).
Sustaining it will be quite another thing, as obviously MON and GA had long tenures.
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I'd also throw out a question: What would Blooms have to do for you to regard him as our third greatest manager behind only MON and GA? I assume most would have Lawrie Sanchez in that spot currently?
Before Blooms, Sanchez had the two best ever finishes behind MON and GA, and still has more non-relegation seasons in L1 than anyone with four (as GA did not finish his 4th L1 season). Obviously that is all in a supporting role to the headline achievement of the FA Cup semi.
Blooms has a Wembley appearance, but obviously far inferior to an FA Cup semi in nature. What would push him over the edge for you? Only promotion? Finishing in the playoffs this season? Having two seasons of top 8 finishes?
Best ever finishes (with the obvious caveat that L1 was not always called L1):
Sorry @Shev, I would put Brian Lee as third, maybe second, as he was a serial winner. I know MON said GA was the greatest, but I've never fully accepted that. I think MON knows he's the greatest.
22/23 season on the list twice?
For those of us who saw Wycombe in non-league days, Brian Lee has to be in the reckoning, as @Steve Peart has said above. I think MB has got them playing better football than GA and promotion would confirm me in that opinion.
I suppose the true test will be staying up in the Championship for at least 2 years!
The one we finished sixth (season 3 on the list) should be 21/22
Keith Ryan had a 66.6 win rate albeit as Caretaker.
Okay, let's rephrase the question as 'League Era', then (allowing for MON's non-league portion owing to it being part of the career of a manager who got us into the EFL). It's extremely hard to compare non-league with modern Champo/L1 level after all.
I think one underrated aspect of this season was how we not only went toe-to-toe with Aston Villa, but really had by far the better of the game. Yes, they had some reserved, but they needed a dodgy penalty for serial Europa winner Emery to get the better of Blooms.
If we get past Wealdstone, I fancy we could cause an upset in the cup this season.
They pretty much rested their whole team didn't they? But we'd rotated heavily too.
Get through tomorrow and it's the best day of the season - the 3rd round draw day.
Yes most years you'll get Lincoln or Carlisle away, but one year in 10 you'll get a massive draw.
When we win at Man United in round 3 will that actually count as an upset? Maybe winning at Anfield in round 4 will suffice
They rested everyone.... but so did we..... their rested team should have shit all over us. They won by fluke/ and or cheating.
We most definitely deserved to win and 99% of villa fans agreed
Good points by you and @Malone - but the below is certainly not a shameful attack to put out either!
Not to mention they had a Champions League finalist at left-back
+ Amadou Onana
If Bloomfield is still here at the end of next season and we’ve stayed up in the Championship then for me he will have earned the position of third greatest manager of the FL era.
Out of interest who is number three at the moment @OakwoodExile ?
Presumably it’s St. Martin & Gaz neck and neck for joint first?
Without even the slightest doubt!
The real debate is does he match / overtake the others.
I’d probably put Lawrie third, just because my memories of the terrible football we endured under him have faded, but I still think about the cup run almost every day.
Has to be, kept us up against all odds, then the FA cup magic.
The next position would be a decent debate. Promotions from Waddock and Taylor, v Lambert's league cup semi run.
(Taylor's promotion felt bizarrely bleak, but it was still a promotion!)
Yeh, even without the cup run he’d be ahead of Lambert, Taylor and Waddock I think.
I don't know, is staying up in the 3rd tier better than a promotion from the 4th tier? Or better than a league cup semi run?
Not sure.
Staying up in the championship could arguably beat some of our recent promotions though - although if we went up in the top 2 this year I don't think it'd beat that, but certainly equal it.
I reckon he might be linked to the Plymouth job soon
We were so far gone when Sanchez took over in 98 that staying up that season shades a D4 promotion for me.
Conversation today turned to that Reading 99 game. We played well at their place, but leaving the ground 2-1 down it definitely looked over for sure.
What I mostly remember though, is my pal who drove said "well do something with it then" seconds before Devine lashed that 25 yarder in.
I think we were eight points from safety and five points behind 23rd after that defeat. Is that the year Dave Carroll missed a penalty?
Yes good memory. I'd certainly forgotten that.
Yet remember more trivial details like my pal saying he "couldn't be bothered" to drop me home, wanting to leave me at the top of Marlow hill instead. Until a few quid on top of petrol money was negotiated!
I think I remember Cousins bravely heading one in away from home, getting injured and missing the rest of the run in?
Sanchez. Although he's a long way behind Gaz and St. Martin (and yes, I do find it difficult to separate them, but I would put Gaz marginally first). But there's an equally long gap behind him.
It will definitely be interesting to see what the general consensus is if MB takes us up and keeps us up!
The tricky thing about MON v GA v (possibly) MB is the radically different context behind each manager. MON takes the club all the way from non-league to 6th in L1 at a neckbreaking pace (with two FA Trophies thrown in for good measure) and sets the table for everything that happens in the EFL era. GA becomes famous for success with no money in the (mostly) Trust era, saving the club from oblivion and ultimately securing a miracle promotion to the Champo the first year he has any money to speak of. MB could potentially take a wealthier version into the ultra-modern analytical (and academy) era playing a scintillating brand of football.
Those Wycombe managerial careers are so different, it is a lot to untangle! But I like to think of it (just like ownership) that we have been fortunate enough to have what we need exactly when we needed it.
Greatest = things won + how much you like the guy.
MB GA and MO'N are level in the likeability stakes which means things won is the decider. Promotion to the Championship is the greatest thing we have ever won so GA is 1st. MB can equal that in a few months time and keeping us there will hand him the crown.
Even showing some potential to match the big 2 is a great position to be in.
Keep ticking those games off!