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League 1 squad weaker than our League 2 squad?

edited August 2018 in Football

Anyone concerned that we've gone up a division and after losing our best player to Sunderland our squad is arguably worse than it was last season?..

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  • we haven't lost our best player

  • I think we have lost out best central midfield player . All it takes is for Saunders to get injured and we will have no creativity from the center of the park . We also do not have a plan b therefore If Bayo goes through a lack of form or gets injured we do not have anyone else who can play his role with any level of effectiveness . So yes I am worried and I can't see how we can "make a noise " with a weaker team than last year . The chairman said he does not want us to be a yoyo club . He also said he would make sure GA has a good enough budget to compete at this level . I have yet seen this budget put into action and unless GA has 2-3 more players lined up to come in very soon I think we are in for a tough start .

  • O Nien was a quality midfield player for our division. Was he actually "Creative" as such though?

  • This pessimistic approach is so depressing. Let’s look at the positives instead: a new goalkeeper who was good enough to play for a Premier league club; a fit again Anthony Stewart, arguably our best defender; the return of Randell Williams, one of our best loanees last season;
    the arrival of Darius Charles, a versatile player with League One experience; the signing of Curtis Thompson, who also impressed on loan last season; the prospect of seeing a lot more of Scott Kashket, injuries permitting; securing contract extensions for key players like Bayo, JJ, El Abd etc. And I’m sure we will be seeing new faces before the loan window closes.
    Even the one major negative-losing Luke O9-has had a positive affect on the club’s finances so there’s much to be optimistic about.

  • Maybe not as such but he had more technical ability than Bloomfield or Bean put together in my opinion . If we have a central midfield of Gape and Saunders I will be happy but there is no depth in this position . Up front is also concern , we are relying on Bayo to maintain form when he is a year older and it is a better level . Due to the fact we always play to him we do not get used to playing any other way and therefore struggle to do so . We do need another big center forward who can play this role . I think we are 2-3 players short as I say .

  • Transfer window effectively doesn't finish until 31 August, no transfer swindow for free agents.

    Plenty of time to bring in loans, permanents and theoretically loans with a view to perm.

  • Absolutely. Why the optimism and enthusiasm of last season has evaporated so soon for some people is a mystery. We’ve lost one player, albeit a very good one, but we did ok when Luke was out injured last season.

  • Good footballer leaves club. Fans not impressed by new signings or what they perceive to be a lack of squad strengthening. We have no plan B. This has never happened before in the history of the eleven or so years I have been following Wycombe Wanderers. What is going on???

  • LON was our best player by a mile followed by CMS - Bayo will be skackled far easier in league 1

  • Your unqualified support always lifts us in times of dark depression, richie.

  • I find myself agreeing with @glasshalffull

  • I exempt rmjlondon from any criticism of negativity since he/she is permanently negative anyway.

  • Anyone who cares to remember the 87/88 season ? I'm sure Mr Parry does.
    We had the fiasco of losing our manager just before the season started as we had failed to strengthen despite being promoted to the Conference.
    We had a couple of lucky away wins and then sold out star player Noel Asford. We then suffered a lot of defeats, including some heavy ones.
    The then board and manager Peter Suddaby were constantly bleating that it was hard to attract quality players to a side that was getting battered.
    Im sure I'm not alone in fearing a repeat of this scenario, if we suffer a series of early defeats without getting quality through the door first.

  • So guys . Do you see no merit at all in the fact that being reliant one one player so much could cause a big issue ? I know this was the same last year but assuming he can pull it off again , a year older , and against better defenders is a bit risky is it not ?. Maybe we will find that the quality at this level is not a lot different but I somehow doubt it. We are also relying on the fitness of Tyson & CMS both of whom are not getting any younger . It worked last year but assuming it will again a year on seems a bit chancy to me . I also think when Onein was out our midfield struggled more than you care to acknowledge .

  • I am reliably informed (though haven’t checked this) that our record when Luke was missing last season was:
    P9 W3 D4 L2. I’d settle for similar results in the coming season.

  • While it would be nice t put in a bid for Eden Hazard to solve our perceived midfield creativity problem, I fear we may not have the finances to pay for it.

    We are a small club with a small budget making it difficult to attract and afford proven quality players. So we will make do with young loanees and some old heads.

    They may be good enough to keep us up, they may not be. Time will tell.

  • Anyone concerned that Darius Charles hasn't played a single minute yet?

    Won't be up to match fitness and that's assuming the ''small knock'' he took is just that and nothing more serious.

    I had high hopes for him when he signed, hope he's involved soon.

  • I honestly don’t think there’s any point in wittering on in a doomladen manner about what might or might not happen this season until we have played a few games, signed a loanee or two and maybe even a couple of free agents.

    Like @DevC says.

  • A lot of people spent the whole of last season bemoaning the lack of a creative midfielder! Football is a game involving two teams of players, two sets of staff and during a game anything can happen...luck, bad luck, skill, dogged determination, disasters, bad decisions, good decisions. Splashing loads of cash and buying loads of players often works but not always...otherwise we might as well just crown Sunderland and have done with it!
    Luton spent a lot of money and arguably had far better players than us or Accrington even when we had the now Godlike Luke (How will we survive he got us promoted on his own) O'Nien, but we did alright. I'll be worried if we lose all our games before Christmas and look like we are not competing...but before a ball is kicked I'm still happy to be in League one and trusting in the people - players and staff - who got us there.

  • Micra is spot on as usual. Some people seem to get pleasure from fearing the worst. Perhaps that increases their joy when things turn out better than they expected but somehow I doubt it.

  • I will first note that I usually tend towards pessimism anyway, but at this point in time I am feeling that we will struggle to get results this year.

    I think the current squad of players could do OK in League One, if all available, fully fit, fully on form and with high morale simultaneously for every match, but evidence from pre-season is that injuries will make that a rare scenario. Throw in a few suspensions as the season moves along and I think it will get tough.

    Two or three more signings of capable players (they don't have to be superstars, just capable of performing at League One standards) and I'll feel more positive. Hopefully, once the season is underway, I will find that the quality of our League One opposition isn't as much better than League Two as I am anticipating, which would cheer me up a bit more.

  • Can we address this "we have no plan B" nonsense while we're at it? I'm not meaning to underplay the huge significance of Bayo to our promotion campaign, but it should be remembered that he took that he was less than fully fit for a lot of the latter part of the season and we played without him for several games towards the end, and (to the best of my recollection) actually played good non-target-man football when he wasn't there.

  • @Uncle_T As long as all the other teams don't win every game we might have a shot!

  • On the face of it we have a stronger goalkeeper and a stronger and more versatile defence. Midfield will be weaker for the loss of O'Nein without a doubt, but as pointed out we have the compensation of a fair bit of money in the back. Up-front is pretty much the same (pending where we are with injuries).

    So overall I have to disagree that we have a weaker squad this year.

    That said, we had a comparatively aged squad last year and that obviously has not (yet)improved this time round. There are plenty of pros (experience, etc) to that but also a few cons (recovery time, etc) so it will be interesting to see how we go with injuries.

    I also agree to some extent that we need to move away a bit from our reliance on Bayo, important as he is. To this extent though I am confident we have the players (CMS, Tyson) with the nous, experience and intelligence to allow us to do this, if we find we do have to play a different style.

    A solid start would help (and I think is achievable) but its a long season and if needs be we may see lots of formation changes and different styles (and probably a lot of gamesmanship - for which we will definitely miss O'Nein!), maybe even @micra's 3 at the back!

    And @ChasHarps. I must admit it doesn't feel anything like that season. The step up from Isthmian League to Conference level was huge and we were woefully understrength. Add to that losing our manager, then 'God' and getting a new untried (and probably not up to it) manager in and we were asking for trouble. I also remember that season quite fondly, when the likes of a dull, backs to the wall 0-0 draw at Weymouth felt like a famous victory. And ultimately we survived! (But it certainly was a roller-coaster)

  • We won't have to score so many goals this season as we have a far better goalkeeper who should give confidence to a better central defence (assuming two of Stewart, El-Abd and Charles stay fit).

  • The departure of Luke was inevitable with him only having one year left on his contract and in Gaz we trust.

    We didn't know who Luke was when he rocked up on trial. Nobody had a clue who Alfie Mawson was when he strode onto the pitch at Newport. The same can be said for Blackman, Onyedinma, McCarthy and Gape etc *

    Somewhere out there (ideally filling their car up at a Cressex petrol station en route to Adams Park) is a rough diamond waiting for an opportunity to make a name for themselves and hopefully earn a place in our hearts.

    • In the interest of balance, I didn't know who Alex Jakubiak was either, but we have been spoiled with the hit rate of loanees under GA.
  • No. Not concerned

  • edited August 2018

    Jakubiak is a strange one as he looked absolutely useless during his short loan spell here.

    He has apparently so impressed the current Watford manager after playing in a lot of their first team friendlies that he is expected to be included in their 25 man Premier League squad.

    Perhaps he just wasn't up to being Wycombised!

  • I believe Jakubiak means 'header ducker' when translated from Polish to English !!

  • @bluntphil also Aaron Pierre who came in on loan late on in the 'Torquay' season didn't he?

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