Wycombe Wanderers’ success changed my entire outlook on football
Wycombe Wanderers – the club tipped to be relegated at the start of the campaign when just nine players showed up to pre-season training – will be competing in the second tier of English football for the first time in their 133-year history.
When the final whistle confirmed their triumph over Oxford United, the ever-vibrant Adebayo Akinfenwa stood in front of the TV cameras yelling “what just happened?” Perplexion filled a hollow Wembley arena, and when the Sky Sports presenter roared “Wycombe Wanderers are in the Championship!” reality remained distorted.
In seconds, the interview grabbed headlines, flooded social media and reached millions of eyes across the globe. Jurgen Klopp sent Akinfenwa a video message after the striker pleaded to the German ‘to hit him up on ‘Whatsapp’; Raheem Sterling, Jordan Henderson and Virgil Van Dijk also offered their congratulations.
As I sit here today, a week on, the media coverage surrounding Wycombe’s promotion journey continues to circulate, but my astonishment remains unsubdued. Even writing this I battle with my subconscious to put ‘Wycombe Wanderers’ and ‘championship football’ into the same sentence, and it is only now that I realise it may take some time before I am able to envision The Chairboys marching out at Carrow Road next season.
I must assure you that Wycombe’s accomplishment was no fluke however. Fleetwood Town manager Joey Barton acknowledged it too, when he hailed the efforts of Gareth Ainsworth and his players following Fleetwood’s 6–3 aggregate loss two weeks ago.
There was aggravation directed towards Wycombe before the Playoffs though, with Adrian Durham of TalkSport being the bellwether. Durham was one of many to feel angered by the manner in which Wanderers jumped from eighth to third via the Points-Per-Game (PPG) system, which subsequently pushed Peterborough United down to 7th and deprived them of a Playoff spot. In my eyes though, the unweighted PPG was the most even-handed option, and lets not forget, that over 34 league fixtures and three playoff contests, Gareth Ainsworth’s men won enough games to warrant promotion.
Evidently, not everyone shares my appreciation. It didn’t take long before the lashings of flippant remarks appeared online, attacks towards Wycombe’s uncompromising style of play being the prominent theme. “Good lord, Wycombe Wanderers are awful. Straight back down with a record low points total next season” one person wrote. Another labelled them a “team full of long-ball bullies.”
If you are the kind of person who demands picturesque, tiki-taka type football then, yes, you ought to do a U turn when you reach the signposts for Adams Park because Ainsworth hasn’t built a team to pick up any passing awards; he has built a team to win.
On the other hand, If you appreciate eleven men scrapping for every ball, putting their bodies on the line and chasing lost causes, then you will tip your hat at what has been built in Buckinghamshire. Gareth Ainsworth – the country’s longest serving manager – has carefully engraved those values into the heart of Wycombe Wanderers, and en route to success has never shirked away from affronting the ‘total football’ brigade.
It doesn’t take a genius to state that next year’s Championship campaign will be a challenge, but let’s refrain from shooting them down before they’ve even crossed a white line. In fact, I think it’s about time we all, as lovers of the game, left the acrimonious ‘you got lucky’ sob stories in a pre-COVID-19 world and start giving credit where credit is due.
I must admit that Wycombe’s unforeseeable rise has taught me an awful lot. Often I looked down at the names on a team sheet and passed judgement. “I’ve played against him before, he’s not that good,” my memory would inform me, but the truth is that you should never underestimate names, as what can lie behind them – particularly in Wycombe’s case – is a tight-knit group of players with an unbreakable bond; a synergy between manager and players sharing a goal, a synergy that you cannot approximate.
I’ve learnt not to scrutinise a route-one philosophy, or disdain a football manager wearing burgundy crocodile boots. I learnt that age and statistics are nothing but numbers, underpinned by Oxford’s unparalleled passing stats and Wycombe’s inability to string two passes together. I’ve learnt that the hours I spent worrying about my match-day running statistics was time well wasted.
On a Monday morning I would anxiously creep up to the A4 paper pinned to the wall, littered with digits, embarrassed if I was in the bottom three. As technology advances, more and more football clubs invest in the most savvy, innovative and up-to-date analysis software that breaks down complex pieces of data. Heart rates, running graphs, possession and passing figures, can all be divulged in the click of a button, and if any player falls short of the expected level then there are often repercussions. My former manager, Steven Pressley, is a great example. A man that was devoted to analysis during his tenure; an obsession that I always felt gave him a pat on the back, a reassurance that his methods were backed up by numbers and a form of justification if he had to make the difficult decision of dropping someone. Since then, I have realised that it is the hidden components that put trophies in the cabinet, not how far or fast you run. Spirit, cohesion, desire – no software is capable of measuring those.
Ainsworth didn’t use science or data to assemble a squad, he hand-picked characters sagaciously. With a limited budget, his only option was to sign unattached players: players that had been deemed ‘has-beens’, some that were contemplating retirement, and others that were unproven at League One level. On paper, his acquisitions failed to excite.
However, in Ainsworth’s world, outside opinions are worthless. The exemplification of that is Akinfenwa, a player who is. often prejudged and who’s physique and irregular career path is living proof that anything is possible. In 2016 he was unemployed following his release from League Two outfit AFC Wimbledon, but now aged 38, four years after Ainsworth threw him a lifeline, he will be plying his trade in the Championship.
Looking ahead to what’s next for Fleetwood, I expect this year’s disappointment to fuel next year’s fire, and Wycombe’s success to act as their primary motive.
By now, Barton and his staff will have identified areas for improvement and drawn up a list of potential targets. The departure of Harry Souttar, Lewis Gibson, Callum Connolly and Barrie McKay leaves brittle spots in the spine of the team, so replacing such influential figures will undoubtedly top Barton’s to-do list. Down the road, Blackpool’s new-look recruitment strategy is already in full swing as several young, hungry players have signed on the dotted line. The playoffs interrupted such proactiveness at the Highbury stadium, but I predict their strategy to remain unvaried: bring in talented Premier League loanees with a sprinkle of older pro’s, play an attractive brand of football and bounce back from this year’s heartache to achieve promotion. All that’s missing is a pair of Ainsworth-esque crocodile boots.
