Shev

A blue turd and a red turd floating aimlessly in the same bowl.

Both teams are laser focused on passing towards their own goal. Can we just swap shirts and make it a thrilling attacking fest?

And that is why football is becoming unwatchable. If Leicester are winning next week and the other team do the same thing, there will. be massive outrage.

Richard Kone may be the best comp, but Wycombe snapped him up.

England are like that lazy coworker who puts a 45 minute shift in and then decides he can put his feet up in the canteen for the rest of the day.

It's a pity football does not have a rule where you can take some knackered players off and put new players on. We could call it something like "substitutions".

Spain's real injuries v fake injuries today do confirm the time-honoured rules. 1. Injured players do not slap the ground repeatedly. 2. Injured players do not roll around, as they want to keep the injured body part still. 3. Non-injured faking players look like they are auditioning for a retrospective documentary on the birth of breakdancing.

Fans bleating about manager loyalty ever happens when a club has been successful and therefore the manager is in demand. The fans have generally not had to show any loyalty themselves because again, it has been a period of success. If Enzo had looked like taking the club down into L1 instead of starting the current climb, would anyone have insisted on being loyal to him? Ultimately, fans prioritize their club (rightly), so they have no loyalty to a manager who may damage the club. Managers know this, so they strike while the iron is hot in their careers, as there may be no tomorrow for them if things go badly. A great recent example of this is Oxford. The following sequence happened: 1. Karl Robinson is doing well - fan loyalty. 2. Robinson stops doing well - fans say "get rid" despite his long tenure. 3. Liam Manning is doing well at MK. 4. MK lose all their loanees and start battling relegation. Fans: "Get rid". Manning is fired. 5. Oxford hire Manning and start off well - fan loyalty. 6. Manning gets great Champo offer - remembers the fickle nature of the sport - leaves. 7. Fans bleat about no loyalty. 8. Oxford hire Des Buckingham. 9. Buckingham starts badly - fans say "get rid". 10. Oxford stick with Des anyway and get promoted - fans crow about how great he is. Football is just a fickle, fickle beast, and fans cannot chide managers for no loyalty when they will want a manager gone as soon as they hit an indifferent patch.

Wycombe fan here. I wrote this for our last fanzine edition ('The Wanderer'). NEWS FROM THE FUTURE: VAR CONTROVERSY FROM 2028 Nov 5th, 2028, Manchester: There was significant controversy during the match between Manchester United and Arsenal today, when a five minute period of non-stop football broke out between VAR checks. The embarrassing incident happened midway through the second half, and resulted in the commentary team awkwardly attempting to pass the time by talking about the unfolding play on the pitch as the pressure grew. “It was completely unacceptable,” said Peter Drury afterwards. “We have now gotten to the point where we have VAR checks for everything, so for the ball to stay in play for that long without a foul, throw-in, corner, or goal needing to be checked as carefully as JFK conspiracy-theorists with the Zapruder film was nothing short of disgraceful. You really feel for the fans in all this, as they are the ones waiting patiently for the next VAR check to happen.” “I wanted to go through the floor, to be honest with you,” added Jamie Carragher, who was on co-commentary duties. “Over the past few years we have made great strides in stamping out long periods of football, so for us to see that much of a gap between VAR uses felt like the dark ages all over again. I have never been known to be one to stand for good football being played, and I can guarantee that I never will be, either – you have my word on that.” The nightmare scenario could have continued for even longer, but thankfully the “satellite look in” element of VAR, brought in just last season, spotted that a single cell on Bukayo Saka’s foot might be out of play when he crossed the ball for the reigning champions, and the TV feed was able to cut to the nine minute analysis of whether a goal kick should be awarded, as scientists from three continents pored over the satellite data at Stockley Park. After the game had finished, the Premier League quickly issued an apology and an assertion that they would work to prevent such scenarios from happening again. “The Premier League understands our duty to the players, the fans, and the television companies, in holding our sport to the highest standards of accuracy and entertainment. We realize that we have let many people down today, and promise to do better in the future. No-one connected to the sport should ever have to sit through a display of free-flowing football by two talented teams when they could be enjoying the high stakes tension of inane pundits watching coloured lines being draw on screens by faceless football officials at a distant location.” The supporters of both teams clearly agreed with the sentiments expressed by the commentary team and the Premier League, as they booed raucously through all nine minutes of the VAR check, presumably to register their displeasure with the five minutes of unbroken action they had been subjected to just before. When the VAR decision was given, the stadium erupted into completely unironic cheers. In response to the controversial scenes, ‘VAR of the Day’ made the bold decision to avoid further offense by only showing highlights of VAR analysis in their famous program, and cutting out any scenes from the match itself aside from the VAR freeze-frames. Afterwards, Gary Lineker fought back tears as he vowed to be a standard bearer for change. “I saw a young supporter outside the stadium today, carrying a sign saying ‘VAR needs to be binned off,’ said Lineker, emotionally. “which in the poor vocabulary of the masses I assume to be a kind of primitive slang for ‘needs to be further enhanced and extended to invade every corner of the matchday experience’. I want to be able to look that young child in the eye and tell him that no matter what, he’ll always have at least eighty minutes of VAR per match. Our children are counting on us, and I for one plan to rise to the challenge.”

I'm a Wycombe fan who has followed this forum since part way through the title season, and it is a fascinating look from the outside. On the one hand, I am massively jealous, as you have reached the pinnacle, both with the league and cup, and in a way that was so incredible that it will be talked about for ever. So on the one hand, you could get stuck in the Champo or even L1, and never die wondering, as it were. No-one can take away your achievements. On the other hand, football is all about recency, and as a fan you can't dine out perpetually on the past if the present is difficult, and the way you barely missed out on the CL twice in 5th, then somehow got relegated last season instead of jammy Everton (who happen to have their points relegation this season in a year where there are abject teams who can barely get past 20 points) then saw a 17 point lead evaporate this season must be an absolutely gut wrenching sequence. I think overall I am still jealous, though - Wycombe's promised land was making it to the Championship, but it happened without fans, we had transcendently horrible refereeing and injuries, still only missed out by a point, and then Derby were not punished in time for us to retain our place. Not only that, but we lost the playoff final v Sunderland the following season and are trending downward. To cap it all, our incredible achievement is itself routinely disrespected by a false narrative that we got into the playoffs on a technicality (we were top longer than anyone that season and only fell out of the top 4 for the first time the final weekend before Covid when we did not have a game - and 3rd through 8th was covered by a single point, except we had played a game less). So even that gets downplayed. The long and the short is, we did not properly "scratch the itch", so unless we ever have a season in the Champo with crowds, we WILL die wondering. I actually still think you are going to go up automatically. You have just gone from hunted to hunter, and Ipswich have a brutal closing schedule. The defeat today will help you get the bit between your teeth, I think. Good luck!

One thing that the Rodgers saga shows, is that the only true experts on a situation at a club are those who follow it day in day out (fans and staff). As fans, we all have quite simplistic views of clubs other than our own, but we know our own inside out. Another Leicester-related example is Rainieri's sacking. Most neutrals still have the lazy narrative of "He won them the league! How could they stab him in the back?" even with you battling relegation at the time. It is only with the context of following Leicester week in week out that the justification could be seen clearly beyond the simple fact of the league position being not good enough. As a Wycombe fan, we have suffered from this annoyance most recently with how we got promoted during Covid, with many fans thinking we got unjustly automatically promoted from 10th or 11th on some crazy technicality. The reality is much different, and it was well deserved. I am sure there will be many who think Rodgers was let go of too soon. I might even think the same if I didn't follow this (excellent) forum. But the fans of a club tend to know what really went down (even if they don't all agree on every point).

Hey all, Wycombe fan here. I have a question (to satisfy my curiosity, more than anything) to pose to you all. How would you describe the journey from L1 to present day, but rather than the obvious (winning the league was awesome, FA Cup was brilliant) instead focusing on the nuance of how it affected you personally in relation to your club and to the game itself. Were there unexpected aspects to how you felt after the league win? Was there nothing but a sense of "now I can die in peace", or was here a deflating aspect to reaching the mountain top after the fact? If the latter, what got you hooked again? And where has it all left you present day? Are you as passionate as you were before you had won the league? Less? more? How has dining at the top table with the giants of the sport made you feel about the soul of the game? Hopefully you all see what I am trying to get at. I am fascinated by "the journey" Leicester fans have been on, as it is quite unique, but I feel there must be a lot of subtle aspects to how it has all gone for each fan personally that may be missed by fans of other clubs. Cheers!

Wycombe fan here. Unfortunately Derby and their fans, in their desperation for a scapegoat outside of the club, are blaming their potential demise on Middlesbrough and Wycombe because of the claims, and the story is getting out there that we are trying to force them to the wall. This is utter nonsense - from a Wycombe perspective, none of us want to see them go under, and I have seen much the same thing on the Middlesbrough forum. That being said, to call our claim "illegal" and "spurious" continues a vein of disrespect and delusion their fans have persisted with for some time. The reality is that we were relegated by a solitary point to League One last season. Their former owner, Mel Morris, later admitted to obstruction and delay tactics with the penalty for their cheating, as he knew they would deducted points in season otherwise. Our owner has quite reasonably claimed for 6 million pounds in lost solidarity payments and TV money (not including the massive gate increases we would have seen, as these cannot be quantified). This is a drop in the ocean compared to how much money their overall issues deal with, and I am pretty certain we would settle for a lower amount too. However, we are instead being cast as the villain of the piece, even being called "ambulance chasers". As a lower league club, you are damned if you do, damned if you don't. Despite (inaccurate) reports of our new owner being ridiculously rich, he is not some billionaire, and is trying to run us sustainably - every penny still counts, as it does for much of L1 and L2. We have been cheated out of a place in the Championship, but are evidently supposed to doff our caps and say we know our place. We are supposed to join in with the crocodile tears of poor Derby who got found out for their financial doping. Derby will never know what they cheated us out of. We are having a good season and may go up again, but equally, we may never go up again, as we are a small club punching way above our weight. No fans were allowed for our Championship season, and we have already (as a matter of course) had several fans pass away this season for various reasons, who will never see us play live in the second tier. I really hope Derby continue to exist. It is hard for me to want them to stay up in the second tier, but as long as we join them there, so be it. However, the fact they are deflecting their own misdeeds onto us, and dragging us through mud of their own making, is ridiculous.

Team with most shades of blue in their kit gets to keep both? (Wycombe fan)

Wycombe fan here. Josh Knight won both Player's Player of the Season and Fan's Player of the Season. That might sound not sound like much with us being relegated, but we actually had a lot of standout performers in finishing 22nd despite a budget of around 4 million (I think the division average is 30 million or so). Not only that, but Admiral Muskwe won Goal of the Season for the beauty below. Thanks for the loans - I doubt either player will stay on with you, but both are solidly second tier level at the very least, and hopefully both have bright futures. I wish both them and Leicester City all the best.

As a Wycombe fan, kick them out now and shift all other clubs up by six places.

Cheers - and I say with all my heart I hope you get at least top four! Brilliant, brilliant club.

Now THAT is an excellent point! Meet in the final instead, then?

It's been a very weird season. Two of our new additions were injured the whole first half of the season, so we had to play an injured Bayo constantly. We got outplayed easily two of the first three games, then had a string of really debatable refereeing decisions disallowing our goals at the end of games. Since then, we have been really competitive, going on a long run of each game either being a draw or settled by one goal (until Boro deservedly beat us 3-1 last time out). Looking at the table we look awful, but we have been in almost every game, losing to just that moment of clinical finishing from the experienced second tier teams. The gutting thing is if we re-started the season, I think we would have the experience to avoid relegation. I just think we have left ourselves too much to do, even if we start turning draws into wins and losses into draws. Thankfully, Ainsworth will not lose his job, and we can hopefully continue to build in League One. I am not as confident as others of ever coming back up again - it is much easier said than done, and we are really a League Two club for size - but it is a really special era at the club, with likeable players who really give their all and have immense team spirit. Well, I am sure that is way more than anyone wants to read about Wycombe!

Wycombe fan here - Admiral was brilliant today. One swallow does not make a summer, but if he carries on like this, I'd be happy if we just took Leicester loanees from now on, considering how good Josh Knight is (who also scored today, by the way). See you in the 4th round?

I'm not sure how much anyone wants a progress report on Josh Knight's loan spell with us (Wycombe), but he is an absolute Ferrari at this level. We had a rough start adjusting to the jump up between L1 and the Championship (7 straight losses to open, though with horrific refereeing decisions taking points off the board four games in a row at one point), but have found our feet a little more with Josh in the side - in the last five, we have won two, drawn two, and lost one. Obviously we are still going to struggle against relegation all season, but Josh is an absolute standout performer, week in week out. Strong, pacey, good positioning, good on the ball, good in the air, and with great decision making, he had another peerless performance in the 0-0 with Brentford today. Sadly, we only have him till January, and as our season may hinge on getting him back for the second half, anyone who can put a word in with the decision makers there at Leicester, feel free to highlight just how much practice Josh is going to get defending for his life at little old Wycombe! I know it's another jump from the Championship to the Prem, but I would be surprised if this lad is not in a Leicester shirt permanently at some point. It's not always easy to judge these step-ups, but he passes the eye test as having all the dimensions needed to be a top defender. Lest that sounds like exaggeration, we had a 19 year old loanee from QPR back in League Two, by the name of Eberichi Eze. Every Wycombe fan swore he would be a Premier League top six footballer, and he is well on the way now he is playing for Palace. I know Josh is already 23, but he is quite the player at this level. How about we keep him for the rest of the season, stay up by the skin of our teeth, and hand over a battle-tested CB for you to blood into the PL next season? Deal?

Not a Leicester fan (Wycombe), but a thought occurred to me when I read some Man City article bleating on about them being the "outsiders". The anti-establishment club in the PL is actually Leicester City. Not in the way of being contrarian and thumbing your noses at other clubs at any opportunity, but because of what you symbolize to the "big six"...the possibility of someone else winning it all. I read something (I think on here?) where an exec from one of the big clubs supposedly said something along the lines of "the last thing we need is another Leicester". Then you have Leicester being the only club to vote against the PPV deal, and being excluded from the proposed "big nine" despite having won the league more recently than Tottenham, Arsenal and Man United. 2015-16 was a very significant season. Neutral/lower league fans like myself were thrilled for Leicester (I started lurking on here halfway through that season to see how you were all processing the journey), but we know that when the dust settled, the top clubs all reloaded with gusto, and I can only imagine how many suits at those corporate monstrosities repeated that mantra, "never again..." So while your league win was a beacon of hope, that there is still romance in even the top echelon of the game, it would have been a hellish nightmare for those clubs seeking to dominate the football globe economically. So that season was a clash of what the game should be, versus what it has been becoming for some time now. Fast forward to last season, and Leicester are a smidge away from being the next "non-elite" club to crack the top four again - with only Vardy and Schmeichel regular starters (I think?) from the league winners. Somehow, the same club almost worked a very similar magic, even though almost the whole cast had changed! Despite you falling away to 5th, it can't have been a nice flashback for the execs at the cash cows - Leicester almost stealing someone else's hereditary right to Euromoney again! So it's not as if Leicester are deliberately giving the finger to the top six - it is more a case of symbolism. The average fan loves what Leicester symbolize (and always will, I think). "Doing a Leicester" pretty much entered the lexicon for a stunning win against all the odds. When we went up unexpectedly last year, the first thing out of our player's mouths when trying to put it into some kind of context, was to compare it to Leicester. So there is a resonance even to the club name, as we immediately have visions of achieving the impossible. But Man United, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea and the others probably think very different thoughts when they hear your club name. So, not just for the glory, but for the sake of rubbing their noses in it, may you somehow crack the top four this season!

As a Wycombe fan, we look like struggling to stay up, but we are playing with house money, as that playoff win may have saved the club (our owner has money, but not ridiculous money). Our budget last season was around 1.9 million. Evidently that is going up more to the 3-4 million range, which is still the lowest this century for the second tier, I would bet. TV money means we get about 9 million in, even without fans, and the cost of playing games without fans will eat up a massive chunk of the difference. But either way, we are one of the few clubs in the country who could emerge from this on an even financial keel, owing to the massive windfall (for us) versus our tiny budget. Don't get me wrong, I would love to somehow stay up, and it is a shame that what may be our only ever second tier season (and certainly the only season the likes of Bayo and Bloomfield will play in this division) will happen in front of no fans. But in today's game, survival is the number one priority, so I keep going back to that playoff final with the feeling it saved our bacon.

Congratulations Leicester - you come across as the only PL club with a soul after that vote (Wycombe fan).

This really is all very relative. As a fan of a League One club, we tend to feel the way about the entire PL that you do about the 'Big Six'. Our left back scored one of the most unusual hat-tricks you will ever see earlier this season - two goals direct from corners, and a free kick - and it did not warrant even a footnote on the main sports sites. If it was a PL left back, they would still be playing it on repeat. To me, Leicester is an absolutely massive club. To a non-league team, my club might seem like a big deal. And to Leicester, the big six are still "big" (speaking in terms of fan base, stadium etc, not quality).