Wycombe’s teen hope

Thursday, 28/07/2011

by Phil Slatter, Shoot's Wycombe blogger

It’s been an interesting close season for the Wanderers – as has become customary in recent years.

The big news concerning matters off the pitch was the council’s u-turn on the new community stadium at Booker airpark. No sooner had preliminary plans been revealed to the public, the council, (having worked closely with Wycombe Wanderers and London Wasps for over year and already spent over £500,000 of tax payers money on the project) voted to put an end to the development.

The project had been criticised from the start, with many people questioning the need for a larger stadium, the decision to potentially build on green belt land and, for Wanderers fans, the fact that Wycombe would no longer own their own ground.

This final point appeared to be as much of a moral outcry as Adams Park was funded by the sale of Loakes Park, which was a gift from former player Frank Adams. Regardless of the business implications, some felt it was never right that Adams’ legacy would be sold off.

There is little doubt however that the development would have brought some bonuses to the Wanderers, with better car parking and access being the most obvious. Club owner Steve Hayes saw the development as integral to his plans to make Wycombe a sustainable Championship club and the future of Hayes himself at the club is now the matter of much speculation, along with the destination of rugby tenants London Wasps.

On the field, matters are more settled as manager Gary Waddock looks to ensure Wanderers make a better fist of things in League One than they did last time around. He has kept together the majority of last season’s squad and brought in Elliot Benyon, Joel Grant, Ben Harding, John Halls and James Tunicliffe.

On top of this, 15-year-old Jordan Ibe has been a revelation, scoring in a friendly with Staines and being linked to a move to Manchester United. Wanderers will be keen to hold onto the youngster and surely his best chance of making it is to stay at Adams Park and get some first team football under his belt.

Roger Johnson and Russell Martin both took this route and they are now doing well at Premier League clubs whereas a few years ago, youngster Michael Malcolm left for Tottenham before finding himself in the lower leagues. Spending time training with the Manchester United youth team and then probably going out on loan to League Two clubs will surely be of little benefit to Ibe or to Wanderers

The team spirit and attack minded football that got Wycombe promoted last season will once again be paramount to ensuring stability. The pre-season results have not been brilliant thus far (P5, W1, D3, L1 at the time of writing) but in the past a good pre-season has resulted in a poor start to the competitive campaign and vice versa.

It’s also not about results yet, and Waddock will take great heart from a very impressive performance during a 0-0 draw against a very strong West Ham team. Fans are being cautious about the Blues chances but while it will be tough, most expect Wycombe to survive fairly comfortably.

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