Hello! My name is Marco and I am an Austrian blogger. I really like the club but have to admit that I don't know much about the club ... Now I want to write an article about it, but I would need some help. If it is not allowed to do so here, I beg the admin to keep the thread open, so some Chairboys can write me private messages to get to know the club! Cheers! Yours, Marco
what do you want to know? may as well ask the questions on here, see if any of us can provide answers! assuming this is real, how do you come to know much about the club from Austria?
Thank you for taking an interest in our club. What is your article for and will we be able to view it before it is published?
Well I simply love UK, also was in a bilingual school when I was a kid and was raised "in english". I listen to british musician many austrians don't even know and I support clubs many don't even know. I have to admit that I don't even know how I got to know the Chairboys. I think when I was younger I simply liked the badge and when I got older I just kept always an eye on them. First I wrote here: http://nr32ontheback.tumblr.com/ This was my first blog and I was writing a lot about Leeds United and other not mainstream football things. I also interviewed Johnny Ertl from Portsmouth FC and Ramon Nunez, former Leeds United, now Dallas FC. Also in english available if you want to read it! But my articles will be in german, but if you want to I can translate them for you and post them here If you really would be so kind to answer my questions, I will start to collect some questions and post them here in the next few days! Cheers mates!
Seems like something went wrong with posting it. I simply love UK football, I went to a bilingual school when I was a child and so I grew up with a huge british influence. I listen to british music and I love british football. I have to admit that I don't know why I like the chairboys, I'm sure I just liked the badge when I was a child and when I got older I simply wanted to stay up to date. I had a blog on tumblr where I wrote about Leeds United and other british not mainstream things (Halifax Town, Truro City, Francis Jeffers, ...) and interviewed Johnny Ertl from Portsmouth FC and former Leeds United-player Ramon Nunez, but now I started an international blog with some mates. I write about UK football, a friend of mine about italian football, on about spanish and the other one about austrian, all that in one blog, but everything is in german! If you really would be that kind to answer my questions, I will think of some questions and post them here in the next days! And yes I can upload the translated article so you can check it first Cheers mates!
Sorry. It went into auto mod because the post contained a link. Once you have posted 10 times that won't happen. I've released the post and will leave both there for now as they aren't identical. Fire away.
Okay, no problem Here are my questions: Cheers for the help guys! The german article will be uploaded here by the way: www.cavanisfriseur.wordpress.com and here is my twitter account: https://twitter.com/Nr32OnTheBack The club was founded in 1887. It took 106 years to become a professional football club. What were the reasons for the promotion in 1993? An investor, a good squad or the work of Martin O’Neill? Just after one year, the club promoted again to Division Two, nowadays called League One. Seems like the club did manage quite good in their first pro season. After that the club lost Martin O’Neill, he left for Norwich City. Could you ever imagine he would become a Premier League coach one day? While the club remained stable in the league, the team was really successful in the cup. In 2001 the Chairboys reached the semi final of FA Cup. How would you describe this success? What were the reasons? The euphoria, good players, …? Sadly the club lost the match against Liverpool FC with 2:1. 19.500 Wycombe fans came to watch the Blues! How was the match and the performance? 19 500 fans! Amazing! How big is the fanbase of the club? What are the fans like? What are the people from Wycombe basically like? Is there something special about the club? In 2004 the club had to go down to Division Three (League Two). What happened in this time? Wasn’t the earned money of the semi final invested in a smart way? Just five years after the FA Cup miracle, the club celebrated their next success. Semi final in Carling Cup against Chelsea London. After a 1:1 home in Adams Park, the team lost with 4:0 at Stamford Bridge. Wigan Athletic, Birmingham City, Bradford City, Wycombe Wanderers, all these teams were successful in any cup in England. How would you describe these miracles? After that, the club became a yo-yo-club. For the next years between promotion to League One and relegation to League Two. Did the club suffer under the changing conditions? (Financial, reputation) Since this summer former chairboy Gareth Ainsworth became coach of the team, directly after he retired. Is something special for the fans and why? (Like an idol or something) btw: is he record player or something? (Most apps for the club, most assists or something) How are are the performances under him? How “rich” is the club? How many people attend to Adams Park in average? Are there any plans for investment? (infrastructure, stadium, youth academy, squad) What are the targets for the next seasons? Is there a special story about the unique shirt of the club? What was the club’s 125th anniversary like? How was it celebrated? Especially the season of the cup success in 2001 would be very interesting, so if it would be possible to answer these questions as detailed as possible (or give me link with a blog, or whatever) Thank you very much guys!
I can only answer the second bit really, since when we reached the FA cup semi final I was 6! 19 500 fans! Amazing! How big is the fanbase of the club? What are the fans like? fanbase is not bad, we have a core of about 2,500 probably, but attendences have been falling lately. we take a decent about to away games. I will add that 19,500 is a bit unrepresentative and the bigger a club becomes (or the bigger a success is) the more glory supporters will turn up - I suspect some of them had never been before and haven't been since! likewise when we played Chelsea we could have filled out stadium 3 times over due to people like that in the area I suspect Just five years after the FA Cup miracle, the club celebrated their next success. Semi final in Carling Cup against Chelsea London. After a 1:1 home in Adams Park, the team lost with 4:0 at Stamford Bridge. Wigan Athletic, Birmingham City, Bradford City, Wycombe Wanderers, all these teams were successful in any cup in England. How would you describe these miracles? unexpected really, it was a little surreal. looking back on it, we played Charlton in the quarters at exactly the right time when they had a dire team and an awful manager. still one of the best nights ive ever had supporting Wycombe though! beating Fulham and Doncaster was unlikely, and getting the draw out of Chelsea was surreal. conceding an early first half goal at Stamford bridge was the death of us, but the odds of that ever getting through that was unlikely After that, the club became a yo-yo-club. For the next years between promotion to League One and relegation to League Two. Did the club suffer under the changing conditions? (Financial, reputation) reputation wise we began to get known as a yo-yo-club which is never a good thing, but at least it meant people saw us as a threat in league 2. financially we had an owner (steve hayes) towards the second stage of league 1 who didn't want to put any money into the club because he couldn't get the stadium that he wanted. he then got arrested for phone hacking or something and sold the club to the trust, who have very little money and their ownership has mixed reviews to be fair but they have the best intrests of the club at heart Since this summer former chairboy Gareth Ainsworth became coach of the team, directly after he retired. Is something special for the fans and why? (Like an idol or something) btw: is he record player or something? (Most apps for the club, most assists or something) gaz finished his career at Wycombe - he made 600 career appearences, just over 100 for Wycombe. hes holds no records for Wycombe but he was our captain, always gave his all and is a very eccentric and motivational character. on the touchline he gives a lot, but if he is a great manager remains to be seen How are are the performances under him? hmmm... very passionate, looks good when it works but can be very scrappy, lack of shape/structure and a lot of timewasting How “rich” is the club? not very - the trust don't have a lot of money, we have a past for selling players for far less than their really worth. we also have had to close the youth academy How many people attend to Adams Park in average? between 2500-3500 normally, can reach 5000 when the team is doing well and even higher when its an important game etc. sold out 10,000 for the Chelsea games and for the promotion game against notts county 5 seasons ago Are there any plans for investment? (infrastructure, stadium, youth academy, squad) in a word, no What are the targets for the next seasons? it was suppose to be play-offs but after a poor start theres no clear aim at the moment - staying up I suppose but we should do that easily enough Is there a special story about the unique shirt of the club? cant really answer this one, but I do love the shirt!!! What was the club’s 125th anniversary like? How was it celebrated? there was a lot of old players returned, but we lost badly that day, went towards the bottom of the table and sacked out manager that day!!! hope this helps a bit, any more fire away!
Just a few tit bits. Crowds generally have plummeted over the years. For example, when Wycombe were an amateur team in the Isthmian League I think we had a record 16,000 turn out at one home game (at Loakes Park) and in the 1957 Amateur Cup Final at Wembley (lost 3-1 to Bishop Auckland) there was a crowd of 90,000 - yes, 90,000) and nearly 30,000 Chairboys made the journey for Wycombe Wanderers first ever visit to Wembley. In the 1975 we played the mighty Middlesborough who were then at the top of League 1 (now the Premier) and managed by ex England centre back Jack Charlton. A crowd of 12,200 watched a thrilling 0-0 draw where we went close a few times to pulling off the shock of the century. In the replay at Ayresome Park the attendance was 30,128 and it was only in the last minute of the game that Middlesborough scored the vital goal to put them in the next round. I think the game with the most drama and excitement has to be the replay against Wimbledon on our way to the FA Cup semi final; too much for me to even summarise here. This would be closely followed by the 4-2 win against Preston in the play off final at Wembley, our first season in the Football League
Thanks for your answers. Can you tell me more about the former owner (and his curious ways to lead the club = this phone hacking or what it was) and the Trust. How it came to the takeover and so on.
Here is the link to threads regarding Steve Hayes including a look back to the old BBC606 Forum and the link to the change of ownership to the Trust Hope that is helpful
Thanks for the links Read a bit in school today and I am not sure about what I exactly read! Can you tell me if These things are right? Fans had the chance to vote for or against a new stadium - Fans were against stadium But why? I mean money, new stadium, and so on sounds nice … Steve Hayes wanted to takeover the debts and to become therefor the major shareholder Was the club owned by the Trust before Hayes? (I think till 2004 (from non league to League One) if I got it right, or?) After 2004 the club was owned by Trust 75% and Hayes 25%, but after some time he wanted more and more and made more pressure on the Trust. Hayes didn’t give the club money in the end, he just gave them more debts After Hayes the club didn't make a step forward, it's more like a step backwards. Even less money then before, more debts, no youth academy, ... BTW: if some of you have twitter: https://twitter.com/Nr32OnTheBack
not sure about some of it, but I can answer the bits in bold. ill start with the first point about the new stadium. at adams park we averaged about 4,500 at the time. this was steady and there was no clear indication that this was on the increase and, with the club yo-yoing between league 1 and 2, unlikely to be a significant increase to warrant a 20,000 seater stadium. I don't know how regularly you go to football match but a small amount of fans in the big stadium is just silly - it looks stupid and the atmosphere normally suffers as a result. the stadium would also have cost the club money and we would no longer be gaining (I don't know if you knew about this) rent from the London wasps rugby club, who share our ground, as a new stadium would become a joint ground with the wasps. a new location was also not clear. many fans you will find are also very set in their ways about not moving to new devlopments (which I disagree, im all for new developments if they will aid the club, but I don't feel this would have done) as for your last point about the club making a step back I agree to an extent, but hayes when he left was not going to put any more money into the club and was going on trial as part of a hacking scandal, so clearly wasent going to help either! at least with the trust there is a stable-ish ownership. I don't think we have more debts really, just different debts, and (unfortunately) when our very talented young pool of players at the moment come to be sold many of these will be paid of. personally I don't think the trust is an ideal solution as a part running with a large investor would be ideal, but until then im happy with the trust in charge all the above are my opinions though, others on this forum may disagree with me
So you mean the club would lose a lot of money just by losing the rent of the wasps? And do you mean that many fans simply didn't want a new stadium because of - well let's say - tradition? Like for example for Leeds United Elland Road is holy. If you do touch Elland Road you're gone! And here it's the same. The fans simply didn't want change cause Adams Park is part of the Chairboys?
Well. Here it is. My translated article. It's the first version and will be corrected, if you have any special information to add, please let me know! PS: sorry that my english is quite easy, of course the german one is much better and sounds more interesting than the english version. But here it is: 83rd minute, 17:37, 8th of April 2001. The ones celebrate, the other are speechless. Many fans hug each other, but also many comfort each other. The mood couldn’t be more different in Villa Park, Birmingham. White the ones are celebrating that they are in front, the others are sad that the miracle did not come true. The culprit was Robbie Fowler. Because of his goal in the 83rd minute Liverpool went with 2:0 in front in the semi final oft he FA cup against the Wycombe Wanderers. But nobody thought, that the Chairboys would get that far. Who thinks that the underdogs gave up after that, is wrong. In the heavily raining match in Birmingham the underdogs from Wycombe showed a lot of effort. From the beginning the team from Buckinghamshire gave everything against the former record champion. Late in the 78th minute the Reds managed to score into the goal of the checkered. Scorer war the substituted Emile Heskey. But that was no reason for the Chairboys to give up. They kept on giving everything, fought like they would play everyday against big teams like Liverpool and Arsenal. Fast, offense and a wet soaked pitch. A spectacular match for every of the 40.000 fans in Villa Park. Nearly the half of them were Wycombe Wanderer fans. The Wycombe Wanderers went full offense. Every defender, young and old, went forward to the opponent’s goal. The will of the team was big, as big as the holes in the defence. And there it was: We are in the 83rd minute. The ones silent as never before, the others louder than ever. There were many disappointed faces in Villa Park, but the fans were very proud of their team. Going home? – No way! After restart the team was supported loudly. The answer of the team as remarkable as the one of the fans. The chairboys did not give up, they kept on fighting and made the red’s life to living hell. Just five minutes after Fowler’s goal midfielder Keith Ryan scored for 1:2. The fans were celebrating the goal like a win. Owen, Fowler, Hamann and Co became frightened and scared. Is the miracle still possible? For the Reds the time passed by very slowly, while for the Chairboys the time passed by very fast, but at the end is was not enough. A remarkable performance, but nobody really wanted to celebrated, but after some minutes the frustration passed and the players celebrated their success with the fans. A super performance in front of cameras against England’s record champion. Impressing. Fans, players, coaches, assistens, everybody was proud. The media was impressed by the performance of the club. Goalscorer Keith Ryan signed for the club when he was twenty in 1990. Nearly eleven years later he was the famous goalscorer who nearly managed to make the miracle real. The midfielder stayed in Wycombe until 2006, when he ended his career. 16 years, 351 pro matches for the club later, Ryan became a true legend. Since then the club had to go through hard times. Ups were often followed by downs. While 19.500 fans travelled to Birmingham, today in average 3.000 fans attend in Adams Park. The number of fans sank when the club became a yo-yo club. In the last few year the club was between League One and Two. At the moment the Chairboys play in League Two and is found in the middle of the table. Definitely harder times of the club. In 2007 Wycombe Wanderers again reached a semi final. This time not in FA Cup, it was Carling Cup. But how did they manage to? The club was quite lucky against smaller team, had luck in the draw and also had the needed luck to promote to semi final. In quarter finals Wanderers had to play against Charlton Athletic, lucky for the Chairboys, because the team was stuck in a crisis and had a bad manager. Chelsea FC was waiting in the semi final. In Adams Park Chairboys reached an impressing 1:1 against the Blues. The stadium was full, the mood overwhelming, similar to the performance of the players. But also this time the club did not manage to reach the final. At Stamford Bridge the club went down by 4:0. The away team had Chelsea under control, but after the first goal in the 22nd minute by Andriy Shevchenko, the team began to be unconcentrated. And again the team lost against the later cup winner. By the way: Both times the final opponent was Arsenal and both times the Gooners were 1:0 in front, till Owen or Drogba scored two goals. From there on the club went down. Wycombe Wanderers became a yo-yo club. Too bad for League One, too good for League Two. The image of the club suffered, but not the financial situation. The club was owned by a rich investor called Steve Hayes. He wanted to invested millions into the club, but his biggest dream was a new stadium. After the fans voted against a new stadium Hayes no longer wanted to invest money into the club. Later he got arrested for phone hacking. In Sommer 2012 he sold his shares to the Trust. A not very rich organisation, but with their hearts behind the club. Even if the Trust gives everything for the club, there are two major problems: the lack of money and too many different opinions. Last the club had to close their youth academy. Many promising young players left the club. In summer many players were sold under their market price, because money was needed badly. Just to 125th anniversary of the club missed money, but in the end many former players showed up. Too sad the fans were not in the mood for celebrations. On that day the club fell on the end of the table, manager Gary Waddock got fired. For the rest of the season Gareth Ainsworth led the team as playing coach. In summer he ended his playing career when after he turned 40 years. Now he is still the manager of the club. Like as player Ainsworth is a very passionate coach. He shows a lot of effort and works a lot for the club. Many fans love him, even if the performances of the team are not alright every time. Under him the team plays very inconstant. One week the team plays wonderful, fascinating football, the following week the team plays bad and shows mad performances. Many fans know that Ainsworth misses structure and system, but they still have faith in him and know what the situation of the club is about. That’s why they are happy to have such a passionate and enthusiastic manager. The target, repromote immediately, was discarded after a bad start. Nobody thought that the team would have it that hard in the league. Even if the target is unknown, known is that everybody in the club gives everything to take the club back to success and as soon as possible back to League One. I hope you like it. Cheers for all the help
And? What do you think guys? Is there anything wrong? Did I missunderstood something? Something you want to add that could be interesting?
I was impressed, think its very well written and talks about the FA cup well... think you underplayed how good our carling cup run was, but perhaps that was myself underselling it a bit! well done anyway, hope you continue to take an intrest in Wycombe
