One of the 100s of things that don’t make sense, is when they knew we’d not be able to hold Kone, how on earth did they think Junior and Fink would be enough?
As Bell and Woodrow were almost emergency loanees.
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We are in trouble then!
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That is actually the key point. I just keep coming back to that as well.
Bradley Fink is a young lad in a new country but he hasn’t inspired me at all. If we are happy for him to learn on the job, then we can expect some mediocre performances not of league one standard.
…and Dan Udoh and Gmac. That was some set of options.
To me, it seemed that Duff gave Lowry and Fink starts in the last two matches just to be fair to them. A last chance to impress. Neither of them came close to taking the chance that was offered, so I believe they will be loaned out in January. The rest is up to them. I don’t think Duff is going to compromise his own position for players he didn’t choose. He is nothing if not a pragmatist.
As for Westergaard, he hasn’t been considered for first team starts even though we have lost several key midfielders to injury. Where does that leave him? I guess it depends upon the return of the injured players, and how quickly they can come up to speed. Duff wouldn’t want to leave himself short of numbers if injuries start to bite. Not looking good for him I suspect.
Duffs recent interview in the BFP suggests that moves are already afoot in bringing in new faces, and not here to be bench warmers either.
Will the money already paid out be a problem, maybe but not in my opinion. We have some tough matches to negotiate before January, so anything’s possible I guess. If people do get chances they have to take them.
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This is getting boring now. He scores fuck all wherever he has been. He is shit living off the fact he played for Dortmund B
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The money paid out shouldn’t be a problem as we recouped that with the Kone sale.
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My point being he isn’t up to League one standard.
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I know it’s been said before but Fink is young. He’s 3 years younger than Junior!!
Got to give him time, trouble is. We don’t have time, especially coming after Kone who hit the ground running from Day 1.
He’s 23 in April, not 17/18 years old. I’m sorry but anyone that thinks by playing him in 4 to 5 consecutive games we’re going to see Berbatov is living in lala land. Most of us have watched enough football to see he’s not up to it a la the Breckin lad from Man City.
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Duff sees these players every day and has obviously decided who is and isn’t good enough, either in terms of ability, attitude or a combination of both. Many have been given countless chances (bar Tilley perhaps who is one of the strangest signings in modern times) and failed to impress. He’s also mentioned he’s tried to work with Fink on adapting to the rigours of L1 and so far it’s not paid off.
No way would I throw Fink (or Westergaard) in for 5 games to see what happens. The downside could be horrendous and no doubt Duff would get slated for results and destroying players’ confidence so he can’t win there.
Abject recruitment by a shocking bunch.
I do agree that Woodrow should stop trying to be L1’s answer to Harry Kane and stick to being a focal point.
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The thought has struck me reading this post, have several players been lined up for moves away? Could well explain some of the recent performances from fringe players. It would be harsh to say anyone has downed tools but I doubt you can say that many non-first eleven players have given everything they have when they’ve started.
That’s actually a great point.
For Westy not to get into the 18 with Scowen, Hendon and Abbott out cannot be very reassuring for him.
If we start giving out more game time to Lowry, Fink, Junior and the other very underwhelming players then we are risking relegation. Totally bonkers idea. We’ve seen enough of all three of them to know they’re not of sufficient quality.
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It’s our old friend, the sunk cost fallacy!
“The sunk cost fallacy is a cognitive bias where individuals continue investing in a project or decision based on the resources (time, money, effort) they have already committed, rather than evaluating the current and future benefits. This often leads to irrational decision-making, as people feel compelled to justify their past investments even when it would be more beneficial to cut their losses.”
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maybe you need to follow another sport if you dont think Junior is good enough , he makes things happen and has been a game changer multiple times, Lowry is the most talented player we have for natural ability but has to learn to work harder for the team, Fink needs more opportunities, like Woodrow is getting (unjustified)
An argument which could equally be applied to the vanity project which is HS2.
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Part of me wants to begrudingly agree with @Chairboys80 regarding Fink. To have spent however much was spent on him from Basel, only to give him 5 starts in all competitions, and only 1 in the league against Plymouth, seems fascinating. On the other hand, as many people have pointed out, he doesn’t live up to the standards set by previous Wycombe forwards, and I personally have to agree with that.
Regarding Woodrow, undoubtedly, he was a panic loan signing, but given his experience of playing in England, I can understand why he is preferred to Fink to start most games. Also, I think it’s fair to that had his goal against Fulham been the only goal of the game (and it was a lovely goal) to send us through, it would’ve automatically made his loan signing worth it regardless of what happens for the rest of the season.
Still, it’ll be interesting to see what happens in January regarding transfers, and until then, maybe try be a little less pessimistic about our fortunes, we’re still in a way better than we were at the start of the season, and hopefully the last home game of 2025 against Bolton on Saturday will bring about some positivity from the Scrooge of the gasroom himself @Chairboys80 (one can only dream)
1 league start, and advocating 5 further consecutive league starts is hardly ‘sunk cost fallacy’. Additionally, I am not advocating some fat bloke off the terrace starting up front for 5 games. He had enough natural football ability to play at one of the best football academies in the world. He likely will turn out to not be good enough, but giving him a decent chance is hardly a crazy experiment.
Even if we lost all 5 of those games (very unlikely) we will not go down. Or even be close to going down. We have 26 games left and take away the absolute ineptitude of the Dodds’ first 8 games, we are a perfectly adequate league 1 side