There does appear to be some willful misunderstanding going on the pro-Dodds camp. Just to clarify:
Everything wasn’t perfect under Blooms but we saw with our own eyes the best football at the club for decades in the first half of this season. It was attacking and a delight to watch. Reminded me of the first half of the League 2 playoff season with Cowen-Hall, Mawson et al. where we blew teams away with vibrant attacking football.
Blooms left the team in a great place, but it’s undeniable that we’d tailed off a little towards the end of his tenure. However, there was still urgency about the play even when things weren’t coming off for the players.
Mike Dodds has taken that team and made it unwatchable. Even when we win it’s horrible to watch. Stevenage and Lincoln were abysmal performances I wanted to tear my eyes out rather than watch. I don’t care if we play totally within outselves and scrape 1-0 wins every game. Success is important, but being entertaining is more important if you want people in the stadium.
Dodds only ever talks about the defence, and in generic terms about being “better in possession” but the team has created literally no decent chances from open play in over a month. And he’s shown no idea how to change that.
The players all seem worse since he arrived. Not one player is in better form and the team as a whole is worse and that must be in part due to the change in shape and priorities from him.
These are the only points I’ve seen made consistently. And they align with my thoughts, which is probably why they’re the ones I’ve noticed!
The only people mentioning results are the pro-Dodds camp using them as a crutch. The anti-Dodds camp is pointing out the horrible, defensive football primarily, with the results secondary, while accepting that Blooms’ team was also starting to slow down, albeit still playing much better football than Dodds’ team is.
I think Rice needs to go. Treated a club legend with contempt and undermined him, forcing him out. Call it what you will. Playing some of the best football seen in my 34 years of supporting the Chairboys.
I’d also be glad to see the back of Dodds. Much like Peter Taylor, a decent, affable bloke and the results haven’t been awful. But the football has been tedious dirge.
It feels like a very different club to the one six months ago. We don’t need a director of football who only speaks when he wants to big himself up over spaffing nearly a million quid on a whim based on data.
Just wait for one of the pro-Dodds crowd to jump in without reading what you’ve said and misrepresent this as a complaint about the results. Yet again.
I’ve worked for many companies over the last few decades and I’ve always found their success or failure determined by the culture within.
Make no mistake, the culture of any company is set by the person at the top. That then filters down through managers to general staff. A good company will have a good culture & value its people. A bad company won’t.
WW has had its moments over the years but respect & adherence to family values (& family support) has always seemed a cornerstone to the club’s culture (e.g. the ex-Players Association - the envy of many).
What was done to Matt Bloomfield changed the culture at WW. I don’t particularly care what happens to Dan Rice or Mike Dodds but the things I always held dear about this club have been ripped away. Matt Bloomfield is a terrific person - look at the way he took his keeper over to Belgium & met his family after his father died last week. And Gareth Ainsworth taking the players to the World War One battlefields. You can’t buy that or use data to quantify it. Those examples are what good culture brings. Unfortunately that has now left Adams Park.
Please explain exactly what Mike Dodds has done to rip away what you hold dear about the club? What depresses me more is the rediculous hyperbole on this message board.
Mike Dodds hasn’t done anything to rip away the essence of the club - he doesn’t set the agenda or culture of Wycombe Wanderers. I haven’t particularly enjoyed the football under his tenure. However, he seems a perfectly decent bloke who will be judged by the results accordingly.
However, as someone who’s held a season-ticket since 1971-72 I do not consider it “ridiculous hyperbole” to compare the decades of what this club has achieved to the treatment of one its greatest servants.
To mention his name in the same breath as holding everything dear being ripped from the club is an insult to him. He doesn’t deserve the vitriol people like you and others are giving him. And for that matter Im not even sure why you insult Rice. May you care to elaborate with facts.
Because he sacked Matt’s right hand man, isolated Matt & made it clear he wasn’t the man to lead the club forward. Matt is a really decent bloke & deserved better.
I think we should reserve judgment on the manager until next season when he has had a real chance to implement his system. He’s suggested that our “in possession play needs work”, perhaps he doesn’t have the players he wants yet to fully implement that.
Oddly enough, this style of football might suit a playoff campaign. An ugly 1-0 home win, a 0-0 draw away and penalty shootout win at Wembley and we are in the Championship.
The playoffs are a bit of a lottery & anything can happen. Who would have thought Luton (+ Kenilworth Road) would ever make the Premier League?
“It’s a funny old game, Brian”.
I Have no issue with Dodds, he aimed to tighten us up defensively & achieved that albeit at a cost to our attacking prowess. He has overplayed Kone & Humphreys but we do not know the fitness of those who might play in their stead, especially the latter. He was dealt a poor hand & seems to have tried his best (maybe not good enough) and seems an affable, likeable & decent bloke.
Rice on the other hand deserves to be dissed if only for the contempt he appears to hold the fans in, his lack of communications, his neutering of the media team who used to talk to us in our language & now just churn out corporate puff.
The MB situation has been done to death & I suspect until either of the parties that were actually involved spill the beans we will never know all the details, but to the outside world the optics for Rice et al are poor.
Having said all that owners, staff, managers, coaches & players come & go but we the fans remain as the club is imprinted on our hearts & brains and I for one will not be going elsewhere after 51 years of being in love with the quarters (lasted longer than any of my relationships…)
I’ve said it “might” suit us. Your response suggests that it factually will not. How can you be so sure? There is no point in going to the games if you know that this is true.
