Did he? Do you have the quote?
This source states he “described the Luton job as a fantastic opportunity with a club that had many similarities to Wycombe.”
I don’t think anyone was under any illusions that Matt wouldn’t have ambitions to test himself at the highest level, though by the same token I refuse to believe he would have jumped at the opportunity to manage Luton Town if he was even vaguely satisfied with how he was being treated here while the team he built was performing scarcely believable wonders on the pitch.
There were rumblings that there was discontent with all the changes brought in by the new ownership group before Matt left, though you might have been forgiven for thinking that would be inevitable following arguably the biggest upheaval at the club since we moved on from being a stalwart amateur club to having ambitions at becoming a professional club.
What is coming to light from people in contact with the playing/coaching/support staff since his departure is pretty much unprecedented in my 30+ years following the Blues, and does not reflect favourably on the people who are supposed to be the custodians of our proud, historic football club.
The failure to secure automatic promotion after being in as favourable a position as you could wish to be in and the complete lack of impact from the signings that exceeded the previous transfer record before the January window also suggests an incompetence that goes along with the abysmal people management skill shown so far.
There are serious concerns that need to be addressed, ideally in person at a supporters forum and not through anonymous, mealy mouthed social media statements.
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I think that @thedancingyak has just confirmed that my reading of his post (“Who’s calling ML and Eduard that? No one … Call them all out. Let’s see how they all start reacting to criticism. Will they have each others backs or will they start pushing each other off the gang plank?”) was correct.
Not sure that we lost 3-0 at their place.
But I do know that from the 3 teams that got promoted, we had 8 games against…and we didnt even draw a single game. We LOST ALL OF THEM. That makes us one thing and one thing only…NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
We will be better next season.
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We lost 2-1 at Charlton in December …
It just felt like 3-0.
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I made a table for exactly this situation. It’s pre playoff matches, but highlights our success vs those below us and lack of vs those above.
It just shows points gained and not the scores.
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Thanks, @glasshalfempty. I don’t have any position and no current contacts. I turn up at nearly all the games, I consume whatever public statements go on the website and I go to whatever meetings are available, and on that basis, I try to reach reasonable judgments about what is going on and the characters involved.
And even if my contact book was better, I wouldn’t consider any individual party’s take to be definitive. Working relationships can be difficult and are often complicated. Persepctives are never the same.
Standing back from the particular issue and looking at things more generally, I feel that we took a decision, probably inevitable, to hand ownership of the club over from the Trust to a private individual. I had some reservations, now I have some different reservations, but Lomtadze’s bottomless pockets provide reassurance in one regard at least - he can afford to run a loss-making football club. I remain very interested in the accounts, too. Indeed, on this forum or its predecessor, I posted a message about the last accounts which got no pick-up at all. I guess they interest me in part because they do represent a factual, point-in-time report of what is going on, as compared with individual perspectives on private dealings, which are hard to read.
I guess all this represents a bit of a “by their works shall ye know them” approach which @Floyd would doubtless approve of. And of course, it might be the case that by the time their works come to fruition, it will be too late, but for now, I can see enough in those works (and particularly the academy development) to make me inclined to give them time, rather than hurling expletives in their direction.
None of this should be read as meaning that I wasn’t sad at Blooms’ departure and wouln’t much rather have seen him managing us now. It’s just that my best reading is that the decision he took was the best one for his and his family’s security and I completely understand it.
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Some may feel entirely comfortable in being angry and upset at the owners, that despite the millions they are throwing in, they are also changing the club entirely from what it has been throughout all of our lives.
Maybe angry enough to call him names.
Maybe angry enough to demand why Dan Rice has (seemingly) been allowed to make decisions to alienate a number of supporters.
I find it extraordinary that just because he is throwing money at the club and doing some good things (but also potentially a lot of bad things) that should make them immune to criticism. Even the harshest kind.
But I guess money talks, and that’s the most important thing.
No, I meant these quotes you referred to about him having several chances to leave Wycombe during his playing career. Were they to bigger clubs?
Luton are obviously a bigger club than Wycombe.
Your first paragraph reminds me of the saying: “there are three sides to every story: yours, mine, and the truth.” Whilst hoping to avoid any accusations of patronisation, you are one of the best examples of a supporter and Gasroom poster who exemplifies reasonable and respectful judgements. We are both fortunate to be a position to know Matt Bloomfield’s character over two decades, and know how benevolent, dedicated and respected he is. The same cannot be said for Dan Rice or Eduard Vyshnyakov. “By their works shall ye know them” is certainly an apt phrase. To be honest, I am surprised you have adopted a neutral view.
I am also surprised you are reassured by having one individual owner able to afford to run a loss-making football club. The problem comes when they no longer wish to cover those costs. Given the profligate expenditure to date (estimated losses of c. £7m in 2024/25), should it be accounted for as debt incumbent on the club and should the owner opt to divest their investment, the consequence would be magnitudes worse than 2012 when Steve Hayes did likewise. There would be no hope of the Trust managing through that level of debt, with administration and liquidation likely consequences.
Adding to my own feelings of a lack of reassurance, the almost complete lack of visible engagement in the football club, up to and including the incompetent mismanagement by those he has placed in charge (opinion), I very much fear for the future.
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Apologies for the misunderstanding. If my memory serves me correctly (a necessary qualification these days), he didn’t name the clubs he could have moved to.
It was a long time ago but I remember speaking to Blooms brother in law, gushing with praise over the man and I believe it Leyton Orient may of been an interested party. Certainly between Lambert/Taylor and maybe further down the line he was not given the strongest assurances by Wycombe over his future but ultimately he decided to stay loyal to the cause. I believe injuries stretching over transfer windows also probably got in the way of him seeking moves away from the club.
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Worth saying yet again that it makes little or no practical difference whether money “invested” by owners is accounted for as share capital or debt. That is not what would cause financial issues for the club should ML not wish to or become unable to continue to put money into the club.
What undoubtedly would be a major issue if funding stopped abruptly is funding committed spend (eg player and staff employment contracts and potentially rent for training facilities for 1st team and now academy). As it stands it feels it would be very difficult to survive that eventuality.
Which of course means we are, like it or not, fully in on the Lomtadze project which surely means that abusing him or his close associates or trying to drive them out counter productive.
The club is no longer the little poorly funded outsider punching above its weight and beating bigger clubs that we were even under the Ainsworth years. We are, like it or not, one of those corporate clubs now.
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I know. And I really don’t like it.
I am a Wycombe Wanderers supporter. I will always be a Wycombe Wanderers supporter.
But it’s something I’m less proud of being than I was.
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@bookertease That’s how I feel about it also.
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You can certainly colour me surprised that so few were interested in the posted accounts, such as they were. IIRC there was a loan, or a loan returned, in the numbers which should have drawn more attention.
As for the bigger picture. We all regret the departure of Matt Bloomfield and the way the season ended. I’m in the camp that suspects we might have fallen in the playoffs anyway, losing Morley (who we tried to sign) was a blow i doubt we wouldn’t have recovered from. We’d have had more fun with Blooms, but it would have been no less painful in the end.
I’m also prepared to attribute the (many) missteps of our new owners to incompetence rather than malice. Certainly the way the way the transfer window and the pursuit of a new manager was handled was the former.
Hopefully summer on the Gasroom will feature more minor country cricket and power stations, rather than the endless rehashing of these arguments.
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Do you like it @DevC or not? I don’t think you’ve ever said
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Mixed feelings in truth Peter.
I do see the potential for the club to go on to levels never before reached and don’t see a realistic alternative either when Couhig was looking to sell or now but I do feel that something I valued has been lost in the transition.
I guess we all have two realistic choices - get behind the club as it now is or walk away and do something else.
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When we are in the Club World Cup in 2029 we will become the new Auckland FC, a homely little club that has somehow stumbled into the big time. i hope.
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Sadly, I’ve only just caught up with this superb post. Those two players were really starting to make a name for themselves, especially Jasper Pattenden whose personality, maturity, intelligence and articulacy stand out in a way which is not exactly commonplace in the world of football.
Our current (and hopefully ongoing) club captain, Jack Grimmer has those qualities in spades but has turned thirty and if ever there was a candidate to succeed him in a year or two Jasper looked to me to be that man.
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