I’m mystified that he thinks we will do better than fifth next season given we had Kone this season and we barely staggered into the playoffs.
Unless we spend a ridiculous amount (which the rules seem to prevent) and, given the evidence of January, even then I would have thought our squad will be weaker.
Compare and contrast Dodds’s words with Ainsworth’s following Gillingham’s final game of the season
Looking ahead to next season and the future…
Seeing them celebrating, seeing everyone going on the pitch, seeing what they have got and how they built it. We can do this. We can. It’s going to take time. Believe me, I don’t want anyone getting carried away. I know that it’s a great run at the moment, but I am really proud of the boys today.
We have got to be patient and have just got to build slowly because, at the moment, everything is going rosy. It won’t. There will be moments when we are up and moments when we have lost a couple. We have got to keep together and stick together. That is my rhetoric.
I don’t have to change too much here. Don’t expect ten new faces in the summer. It’s not going to happen. We are going to have an identity and a structure, and that is what we are going to put our time into. There will be a sprinkling of some good players. I want to add to the squad, not change the squad.
Thanking everybody…
Thank you for everyone this season. The fans, all of the staff and all of the players. We have been through a lot of change, and to come out with a great result away at Port Vale is a fantastic credit to them.
“The two legs panned out how I thought they would”.
They panned out exactly how we all thought they would Mike, but you’re the head coach, if you go into them without any hope then what chance have the players got.
Well he pretty much does say that. “Why have we fallen short, or have we not fallen short and got the absolute maximum out of this group of players” or words to that effect. The mere implication that he might have got the absolute maximum out of this group of players is clearly laughable.
Did the two legs pan out exactly like we all thought? Really?
Pretty sure after the 3-0 loss at their place and the 4-0 drubbing at ours, many people had already given up on our hopes on getting to the final before the first kick last Sunday and thought we’d get a spanking.
Sure, the ultimate result was what we thought but it wasn’t exactly how people thought it be, was it.
That first leg gave us all hope. And it’s the hope that kills you.
That’s true, we performed better in the playoffs than I expected
Two shots on target and no goals across 180 minutes is exactly what was predicted. I agree that only conceding one in that time was a slight surprise.
Where does he throw the players under the bus.Certainly doesn’t do it in this interview.
This shouldn’t need explaining but asking if something is the case is not the same as saying it is the case
That is in no way shape or form throwing the players under the bus. The use of “we” is important.
We fell short. Fact.
Why did we fall short, he is musing?
He is wondering whether he and his team got the maximum out of the players - if they did then, we just got beaten by a better team. That just sometimes happens.
If he and his team didn’t get the best out of the team, that’s on him and the coaching team.
At no point is that throwing any of the players under the bus.
This shouldn’t need explaining but that’s what “implication” means.
Sure. But he hasn’t implied any of what the poster said.
Cheers
I listened to the whole interview, including those comments in context and I don’t agree that that was the implication
This is no dig at Kone - I am his biggest fan - but we didn’t have Kone at his best all season. We had him this best for half a season.
Now, I believe the majority of why he didn’t have him at his best for the second half of the season is 60% down to the isolating tactics we played in the later half, 30% down to opposition taking him more seriously and 10% injury or out of form. That happens.
But it’s his first full season in professional football - we have to remember that. I think if it were possible to give him another year of experience and drop him back into this 2nd half, he’d have score even just 3 or 4 goals that would have made the difference we needed.
The galling thing for me is I don’t think we’ll get to see that 2nd full season in professional football in a Wycombe shirt as the bigger clubs will view it similar to above and still see him and an excellent option to buy for the future.
The plus side of that sale would that we then might have a ridiculous amount of money to spend.
It’s pretty clear to me from what he says that he considers it possible that he did the best it was possible to do with the resources available to him.
I don’t agree with that possibility.
The prevailing sentiment among Wycombe Wanderers supporters regarding the unfolding ‘DR situation’ is unequivocally justified. Whilst I won’t mention specifics to protect individuals and relationships, there are fundamental issues at the leadership level that resonate deeply with the fanbase’s concerns.
At the heart of the matter is DR whose suitability for leading any football club is a big concern, with very little in the way of essential football and business acumen and no experience whatsoever (just image, perception, soundbites with a splodge of arrogance).
Beyond technical knowledge, there is a lack of the crucial interpersonal skills necessary to effectively lead and manage a club from top to bottom, fostering unity and direction resulting in alienating staff.
He had no demonstrable track record of success in previous footballing or leadership capacities. This lack of practical & proven capability places an over reliance on data as a primary tool for recruitment to try and compensate for an absence of the innate ‘eye’ or intuitive ability crucial for identifying and nurturing talent at both youth and senior levels (he had no success in previous junior roles).
The appointment of figures such as ‘Dodds’ is widely viewed not on merit but through nepotism, which has now proved very costly for now at least.
That decision alone shows a lack of understanding regarding the strategic necessities and practical requirements for a club striving to succeed and progress, particularly when navigating the challenges of leagues like League One.
The risk is that the club’s owner may remain insulated from the reality of what is truly transpiring internally. Without a significant, unified effort from the supporter base to highlight these and other issues and advocate for change, the trajectory could be a declining one with continued alienation, and strategic misdirection (AKA Reading FC)
The future of the club appears precariously linked to the willingness of its most loyal stakeholders, the fans, to make their concerns heard.
Just to repeat a comment I made on Gasroom several days ago. Seems to me the club is crying out for someone like JJ to act as a bridge between the ownership, MD and the fans. Someone who absolutely knows and appreciates the DNA of this club - unlike Dan Rice.
JJ has just been appointed joint CEO at Reading.
Some strange stuff going on, have seen and heard enough.
Did the play offs go as expected/ hoped? Probably. After the hiding they gave us in the league we shored up (from a negative base) and full effort rather than craft got us a clean sheet and 70 minutes of a second. We were never going to hold them off totally or pose a threat without a bit more creativity (and some subs!!)
The data versus eye conversation that has been had on here is often cast as dinosaurs going against the new but in reality if you are hiring a chef you take their CV and awards to shortlist them but you look and taste the food before you hire.
I’m not getting into wether Dodds or Rice are nice people but they both seem utterly inexperienced and under cooked. I have little faith that time will heal this. We are getting worse not better and all of our creative players seem to have either been pissed off or run into the ground.
I need to know why Sam Grace didn’t keep the job before I make a pronouncement