Wycombe at the Crossroads

Wycombe Wanderers is an interesting team in English Football. The team is best known for a meme, the legendary player Adebayo Akinfenewa, made famous for his size, and as a meme from football Youtuber “KSI”.

But the club has a proud history, on the brink of relegation from the entire football league and bankruptcy, the Wycombe Wanderers Fan Trust took over the club. At the same time, now club legend Gareth Ainsworth, then a player with the team, retired and took over as manager of Wycombe, guiding them to safety.

10 years later, the club is safe. Gareth Ainsworth celebrated his 10th year in charge as manager with, ironically, a 3–1 loss to Sheffield Wednesday. The club has since been sold, too. In 2019, the Couhig Family from America gained a 75% stake in the club.

In fact, since the buyout in 2019, the club has seen its best period of success, both on and off the pitch. In the 19/20 season, beset by the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the team achieved promotion to the EFL Championship for the first time in its history. They were also one of the few clubs to make a profit during the Covid hit seasons, registering a 3.2 million pound profit for the year of 2021.

Perhaps most interestingly of all, however, is the change in model in which the club has operated, and in particular, the use of the transfer market.

Pre the Covid Pandemic, the club frequently signed either loans from higher league clubs, or journeymen free transfers whom had experience. In particular, the club had a particular habit of loaning players into the club, then subsequently buying them. Dominic Gape, David Stockdale and Jason McCarthy are all key examples of this. Others, came in with experience on free transfers at the end of their contract, such as Joe Jacobson, the aforementioned Adebayo Akinfenwa and Curtis Thompson.

However, since the Couhig Era began, Wycombe have more frequently been signing young talent, let go at the end of their contract from higher level clubs, or who play in the lower echelons of the English Leagues.

Perhaps most notable of these, is the Albanian twenty year old, Anis Mehmeti. Released from the Norwich Youth Academy in 2019, he joined Woodford Town in the Essex Senior League (the ninth tier of the English Football Leagues), before signing for Wycombe in 2020. He’s an exciting young talent, who’s been playing regular squad games since 19.

This is in stark contrast to the career of current Wycombe captain Joe Jacobson, a 35 year old veteran Left Back. Twice named in the PFA Team of the Year for his respective division at the time (League Two in 2016, and League One in 2020), he’s now in his 8th season with the Chairboys. He is a proven Wycombe player, and one moulded in the transfer strategy of the past.

But in the current 22/23 season, one is king, and the other struggles.

Joe Jacobson, once a reliable, and even excellent LB, is struggling. At 35, fans widely regard him as aging. Poorly at that too. Most recently, in the aforementioned Sheffield Wednesday match, he scored an own goal.

Meanwhile, Anis Mehmeti is exploding in confidence. A tricky winger, he’s scored 5 goals in 10 league games so far this season, a bright spark in what has proved to be a poor season for the Wanderers so far.

Whilst the success of Anis Mehmeti and others like him, such as center back Chris Forino-Joseph and versatile attacker Ali Al-Hamadi, both rotation options for the Chairboys could be seen almost as a threat to the traditional way of Wycombe, that is not necessarily true either.

Target Man Sam Vokes has immediately made a name for himself at Wycombe since joining in the 21/22 season, and 35 year old Gareth McCleary remains a key player at Right Wing. Instead, the transfer policy adopted seeks to blend the tried and tested method of old Wycombe, with the integration of young talent.

Wycombe, unlike many EFL clubs, does not have a dedicated youth setup dedicated to home grown “Wycombe” players. Whilst one did exist, in the aftermath of the financial issues Wycombe faced it was closed to save money. It was a successful academy too, Jordan Ibe joined Liverpool in 2011 for a “Seven Figure Fee” at just 16, Kourtney Hause currently plays for Premier League club Aston Villa, and Matt Philips in the Championship with West Brom.

Instead, Wycombe run a “development squad”, similar to what current Premier League club Brentford FC have ran (amid current speculation they may now turn to a traditional youth based setup), signing young players from other clubs. Brentford transitioned to this model in 2016 to achieve Premier League football. They did so in the 20/21 season.

The squad aims to bring in young talent “cast out” from other clubs, with the aim of transitioning them to first team football. Several have done so in its short period of existence at Wycombe.

Wycombe is at a cross-roads. Between its traditional policy, one created to bring players capable of surviving. But that means not that Wycombe should branch out. For a decade Wycombe have survived, even overachieved at times. But the integration of Anis Mehmeti shows something new. Wycombe might not just be able to survive. But thrive/

Anis Mehmeti and David Wheeler, 2021/22 Season