You’ll Never Walk alone. I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles. Blue moon. We’ll Live And Die In These Towns. Wise Men Say.

When Wycombe Wanderers met Sunderland in the play-off final in 2022, my dad took me into some fantastic seats as reward for finishing my undergraduate degree. We were sat just across from the Sunderland fans.

Both teams had an opportunity to have a representative from their club speak to the fans. When Sunderland’s was done, their 43k fans launched into a rousing (and incredibly noisy) rendition of Wise Men Say. Wycombe’s fans could not muster anything close to this.

My dad would turn to me and say “Now that’s a proper footballing fanbase”. And he was right. And one of the best examples was that rendition of Wise Men Say. Every man, women and child joined together for their song that represents their club. Wycombe simply didn’t have that.

Nothing can galvanise a fanbase and team better than a common song, a common identity, something every single person can belt out with pride. I’ve worked at Anfield, and their rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone still makes my hair stand up on my neck no matter how many times I hear it.

It’s something former Head of Media Phil Catchpole spent time working on prior to his exit to Reading to join Rob Couhig, landing on Dusty Springfield’s “I only want to be with you”, due to Dusty’s connection to High Wycombe, having grew up in the town.

Madness’ “Our House” is also frequently played at Adams Park, following Darius Charles’ infamous interview to Sunderland following their loss at Adams Park, that “They came here with a presence, and I just wanted to let them know that this is our house, so you play by our rules. This is Wycombe, at Adams Park, and we are who we are. We’re second in the league, so respect us”.

And the Beatles “Hey Jude” has also been introduced as a possible song for Wycombe fans, but all three have failed to make a significant impact on Wycombe fans.

Perhaps there is an argument to be made that it’s simply too late to introduce a song, given that many teams “adopted” their songs many decades ago, but thats no excuse to not try to introduce a song.

Perhaps Wycombe’s biggest issue is the lack of options with meaningful connections to Wycombe. While media stars have been born or raised in Wycombe, few are likely to look to Aaron Taylor-Johnson, James Cordon or Jimmy Carr for inspiration on a possible song.

Dusty Springfield who indeed has been attempted as mentioned failed to garner interest, many younger fans simply won’t know the song or even the artists.

While attempting to even think of one to suggest, you face a near impossible set of checklists that would prove difficult for many songs to overcome, namely:

• Easy to sing: My Way by Frank Sinatra for example is hardly going to be the most palatable for 80% of fans
• Memorable/Known: There’s no point suggesting a song the majority of fans won’t know, so there goes 75% of the music I personally listen to.
• Acceptable to a range of fans: Wycombe fans encompass everyone from children to pensioners, and this is probably the most crippling criteria. A song that’s acceptable to say, the 15-30 age range is less likely to be acceptable to the 60+ age range.
• In some way or form unique to Wycombe, either through the songs history or through potential usage.

To be absolutely blunt, there is genuinely no song in existence that is possibly capable of bridging all of these various criteria, not even to mention personal musical tastes of all fans.

So what hope is there?

Well, all it takes is one co-ordinated group to start a movement even among a small number of fans, be it at home or away. If a group of 10-20 fans sign in unison, it will be picked up by others around them. Keep it going, keep momentum going, and maybe an entire away end, or the terrace, are signing the song together pre-match.

This article doesn’t intend to be the final word, the one that recommends which song should be sung (at the arbitrary whims of the writers personal preference), but instead is intended to start a conversation in the Wycombe community about what songs are suitable. Hopefully one day,  in years time, we’ll have that song, and everyone will sing it.