The end of the 2024/25 season was a heartbreaker, with Wycombe Wanderers missing out on Wembley thanks to a 81st-minute strike by Matt Godden and an overall poor performance from Mike Dodds’ team in the play-off semi-finals second leg away to Charlton Athletic.
However, it goes without saying that the signs were there ever since Dodds was announced as Matt Bloomfield’s successor.
A shaky defence and a toothless attack being enough to sum up what Wycombe looked like during his time in charge of the Chairboys.
Results don’t need to be mentioned here, as we all know what happened in the closing stages of last season, but they will be nonetheless: 3-1 to Stockport County in the final game of last season, 4-0 to Charlton in April, and 0-0 against Wigan Athletic, who were 15th at the time.
Wycombe looked lost without Richard Kone leading the line. A 1-1 draw at Peterborough, a game which was salvaged by Kone in the 96th minute, was one of a few notable results in which the Blues didn’t perform up to the standard they’d set under Bloomfield earlier in the season.
It was an unwelcome change – seeing Wycombe go from being a side that could compete against the likes of Birmingham and Wrexham to seeing them be unable to perform and find a winner against Crawley.
Of course, fans weren’t particularly pleased. Arguably never more so than after Wycombe were knocked out of the play-off semi-finals at Charlton.
There were calls to replace Dodds, whether that was the online backlash or the boos ringing around the away end come the full-time whistle at The Valley.
However, it didn’t happen until around four months later, with Wanderers starting the following campaign extremely poorly, failing to register their first win until the seventh game of the season against Mansfield at home.
Despite this, in the next fixture away to Peterborough, Wanderers lost 2-1, which that seemed to be enough for the board, as Dodds was dismissed days after the result.
Former Huddersfield Town boss, Michael Duff, was announced as Wycombe’s new head coach later that same day.
However, what if the powers that be had come to a decision earlier than that, and gave Dodds his marching orders after Wycombe’s loss at the play-offs?
Would Wycombe’s 2025/26 season been any different, and if the answer to the previous question is ‘yes’, what would have been changed?
Assuming Duff was still Dodds’ replacement, with the 48-year-old sacked by Huddersfield in March, meaning he would’ve still been available if the decision was made before the start of the season.
The Northern Irishman would’ve had a full pre-season with the squad, much more time to implement his tactics and could have had enough time to know what his strongest squad was before their opening match against Bradford in early August.
The summer transfer window probably wouldn’t have been too different, depending on how much say the new head coach had on recruitment.
The highlights being the outgoings most likely staying the same. Richard Kone turning down a new deal, preferring a switch to Championship side Queens Park Rangers and becoming Wycombe’s biggest sale since Anis Mehmeti to Bristol City.
Other outgoings remain the same, if not similar. Players such as Ryan Tafazolli, Alex Hartridge, Jasper Pattenden, Garath McCleary, Sam Vokes and Beryly Lubala all likely still leave.
Incomings could probably also stay the same, with Caolan Boyd-Munce, Dan Casey, Junior Quitirna, Ewan Henderson, Jamie Mulllins, Connor Taylor and Taylor Allen being the highlights of the summer transfer window.
There could be an argument as to whether Bradley Fink, Mikki van Sas and James Tilley would or would not make the move to Buckinghamshire if Duff was in charge then, simply because of their lack of game-time now, but that could just be due to the fact that Duff doesn’t think they have impressed that much.
Fink is the outlier here, as he assisted Nathan Lowe’s equaliser against Huddersfield on Saturday, but hasn’t made too many appearances so far.
Tilley re-joined his former club, Wimbledon in January of this year. Finally, van Sas was dropped after Duff’s first few games in charge, replaced by Will Norris.
Then came the curtain-raiser of the League One season away to a recently-promoted Bradford City. Considering Wycombe’s form against sides that have been promoted, such as against Wrexham last season, and Bradford’s overall form in the league, it’s more than likely this result stays the same – a loss.
Up next was Stockport, another side who currently occupy a play-off position, and it would be another loss for Wanderers.
The question whether Duff would’ve started Kone against Stockport is an interesting one. The game ended 2-1, but had the Ivorian started, would he have been able to salvage at least a point for Wanderers? Maybe.
It definitely would’ve been engaging to see Kone play under a coach who had more of a tactical understanding and more experience. Would Duff have managed to get more out of the striker than Dodds did?
There was a common theme in Dodds and Duff’s respective starts, as Wanderers didn’t really start performing until the second half, as seen against Stockport and Doncaster, games in which Wycombe didn’t find the net until the closing stages of the match.
Leyton Orient in the EFL Cup would not have changed, the decider being a late own-goal, and it definitely could have been more of a difference, even without Duff.
Doncaster were performing well at the start of the season and Wanderers picked up a point against yet another promoted side. Kone had made his step-up to the Championship by then, so there’s no more relying on him.
However, Duff could have definitely used the squad he had then better, and Wycombe could have picked up their first three points of the season at the Keepmoat Stadium.
Of course, Duff could have utilised other players, such as Dan Udoh, who featured in Wycombe’s match against Doncaster better before he eventually left for Salford.
Then came the infamous match against Exeter City, in which, not for the first time this season or during Dodds’ entire time in charge, Wanderers looked toothless going forward, registering a total of 19 shots with eight on target, yet scoring none.
It highlighted how important Kone was to Wycombe, and how they had failed in recruiting a replacement.
An own-goal from Jack Grimmer in the last ten minutes of the match allowed Exeter to go back to Devon with all three points. The boos were beginning to get louder and louder from this point onwards.
Wycombe’s home clash against Reading definitely was an interesting one, even if it was for the wrong reasons. For the first time in the League this season, Wanderers found themselves in front thanks to a goal from Fred Onyedinma.
But once again, it was taken away. Two quick goals from Reading, the equaliser scored by Mamadi Camara in the 42nd minute, before former Chairboy Lewis Wing made it 2-1 minutes later.
Adams Park was stunned going into half-time. Wanderers grabbed a point from that game, only thanks to a late Tilley header.
Wycombe missed two big chances that game, and if Duff was in charge? Maybe they could have found a way to convert at least one of them, if not both.
After what felt like an age of waiting, Wanderers finally managed to gain their first three points of the League One season at home against Mansfield Town and for the first time in a while, there seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel.
Maybe, just maybe, things were starting to work out for them after months of poor performances and tactics. But that hope was swiftly taken away the next Saturday as The Chairboys travelled up to Peterborough, who were then facing the drop.
Fans had expected nothing more than a win going into this one, especially considering the oppositions’ poor form. They had six losses and one draw in their first seven fixtures of this season, while Wanderers were hoping to start picking up points.
But as we all know now, that never came to be, and Darren Ferguson’s side found their first win of the season. The outrage was inevitable, and enough was enough for many, if they hadn’t already been convinced by the poor form before that fateful day.
If Duff was in charge? Easy win for Wycombe, no argument about it. There is no way Duff would have let what happened then, happen if he was in charge. And if it still had, he, more than anyone else, would have been outraged. He had already spoken recently about the ‘poor mentality’ issue within the changing room this season.
So what would have been done differently? One word: Competency.
If Duff, or someone more experienced than Dodds for that matter, had been in charge at the start of the season, Wycombe could’ve have had a very different trajectory in their campaign.
Picking up some very valuable points earlier on in this season could have been the turning point, especially now. The Chairboys remain outside the play-off positions and it’s now impossible they turn that around with two games remaining.
Even as little as five or six points could have made a massive difference, and if they had managed to do so, they would be two, at the very most, points away from sixth place, instead of seven.
What does Duff have that Dodds didn’t? And would a managerial change have really made a difference, or was the squad still recovering from a disheartening play-off loss in the previous season?
There’s many answers to the first question.
The main answer would be experience. It was questioned as to if it was right the moment Dodds was announced as head coach of Wycombe.
He had only spent time in that position with Sunderland on an interim basis on three different ocassions, only managing a highest win percentage of 25% during that period.
Meanwhile, Duff had the likes of Barnsley, Swansea and Huddersfield on his CV, his lowest win percentage at any of those clubs being Swansea at 29% with 1.1 points per game, the highest being Barnsley at 55%, with 1.8 points per game.
He had gained automatic promotion with Cheltenham from League Two in 2021, led Barnsley to a play-off final in 2023, and gone on a 16-game unbeaten run with Huddersfield more recently.
Experience was exactly what Wycombe needed after last eason, but they failed to bring in someone who had that.
Maybe if Wanderers had skipped Dodds entirely, and appointed someone else when Bloomfield departed for Luton, it would have been an entirely different story, but who knows?
Two would be a better tactical understanding, but technically that could have been a part of the first answer.
With more experience comes more knowledge, and Duff could have had a better understanding of what to do with the players he had/has at his disposal, which could’ve seen Wanderers collect a few more points at the start of the campaign.
Dodds was criticised for many things during his tenure, whether that be constantly changing formation from a back four to a back three, disrupting the squad in the process as they didn’t have time to adapt to what he asked from them.
He was also critiqued for making substitutions too late into a match for the players that came on to make a real impact in the game, either that or he made the wrong changes, not bringing on players who could’ve made a bigger impact on the game.
It’s fair to say a managerial change could’ve definitely made a difference, but hindsight is a wonderful thing, and it’s of course impossible to say what the league table would’ve looked like now should Wycombe have started the season under different leadership.
With Wycombe’s play-off push now mathematically over, fans will pinpoint the start of the season which yieled five points in eight games as the difference between making the play-offs and missing out.
Despite this disappointment, Duff has laid the foundations of his philosophy at Adams Park, hauling a lacklustre squad to a mid-table finish, which puts the club in good stead ahead of the new campaign.
It’s easy to dwell on if, buts, and maybes. An experienced head coach would’ve likely had a stronger start to the season than the inexperienced Dodds, but did those first eight games entirely cost Wycombe a shot at the play-offs? No.
Numerous late goals in Duff’s tenure have also cost the Chairboys valuable points in their pursuit of the top six, and the mentality of the squad seems to be a long way off that of a group capable of promotion.
All-in-all, Wycombe’s season can be see as both a missed opportunity whilst laying the foundations for success, but most importantly, a huge learning curve for everyone.
