Football League World
·27 novembre 2024
Football League World
·27 novembre 2024
Despite a strong start to the season for this League One side, their captain believes the Red Dragons and Blues will splash the cash in the new year.
In the face of a strong start to the season for his club, Wycombe Wanderers captain Jack Grimmer believes their promotion rivals will spend big in January.
The Chairboys currently sit at the top of League One, having not lost in the league since August. They are four points clear of Wrexham in 2nd (who they have a game in hand over) and five clear of Birmingham City in 3rd (who have a game in hand over Wycombe and two over Wrexham).
Despite this brilliant start, the Chairboys' only defeats so far this season have come at the hands of the Red Dragons and the Blues, and club captain Grimmer believes the clubs will be heading into the January transfer window with lined pockets.
Speaking live on talkSPORT, Grimmer said about how it is more important how a club finishes the season rather than starts it, and expects their promotion rivals in North Wales and the Midlands to be the big spenders in January.
"We have started well, but we're under no illusion that there are still 30-plus games left of the season," he said, via the Express. "Especially this season, with the teams we are competing against, I feel like January will be massive.
"We all know Wrexham and Birmingham have the ability to go and spend an obscene amount of money in the January transfer window, so I definitely think that they're still favourites to go up."
Grimmer nevertheless remained optimistic about his club's chances if they can maintain their current form.
"We'll quietly go about our business and just keep taking it one game at a time," he said. "If we can keep churning out the results and scoring goals, then I'm sure we'll be up there."
The Chairboys' latest match saw them emerge as 1-0 winners against Mansfield Town, thanks to a late winner from Luke Leahy. This was their eighth consecutive win in the league.
With star-studded hierarchies and huge financial backing for both the Red Dragons and the Blues, there may be a feeling around Adams Park that they just need to enjoy the good times while they can because a fade later in the season seems inevitable.
However, everyone in football knows that money cannot necessarily buy results and that it's the quality of players - not the quantity of bank accounts or wage bills - that wins matches.
It may be hard to realise when your promotion rivals can afford to spend over £15 million to bring the likes of Jay Stansfield to the third division, but the tables don't lie. Not only is Wycombe ahead of Birmingham in the league, but their top scorer Richard Kone currently has more goals than Stansfield (albeit the former having played more games).
As long as the Chairboys can maintain their excellent run of form, and even make frugal recruitments of their own in January, they shouldn't need to keep checking over their shoulders.
Grimmer's comments could be interpreted as a way to ease pressure from his own side, but they should be seen as realistic rather than pessimistic. Even though the Chairboys are themselves owned by a Kazakh billionaire in Mikheil Lomtadze, they know they don't have the same spending power and attractive pull as their promotion rivals in North Wales and the Midlands do.
Nevertheless, if they can keep doing what they're doing, there will be confidence among the Adams Park faithful they can withstand the financial onslaught from Wrexham and Birmingham in January.