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May 1998 News Archive

NEWS FROM WEEK ENDING 30th MAY BROWNIE AND JESUS TO STAY Dave Carroll and Steve Brown both put pen to paper this week to quell transfer speculation. Both players have signed two year deals after talks with Neil Smillie. Smillie has also put Mo Harkin on a three year contract and fellow ex-Youth Teamer Alan Beeton on a two year deal. The deals should protect the Wanderers should any 'big-clubs' come in for the youngsters. Gary Goodchild is the ex-teammate of Smillie who is considering a move to Adams Park to fill the vacant Youth Team Manager's seat. He is currently working in Norway and could be reluctant to leave. Club Football Secretary John Reardon is retiring from his position at Wycombe after serving the club, on and off, for over 40 years. Reardon has worked as Assistant with all the recent sucessful Managers at Wycombe, including Martin O'Neill and Alan Gane. Reardon also had a brief spell as Manager in the late 1970's and was caretaker Manager before Martin O'Neill started the club on the road to glory. Reardon moved into the Secretary's chair in 1994 having previously played for Wycombe in the 1950's. Reardon is best remebered locally for taking Chesham United to the Amateur Cup Final in 1968 where they lost to Leytonstone. NEWS FROM WEEK ENDING 30th MAY THE COST OF MEDIOCRITY With Wycombe fans still fresh from the shock of another major increase in ticket prices for next season, the Club have set the tongues wagging again with an 11% rise in the cost of the matchday programme. Fans will now have to fork out a massive £2 for a 44 page issue that will include 16 pages of advertising. Last season's programme ran to 40 pages with a similar ammount of advertising but had its critics for its unstructured presentation, bland articles and pointless space fillers. Next season's effort promises more with guest articles and sindicated statistics but sales are likely to drop as fans say enough is enough. Do fans really want 'bumper' match day programmes? Why not just print the team line-ups, latest table and fixtures and sell advertising to enable it to be given away to everybody who goes through the turnstile? Are the only people buying the programme those crazy collecting types who have to keep it in mint condition "just in case it's worth something in a few years"? We need to know. Last week's signing of Danny Bulman from Ashford Town turns out to be a record for a Combined Counties League side. Wycombe will pay up to £10,000 for the 19 year old midfielder if he makes ten Football League appearances. Ashford will also receive 10% of any fee if Wycombe sell him on. Still no firm news on the Carroll and Brown saga. As far as we know both players are still waiting to put pen to paper but expect something within the next ten days. Fancy sponsoring the Manchester City home game next season. The Club have upped the asking price for sponsorship from £3,000 to £5,000. Noel Gallagher are you out there? Contact the club for more details. NEWS FROM WEEK ENDING 23rd MAY TURNER GETS ASSISTANT'S JOB Wayne Turner has got the nod as Neil Smillie's new assistant, while an ex-playing colleague at Crystal Palace is being lined up for the position of Youth Team Manager. A name has not yet been released by the Football Club but he is currently working in Norway but started his career as an apprentice with Arsenal before playing at Selhurst Park and Hereford. He is due to meet Smillie and Chairman Ivor Beeks this week. Phil King, the former Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday defender has been released by First Division Swindon Town and is now being targetted by Smillie. Smillie has signed Danny Bulman from non-League Ashford Town. 19 year Bulman had a loan spell in Wycombe's reserve side towards the end of last season and impressed enough to warrant a year contract. The Dave Caroll and Steve Brown saga trudges on with both players waiting to see what comes up during the summer break. Carroll has been offered a one year deal but apparently wants two years, while Brown has been offered two but is letting his agent Murdo Mackay tout for a better deal. Mackay is the same agent as Mickey Bell used during his move from Adams Park to Bristol City last season - a deal that left very bitter feelings between the parties. CLUB ANNOUNCE EGM The Football Club have given notice to its members of an Extraordinary General Meeting to be held on Wednesday 17th June at Adams Park. The Board of Directors have proposed for a number of changes to the Articles of Association that include allowing the Directors to pick and choose who they want as members, allowing proxy votes at meetings and other cosmetic changes that bring the Articles in line with the current Companies Acts. It was thought by some fans that the Club were intending to make radical changes to the constitution to allow private investors the chance to put money into the Club. However, the proposed changes appear to strengthen the current Board's position but conversely could leave the Club vunerable to a power struggle should any existing Directors leave the Club. The Club currently has just under 500 members, the majority of these qualifying under the present ruling of having held a season ticket for three consecutive seasons. No new members have been authorised since last summer - with the Club indicating that they wish to wait until after the EGM. Chairboys on the Net will be investigating the new proposals during the three weeks leading up to the EGM and have dedicated special pages for any comments received and appropriate links. VILLA AND VALIANTS COMING TO WYCOMBE Aston Villa and Charlton Athletic have been lined up to visit Adams Park for pre-season friendlies before the start of the 1998/99 campaign. Villa are due to visit on July 25 with Charlton due on Saturday 1st August. Both fixtures have yet to be confirmed. Wycombe also hope to arrange a game with Kingstonian. The K's have just won promotion to the Conference for the first time having been aided by former Blues Terry Evans and Matt Crossley. More fixtures as soon as we have them. NEWS FROM WEEK ENDING 16th MAY SMILLIE COMPLETES FIRST SIGNING After last week's player clear-out, Neil Smillie has made his first signing as Wycombe Manager by putting 19 year old Lee Holsgrove on a one year contract. Holsgrove has been on trial at Wycombe since March after being released by Millwall. Meanwhile Dave Carroll has yet to sign a new deal but was due to talk to Smillie this week after last week's talks were put on hold. Steve Brown is due back from a holiday in Jamaica at the end of the week and speculation about a move elsewhere will heat up. Speaking on Wycombe local radio before he went away, he said "I've a few irons in the fire and will be mulling a few things over" Michael Forysth and Paul McCarthy are back in training after both missing the last two months of the season. VILLA AND VALIANTS COMING TO WYCOMBE Aston Villa and Charlton Athletic have been lined up to visit Adams Park for pre-season friendlies before the start of the 1998/99 campaign. Villa are due to visit on July 25 with Charlton due on Saturday 1st August. Both fixtures have yet to be confirmed. Wycombe also hope to arrange a game with Kingstonian. The K's have just won promotion to the Conference for the first time having been aided by former Blues Terry Evans and Matt Crossley. NEWS FROM WEEK ENDING 9th MAY SMILLIE HAS A CLEAR OUT Manager Neil Smillie has begun the close season clear-out with the immediate release of three players and a further three put on 'short-term' contracts. Out goes former first-team goalkeeper Brian Parkin plus reserve 'keeper Matt Hodson and his striker brother Ben Hodson. Former youth team players Aaron Patton and Gary Wraight have been given six-month contracts and Jeff Lamb has been given a month-to-month contract. 18 year old Lee Holsgrove, Smillie's first signing, has been given a one year contract. The only First Team regulars whose contacts expire during the summer are Steve Brown and Dave Carroll - Brown has been offered a two year deal but has yet to sign while Carroll was due to discuss terms with the Smillie at the end of the week. PRICES FOR 98/99 The Club have released Season Ticket and entrance costs for next season. These are available from the 98/99 Ticket Office which shows comparisons with last season's prices. NEWS FROM WEEK ENDING 2nd MAY NEIL HAS NO CASH Neil Smillie was told that he has very little money to spend when he agreed his three year contract. The Club made a trading deficit of close to £400,000 in season 1996/97 and were keen that this was not repeated during the 1997/98 season. However, with limited progress in cups and attendances only marginally up, another loss is on the cards. A blessing in disguise for Wycombe, from a financial point of view, was the departure of John Gregory. This brought a 'six-figure' compensation and two people off the £1million players and managers pay role at Adams Park. The Club are now expected to be closer to the break-even mark when the accounts are released in October. Speaking to the Bucks Free Press, Chairman Ivor Beeks said "We've got to be prudent. Him (Smillie) getting any money will depend on us having a good run in the cups or someone buying one of our best players. Every player is available and if someone came in and offered money we couldn't refuse, we would look at it."

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