Wycombe Wanderers suffer Charlton heartbreak - 3 key factors that led to play-off failure | OneFootball

3 factors that led to Wycombe Wanderers' failure to gain promotion to the Championship in 2024/25.

Wycombe Wanderers were beaten in the League One play-off semi-finals by Charlton Athletic, bringing an incredible season to a dismal end.

The Chairboys occupied a place in the automatic promotion places for the majority of the season, and were even above the rampant Birmingham City for plenty of time this campaign.

However, a poor run of form towards the end of the season saw them fall all the way to fifth place on the final day. In what was essentially a three-horse race for automatic promotion, Wycombe came fifth.

Whilst it's important to recognise what a remarkable achievement finishing in the play-offs is for the Buckinghamshire club, it will sting after occupying an automatic promotion place for so long and letting it slip at the end of the season.

Now Wanderers' season is over after defeat to Charlton in the play-off semi-finals, some fans can hopefully find closure by pinpointing these three key factors which potentially had big implications on the outcome of the season.

Matt Bloomfield's move to Luton Town

Supporters were left absolutely stunned when legendary midfielder turned manager Matt Bloomfield departed Adams Park in January in favour of joining relegation-threatened Luton Town.

The 41-year-old made over 500 career appearances for the Chairboys, and was building something very special with his club as a manager, with Wanderers playing some wonderful attacking football and sitting at the top of the table.

Interest in the former Blues boss was always going to come, but nobody expected him to actually depart the club. However, after days of speculation in mid-January, Bloomfield was appointed by the Hatters.

He ultimately failed to keep them in the Championship, but did an excellent job to give the former Premier League side a fighting chance right up until the final day.

All in all, it's slightly baffling as to why a club legend opted to leave the club that he adored, and adored him back, in the middle of what could've been a promotion-winning season. This left many connected with the Buckinghamshire side stumped and looking for answers.

It's fair to say that this would've had massive implications on Wycombe's season, as the brains behind the operations on the pitch and some of his staff were stolen away at a crucial time of the season.

10 new signings in the January transfer window

The phrase 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' comes to mind when describing Wycombe in January. The team was working well despite losing key players such as Aaron Morley and Caleb Taylor, although the latter would return.

Whilst additions would be needed to compliment what they already had, the Chairboys opted to sign a whopping 10 new players in the winter transfer window, which saw the squad that they started the window with look very different at the end of it.

Squad evolution is necessary, and there were plenty of players on the books who weren't going to get regular minutes in the second half of the season, but to have this sort of overhaul in the middle of a season will, of course, be disruptive.

Wycombe didn't have a head coach for most of the January window, as Bloomfield's departure fell right in the middle of proceedings, meaning that the signings were likely left for the Wanderers hierarchy to secure.

The club smashed their transfer record twice, bringing in Danish stars Anders Hagelskjær and then Magnus Westergaard from overseas.

These are both very exciting signings, but neither has actually made a single start for the Chairboys since they arrived, and had to spend time getting up to speed as they arrived during their season's break in Scandinavia.

James Berry, an exciting winger who arrived from Chesterfield, has also been absent from the squad for unknown reasons, which led to questions being raised about his whereabouts and role in the squad.

As mentioned, evolution and development is necessary mid-season, but to have the wholesale changes that Wycombe had in January ran the risk of doing more harm than good. Some would argue that it did, given the fact that the club didn't achieve its goal of promotion.

Appointing an inexperienced head coach in a promotion battle

It was always going to be strange to have a manager or head coach in the dugout who had no previous affiliation with the club, as that hadn't been the case for well over a decade.

Wanderers wanted a head coach over a manager, which isn't unreasonable as this is an option many teams pursue in the modern game. However, their choice of Sunderland assistant manager Mike Dodds certainly raised eyebrows.

The 38-year-old arrived at Adams Park with very little experience of being a head coach, having only had three interim spells with the Black Cats, which didn't yield the best of results.

However, Dodds is a highly-commended coach, and is well-known for his role to play in the emergence of the Bellingham brothers.

Things started off fairly well, as Wycombe looked compact defensive and did enough to win games they were expected to win, but the attacking prowess they showed under Bloomfield had disappeared, which ultimately proved to be their downfall.

After three wins in a row and a real bounce around the club, the final five games of the season were nothing but disastrous, which was kicked off by a 4-0 home defeat to Charlton. The defensive solidity was gone, and Wanderers' lack of attacking threat was exposed.

Any semblance of the free-flowing attacking football they played earlier in the season had firmly disappeared, and was replaced by a more hit-and-hope approach, where the Chairboys looked devoid of ideas going forward. This was a bitterly disappointing regression from what had been shown earlier in the campaign.

So far, there's no concrete evidence suggesting Dodds is or isn't the right man for the job, as he hasn't had a transfer window to build his squad. But, throwing him at the deep end with little experience may not have been the correct move from Wycombe.

Perhaps bringing in an experienced manager until the end of the season to get promotion over the line and then choosing the ex-Sunderland assistant would've been the better move in hindsight - although this is much easier said than done.