Wycombe prepare for life in the second tier
Wycombe Wanderers manager Gareth Ainsworth says he is preparing for life in the Championship amid the prospect of his side swapping places with Derby County ahead of campaign which gets underway in just six weeks’ time.
The EFL was plunged into confusion on Wednesday when the EFL released a statement regarding the Rams’ punishment ahead of Thursday’s 9am fixture release.
It said an ‘interchangeable fixture list’ would be released allowing for the Rams to be relegated should a retrospective points penalty be sent their way and Wycombe, who finished third bottom last term, would take their place.
Instead of welcoming the Rams to the MKM Stadium on August 18, it would be the Chairboys, while the visit to Pride Park currently pencilled in for Tuesday, February 8 would be a much longer journey to Adams Park instead.
The Rams narrowly stayed up as Wycombe’s valiant attempt to climb out of the bottom three just fell short.
However, amid Derby’s ongoing dispute with the EFL, an interchangeable fixture list has been devised ahead of the new season, raising the prospect that Rams could be hit with a retrospective points penalty and dumped into League One, leading to reports that boss Wayne Rooney would quit if that eventuality happened.
And Chairboys boss Ainsworth is ready for the Championship if his side ends up receiving a reprieve.
“We are preparing as a Championship club which is important as we want to be a Championship club, with Championship standard,” said Ainsworth, reports the Bucks Free Press.
“We learnt plenty of lessons last year as we didn’t start well at all and that was probably a combination of having a little bit of faith into the League One team that came up, an aging League One team, and we spoke to players and discussed it, and we thought we needed some new blood in.
“We believe we can compete with anyone, and if that is League One again, we believe we can get promoted as we have done it once, and if it is the Championship, then we will carry on where we left off.”