This season, League One has been about more than just Birmingham and Wrexham; there is one team that has been a major disruptor at the top of the third tier. Birmingham and Wrexham have been the only competitors in League One.
This is due to the fact that Wycombe, which was acquired by the Kazakhstani billionaire Mikheil Lomtadze during the summer of last year, is currently occupying one of the two automatic promotion spots.
Forbes estimates that he has a net worth of $5.8 billion, which places him at the 592nd position on the list of the richest people in the world at the present time.
Lomtadze was referred to as a “game changer” in an article published by PwC, and Wycombe supporters can rest assured that he is living up to the expectations that were placed on him.
Lomtadze’s Blue Ocean Partners Ltd. purchased ninety percent of the club, which had been owned by American businessman Rob Couhig since the year 2020. Since the beginning of the transaction, Lomtadze has been very clear about his intentions.
According to Lomtadze, “Our objective is to achieve long-term success both on and off the pitch while simultaneously building a club that is financially sustainable.”
The world of football is undergoing rapid change, and our top priority will be to incorporate data analytics and technology in order to take the club’s performance to new heights.
“I am also a firm believer in the development of young people, and I believe that this will be an essential component of the club’s vision. As part of our long-term strategy to develop a club that consistently performs at the highest level, we intend to re-open and construct a leading high-performance academy. This will become an essential component of our overall strategy.
During the previous season, Wycombe finished in tenth place in League One, and it was always going to be a difficult battle to get out of a division that was so difficult.
The wealth of Lomtadze is in direct competition with the wealth of Wrexham, which is supported by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, as well as the wealth of Birmingham, which was recently demoted and spent approximately 25 million pounds during the summer of last year, breaking the league transfer record multiple times.
Additionally, there are a number of clubs that have previously competed in the Premier League, such as Charlton, Reading, and Wigan, all of which are attempting to move out of the third tier.
On the other hand, they have been the most surprising packages, and it appears that they are favourites to go up alongside Birmingham City.
Matt Bloomfield, a man who was intimately familiar with the club, was playing the role of manager, and he was an exciting individual.
During his time with them, he participated in more than 500 games and went on to become a young coach with tremendous potential.
Although Bloomfield was successful in getting them fired, he received a call from Luton in the Championship, and he left the club in January.
They have maintained their current pace and have just recently hired Mike Dodds, despite the fact that many people imagined that they might slow down.
Dodds is yet another highly regarded coach who was instrumental in guiding Jude Bellingham’s athletic development while he was at Birmingham.
When asked about his responsibilities, Dodds stated to BBC Three Counties Radio, “My responsibility now is to continue all of the fantastic work that has occurred previously.”
“We’ll give it our best shot, we’ll need a little bit of luck at times, we’ll need results elsewhere to go our way at times but they’ve given themselves an unbelievable opportunity.”
“I’ve always said that I wanted to be a head coach,” the coach, who is 38 years old, continued. Did I really believe that it would arrive at this early hour? Without a doubt, if I’m being completely forthright and honest.
“I do believe that being in a permanent role and being in an interim role are very different. It is comparable to being a supply teacher (in the role of interim boss), and the students are aware that you are not the actual teacher. This is the most straightforward explanation I can provide.
“When you are an interim head coach, you are constantly asking yourself, ‘Can I do this?’ Because being a head coach is a position in which your decisions directly affect your life and death. ‘I really shouldn’t do that’ because the next person is going to be entering the room.
In a victory over Bristol Rovers by a score of 2-0 on Tuesday, Dodds secured his first victory, which allowed them to maintain a five-point advantage over Wrexham.
At this point in their history, there are fifteen games left to play in order to ensure that they are promoted to the second tier for the very second time.
