Wycombe left 'disappointed' to see Bloomfield leave Chairboys for Luton Town
Hatters CEO happy with the manner in which his side did the deal
Wycombe Wanderers have admitted they are ‘disappointed’ that manager Matt Bloomfield opted to leave the Chairboys to join Luton Town this afternoon.
The 40-year-old, who is a club legend at Adams Park, having made over 550 appearances for the club, was named as Gareth Ainsworth’s successor back in February 2023. This season he has led the club to a superb second place in the table, only two points behind big spenders Birmingham City, and above other clubs who have splashed the cash, including Wrexham, plus a place in the FA Cup fourth round when beating Portsmouth on Friday night.
However, with Luton offering the job to Bloomfield after they parted company with Rob Edwards last week, then the ex-England youth international agreed to move to Kenilworth Road and take over a side who are currently sitting 20th in the Championship. A statement on the Wanderers’ official website said: “We can today confirm that Matt Bloomfield leaves for Luton Town.
“The club is naturally disappointed with Matt’s decision to leave in the middle of the season. However, we respect his decision to pursue this new chapter in his career. He leaves with the gratitude and best wishes of everyone at Wycombe Wanderers, and we thank him for his service to the club. Richard Thomas, Lee Harrison and Ben Cirne will also be departing to join Matt’s backroom staff at Luton.
“The Board will now begin the process of identifying and appointing a new manager to lead the team forward. The club is fully committed to building on this season’s foundations of success and implementing our long-term vision for Wycombe Wanderers. With the steadfast support of our fans and the resilience of our team, we are confident in meeting the challenges ahead.”
Although Town chief executive Gary Sweet isn’t a fan of prising a manager from his club during the January transfer window, he felt Luton had no option on this occasion as they sought the best candidate for the job. He added: “Absolutely it was the right way, Wycombe were also very good, but the way we approached them in the right order, I think we’re proud of that.
“We’re not proud of being in a position in the January window where we need to look at managers in other jobs, I’ve previously said before there should be an embargo during a transfer window on managers but there isn’t, so we can’t impose an embargo on ourselves, it’s a unilateral thing, so we have to play that game. We wanted the best manager for this football club whether they were in a job or not, then we were going to target that person but go about it in the right way.”