Former Wanderers ace Steve Brown believes the Blues would now be a Championship club had controversial former owner Steve Hayes not deviated from his original five-year plan.

Hayes became the club’s managing director in April 2005, after buying a 25 per cent stake in Blues a year earlier, and consequently made clear his intention to overhaul every aspect of the club and planned to take Wycombe into the second tier of English football within a five-year period.

Brown feels the businessman, who also owned Wasps, was on track to deliver his vision before diverting away from his plan, with the former Wanderers midfielder believing Hayes was badly advised.

He said this week: “I’d like to go on record as saying if Steve Hayes had stuck to his plan – and I know a lot of fans don’t think highly of him but I had an insight from working with him – then I have no doubts that Wycombe would’ve been a Championship club. I have no doubts. Knowing what I know now, Wycombe would have been a Championship club.”

Hayes took complete control of the club in 2009, bringing to an end the supporter ownership that had run Wycombe since their foundation in 1887.

During his eight-year affiliation with the club the founder of loans.co.uk made a series of changes to the infrastructure behind the scenes as well as investing heavily in the playing side, and Brown felt the Blues were initially heading in the right direction under his stewardship.

As assistant manager under both John Gorman and Paul Lambert for a three-year period between 2004 and 2007, the 48-year-old had an insight into exactly how Hayes wanted to rejuvenate a club which was perilously close to going into administration before his investment.

Brown described Hayes’ initial plans as “noble ideas” but highlighted player recruitment as one of the areas where it went wrong. The club had planned to utilise their successful academy but Brown questioned whether the increased revenue from the Chairboys’ run to the League Cup semi-final in 2007 influenced Hayes’ decision to sign more experienced, and expensive players.

Brown said: “The plan was to get there in five years and we were on course to do that. Within the first two years we finished seventh or eighth in the league, we got to the semi-final of the League Cup against Chelsea and then the wheels came off.

“The plan changed direction for some reason or he allowed other people to influence him, but it went off plan and it never recovered.”

The former Wycombe owner saw plans to build a new stadium to house Wasps and Wanderers rejected by Wycombe District Council but Brown believes things had started to go wrong some time before that.

The ex-QPR coach, who is now the assistant head of talent identification at The FA, urged the current chairman, Andrew Howard, to take heed of Hayes’ mistakes and to stick to his guns as he tries to build a bright future for Wanderers.

“They should have stayed on plan,” he said of Hayes. “All the things he put in place, all the things he said and all the things he outlined to the people at the club, he went away from his plan and that’s why he didn’t achieve it.

“I hope this chairman has got his plan for what he’s going to do to make it happen, and I hope he sticks to it.

“The moment you start changing direction or losing sight of the plan you lose focus.

“I’d like to think with what he’s achieved in his current tenure as chairman that the signs are encouraging.”

Hayes was unavailable for comment.

Brown also had his say on the club's decision to axe the youth academy. His thoughts can be read here