Five ex Wycombe players who have gone onto play PL football

However, some have spent their formative years at Adams Park, which has helped them earn contracts at Premier League clubs.

Here are five ex-Wycombe players who have gone onto play in the Premier League.

Number 5: Roger Johnson: 183 Wycombe appearances, 22 Wycombe goals

A Premier League starter and a League Cup winner, it is easy to forget how Roger Johnson’s career peaked so well, only for it to dwindle so quickly.

The centre-back started his career with Wycombe Wanderers as a youth team player in 1998 and played 11 games for the club between then and 2002 – scoring once.

His breakthrough season came in 2002/03 under Lawrie Sanchez where he played 35 matches and scored three times.

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A year later, Wanderers were relegated but Johnson played another 36 matches, scoring twice.

In total, Johnson played 183 times and scored an impressive 22 goals for Wanderers, with 15 goals coming in his final two seasons (2004/05 and 2005/06).

After being named in the League Two Team of the Year for the 2005/06 season, he earned the first big-money move of his career when he left Wanderers in the summer of 2006, to join Cardiff City for £275,000.

He spent three seasons with the Welsh outfit and played in the 2008 FA Cup Final, as they lost 1-0 to Portsmouth at Wembley.

Roger Johnson was at Wycombe between 1998 and 2006

He eventually moved to Birmingham City in the summer of 2009 after the Blues achieved promotion back to the PL after a season out and in the 2009/10 season, Johnson was incredible.

He formed a strong partnership with Scott Dann, with the two players being rumoured to play for England as Birmingham finished ninth.

However, things started to fall apart the following season.

Despite the Blues winning the League Cup after they defeated Arsenal in the final, Birmingham were relegated just three months after their Wembley triumph.

After 88 matches in two seasons for Birmingham, he opted to move to Wolves in the summer of 2011 for £7m.

After they won their two opening PL matches of the 2011/12 season which saw them sit in second place in mid-August, they would only win three more league matches that season, eventually suffering relegation.

A year later, Johnson suffered his third relegation in as many seasons as Wolves went down to League One in 2013.

In his two playing seasons at Wolves, he made 72 appearances and scored twice but for the next two seasons (2013/14 and 2014/15), he did not make one appearance for the club.

Instead, he had loan spells at Sheffield Wednesday and West Ham, before he joined Charlton on a permanent transfer in February 2015.

He spent some time at West Ham in the 2013/14 season 

Roger Johnson at West Ham
2013/14 season
Six games, zero goals pic.twitter.com/AxxCkUlcsR

— Forgotten Football Signings (@FFSignings) March 21, 2021

A move to the Indian Super League side in Pune City followed in the summer of 2015 before returning to Charlton in January 2016 for 18 months.

He eventually saw out his career at non-league Bromley, before retiring in 2019.

In total, Johnson suffered five relegations in his career (2004, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016).

Number 4: Alfie Mawson: 50 Wycombe appearances, seven Wycombe goals

Still only 27-years-old, Alfie Mawson has already played for nine clubs in his short career.

Mawson started his career at Brentford but only played one game for the Bees in two seasons.

Instead, the centre-back had several loan spells away from Brentford at sides such as Maidenhead, Luton, Welling, and of course, Wycombe.

Wanderers signed the then 20-year-old in the summer of 2014, originally on a one-month long deal.

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However, his impressive performances led Gareth Ainsworth to sign the promising playing on a longer contract, as the Chairboys aimed for promotion into League One.

Alfie Mawson after the 2015 League Two play-off final (photo by Anita Ross Marshall)

The Chairboys were on course for automatic promotion as they spent most of the season in the top three, but a draw and a loss in their final three games saw Wanderers drop into the play-offs.

Mawson was one of the first players on Ainsworth’s team sheet that season as he played 50 times for Wycombe, scoring seven goals, but the campiagn ended in heartbreak as Wanderers lost the League Two play-off final on penalties to Southend United, 7-6.

That summer, he won the club’s Player of the Season award, but Wanderers were unable to keep hold of Mawson as he was sold by Brentford to Barnsley.

In his only season with the Tykes, the Yorkshire side won the Football League Trophy and promotion to League One.

A year later, and after starting the 2016/17 season at Barnsley, where he scored two goals in four matches, Mawson was signed by Premier League Swansea.

In two seasons with the Swans, he helped the club avoid relegation down to the Championship in his first year, but was unable to repeat this feat in 2018.

He played 50 games for Wanderers in the 2014/15 season

He eventually signed for newly promoted Fulham that summer, but just like at Swansea, the Cottages were relegated to the Championship.

Mawson helped the club achieved promotion back to the PL in 2020, but he is now at Bristol City, on loan from Fulham.

Number 3: Matty Phillips: 87 Wycombe appearances, seven Wycombe goals

A solid and reliable professional, Matt Phillips has had a very good career.

Starting his footballing journey at Wanderers, Phillips made three appearances for the club in the 2007/08 season before becoming a regular a year later.

That season (2008/09), Wycombe earned promotion to League One with Phillips playing 40 matches and scored four goals in all competitions.

Matt Phillips has played 16 times for Scotland (PA)

However, Wanderers went straight back down to League Two in 2010, with Phillips playing the same amount of games as the previous season, but scored one more goal.

Despite Wycombe’s relegation to League Two in 2010, his displays caught the eye of Premier League new boys, Blackpool, who signed Phillips on Transfer Deadline Day that August for £700,000.

In the top-flight, he played 27 games, scoring once, as the Seasiders were relegated back down to the Championship after a season.

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He left to join QPR in 2013, helping Rangers get promoted back to the Premier League, and during their sole campaign back in the top-flight in 2014/15, he scored three PL goals in 25 PL matches.

A year later in 2016, he joined West Brom and played 60 top-flight matches, before the Baggies were relegated in 2018.

They were promoted after two seasons out and so far this year, Phillips has played 22 matches.

He has also played for Scotland on 16 occasions, scoring once.

Phillips is currently at West Brom (PA)

In his career so far, Phillips has been relegated four times (2010, 2011, 2015, and 2018), and has been promoted three times (2009, 2014, and 2020).

Number 2: Eberechi Eze: 22 Wycombe appearances, five Wycombe goals

Still in his formative years as a footballer, Eberechi Eze will be a player that will go far.

After spending much of his youth career at several London clubs such as Arsenal, Fulham, and Millwall, as well as having a brief spell at Reading, he eventually signed a professional contract with Queens Park Rangers in the summer of 2016.

Eberechi Eze spent the 2017/18 season at Wycombe

His first season at the club only saw him play one senior game for QPR but he shone for the reserves.

He eventually moved to Wycombe in the summer of 2017 and despite only playing half-a-season under Gareth Ainsworth at Adams Park, Eze played a huge part in Wanderers’ promotion to League One that season.

In total, he played 22 games and scored five goals for the Chairboys with every single one of his goals for the club coming in wins apart from one (the only goal that wasn’t scored in a win was in a 3-3 home draw against Cheltenham in October 2017).

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He was recalled to QPR in January 2018 and in the final half of that season, he scored two goals in 17 matches for Rangers.

This was the catalyst for Eze’s career as in his last two seasons at QPR (2018-2020), he played an incredible 94 matches in all competitions and scored 18 goals – 14 of them coming in his final season at the club.

Eze scored five goals for Wanderers, including one against Cheltenham Town (pictured)

His stellar final year at QPR earned him many admirers which included Crystal Palace, with the Eagles eventually signing Eze for £17m in the summer of 2020.

Eze is now at Palace (PA)

He has since played 29 times for Palace, scoring three times.

Number 1: Jordon Ibe: 11 Wycombe appearances, one Wycombe goal

Bursting onto the scene as a teenager, Jordon Ibe only made a handful of appearances for Wanderers before moving to one of the largest clubs in world football.

Ibe made his debut for the Chairboys in August 2011 as Wycombe defeated Colchester 5-4 on penalties in the League Cup first round, at the age of just 15-years-old.

His league debut came that October as he came on as a last-minute sub for Wanderers in a 3-1 away win at Hartlepool United and later that month, he became the club’s youngest ever goalscorer, as Wycombe lost 2-1 at home to Sheffield Wednesday.

Jordon Ibe playing for Wanderers in the 2011/12 season

The match made national news, and it wasn’t due to Gareth Ainsworth’s red card in the same match, but it was because Ibe was booked for hugging his mother who was in the crowd after scoring his first professional goal. 

His positive performances for Wycombe caught the eye of Premier League giants, Liverpool, who signed Ibe in December 2011, with the transfer being confirmed a month later in January 2012.

A regular for the youth and reserve teams, he made his debut for the Reds on the final day of the 2012/13 season against QPR, where he assisted Philippe Coutinho who scored the winner in a 1-0 win.

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Loan spells followed in 2013/14 and 2014/15 at Derby and Birmingham respectively, before his breakthrough season at Anfield came in his final season at the club.

Jordon Ibe (middle left) battles Huddersfield Town's Rajiv van La Parra for the ball during the Premier League match at the John Smith's Stadium on February 11, 2018 (PA)

Originally under Brendan Rodgers and then later under Jurgen Klopp, Ibe made 41 appearances in the 2015/16 season and scored four goals as Liverpool reached two cup finals (League Cup and Europa League), being runners up in both.

He was sold that summer to Bournemouth for £15m with the move originally working well, only for it to go south.

Jordon Ibe was at Bournemouth for four seasons (PA)

Under Eddie Howe, he played 92 times in four seasons with the club, but only 28 times in the last two seasons.

He was released last summer and has since re-joined Derby under Wayne Rooney, but he has only played once so far this season for the Rams.