A few of you took umbrage with last week’s blog when I wrote a piece about next season and another crack at Premiership football.
Apologies if I was a little premature (ahem) – but I never thought our survival was ever in doubt. I must admit though to being mightily relieved to see Villa put one over an abject and disorganised Hull side the other night.
We are now a massive 50-1 to be relegated with this week’s blog sponsor Sportingbet.com and yet the majority of the media seem to feel that Wolves have only avoided relegation by default – arguing that this season’s Premier league is the weakest yet.
Well to quote the most famous of Wolves doom mongers – pah!
Yes, Hull and Burnley have been garbage and Pompey might as well have been run by a Nigerian lottery syndicate, but I do believe that Wolves deserve a lot of credit for their achievements.
And of course I include my old mucka, Mick McCarthy in all of that. I realise it’s just as well Mick manages Wolves and not over-hysterical knee-jerk supporters like me!
I’m forever reminded that I wanted him out at the end of his 2nd season, having sat through some uninspiring football. But then he goes and wins the league and keeps us up. So, I’ll stick to my day job – whatever that is.
Anyway, what is the one word you would use to sum up the Wolves team’s endeavours this season? Resolute, dogmatic, assiduous or how about simply – organised?
Whilst other Premiership teams worry about their finances, dodgy driving tests or wife swapping, isn’t it reassuring to know we have such a well run club?
We have the finances in place, a committed chairman (he isn’t off to buy Liverpool), a great manager (he has won me round) and a young, hungry and ever developing fantastic set of players. Oh and not to mention the best supporters in the land.
Whilst MM is commentating and casting an eye over the talent at this summer’s World Cup, we will all be on tender hooks to see who comes into the club.
And having learned the lessons of buying too many players on the cheap, we should hopefully have three or four quality signings coming in and maybe as many as a dozen leaving the club.
With the Premiership enforcing the rule that squad sizes need to be a maximum of 25 next season, there will be no room for Maierhofer-type passengers.
So with three games to go this season, some have suggested that we give the fringe players, the likes of the Hoff a chance to shine. Well, as Tony Soprano would say – forget about it.
Each league position is worth a cool 750 big ones, sorry, I’ve watched Goodfellas one too many times!
We still have a chance of finishing 14th and that could make all the difference in the summer and one extra league position could even be used to just pay Rapid Vienna that survival bonus for the massive contribution Maierhofer has made to the team, pah!
Watching the Wolves at present hasn’t exactly being scintillating. It’s all been about grinding our results and accumulating enough points, which lets be honest, is usually the order of the day at this stage of a season – whatever league we find ourselves in.
After a drought of six and a half hours, it would be nice to see a goal or two against big Sam’s Blackburn on Saturday, but as long as we match or better the results of Hull and Burnley, then mathematical safety will be in the bag and the pant wetting brigade can sleep easy.
When we clinched promotion in mid-April last year, a pitch invasion was fully justified, but would you feel warranted to step onto the hallowed turf if tomorrow goes to plan?
Football may have moved on since the heady days of the 1950’s when Wolves celebrated their greatest successes, but I think the rest of the Premiership would scoff at us if we think survival is worthy of a pitch invasion.
Don’t get me wrong – it is a monumental achievement, but it’s surely just a building block to where the club needs to be.
To invade or not invade, that this week’s fundamental question.
Enjoy the game on Saturday. Big Sam’s Blackburn are still trying to finish in the top ten of the league this season, so don’t believe they are going to just turn up and let us tickle their belly.
If you have a suggestion or a comment when this blog is closed, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line on Twitter, my moniker is – Wolvesblogger.
UTW!
@Wolvesblogger 