Wolves Premiership survival task has started to look a more healthy venture lately, even more so after Saturday’s victory over an abject Villa side.
I’m sure you’ve all watched games where you just sense that the opposition aren’t gelling or giving their all for the current manager. I’ve seen it when we’ve played Liverpool sides under Rafael Benítez, or Burnley last season under the misguidance of Brian Laws.
Gérard Houllier and Aston Villa seem an odd pairing. Villa’s recent FA Cup debacle, which I wrote about last week, sums up just how out of touch the Frenchman is with the English game. Odd really given all the years he served Liverpool.
His substitutions against Wolves were met with derision from the Villa crowd and in a Premier League season where the bottom half of the table is separated by just an incredible six points, Villa find themselves in a genuine relegation battle.
Although it has taken me a while to come round to, Wolves and Mick McCarthy go together like Peaches and cream, or Peaches and a ménage à cinq, if the tabloids are to be believed!
Anybody who has seen this Wolves team under Mick’s reign will see a side that fights and scraps for every point. Ok, Mick may lack a bit of tactical nouse, may sometimes indulge his big-nosed favourites and occasionally pack the midfield when we are crying out for two up front, but he is in my opinion the best thing to happen to this club since Graham Turner saved us from extinction in the Eighties.
I don’t think I’m alone in lacking patience as a football fan. A few years ago when I wrote a blog for the local paper in Wolverhampton I would often wear my heart on my sleeve and in the second season under Mick’s reign, when success was in short supply, I demanded his head on a stick.
Unfortunately the paper decided to print ‘the blogger says SACK MICK’, in great big letters across 2 pages at the back of the paper. I confess that I didn’t see the bigger picture, I didn’t fathom that Mick was trying to build a side for the future and I threw my toys out of blogging pram.
Now I try and take a more philosophical approach to it all. I renew my season ticket with little worry of what division Wolves will find themselves in the season after. Of course the Premiership serves up better quality than the division below and with wins over Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool, Man City and now Villa this season, it’s been fascinating to watch.
And yes, I’ve had seasons watching us in the Championship that have been dire, culminating in writing headlines where I wanted Mick sacked. But that’s what footballs all about surely? A journey of enjoying the highs and lows and supporting your team come what may.
I’m extremely confident that Wolves will avoid the trapdoor of relegation this season, but if we don’t, you won’t see me on Sky Sports at the end of the season with tears rolling down my face, head in my hands, feeling like my world has collapsed.
What is for certain is that under the ownership of Steve Morgan and with Jez Moxey at the helm controlling the finances, the future of Wolves looks extremely rosy, regardless of what division we find ourselves battling in.
Jez was answering fans questions at the recent Football Forum, sponsored by Banks’s and hosted by Beacon radio’s Tom Ross at the WuIfrun Hall in Wolverhampton and I went along this past week to have a listen to what he had to say. It was aired on Friday and you can listen to the whole thing here:-
As well as Jez, in attendance were Bully and club captain Karl Henry.
I won’t quite through what Jez and the boys said verbatim, but I read another blog recently where the blogger called Jez ‘crackers’ for talking on the night about having aspirations of getting this club into the top 5.
The fan who stood up at the forum, simply asked Jez what the long term goals and aspirations of the club were once the stadium redevelopment had been completed. Jez turned round and said the long term goal was to get the club back to where we were, challenging again for Europe and aiming to be a top six, Premiership established club.
He underlined that when they had debated whether or not to redevelop the stadium that Steve Morgan had said to, ‘think bigger’ and that the club should be the best that it can be. Jez reiterated that he wasn’t concerned that the club was trying to be something that it wasn’t and believed that was the problem that many clubs have is trying to do things they just can’t do and then getting themselves into all kinds of financial problems and Wolves won’t be doing that.
So, what is Jez supposed to say when asked about the ambitions of the club? Imagine he said that he hopes the club can yo-yo between the Premiership and the Championship for infinitum, with no real aspirations of achieving anything but top flight survival?
Its always easy to go on the attack, and Jez has copped a lot of flack over the years. Every Wolves fan will remember the pie and a pint debacle, but what about the positive and financially sound business he has done for the club?
I’ve been one of those in the past who has aired my frustration at key transfer windows when lack of investment in weak areas has come back to bite. But when you look at the players we brought in January in O’Hara and Hammill, they have made a significant difference to the team’s fortunes unlike the so-called stellar signings that other clubs made at the time that perhaps haven’t cut the mustard.
As one buffoon pointed out to Jez on the night, of course his position as Chief Exec is just a job, but in my opinion he does it extremely well and do we really want to go back to the nepotistic reign of the Heyward’s? For all the brilliant things Sir Jack did for the club, he certainly wasn’t helped by his blundering sons managing the finances of the club.
Some people, especially the blogger who wrote the piece, felt that considering we are currently embroiled in a battle for survival that Jez’s words were slightly mistimed. If only we could transport those non-believers back to the days of football under Hoddle or McGhee. Maybe then they would realise that they have never had it so good.
As Jez pointed out on the night, Wolves don’t embark on the manager’s merry go round, unlike Coventry who change their manager more frequently than Mario Balotelli changes bibs, or rather gets someone to do it for him, the poor lamb.
Sorry to hark about my fellow bloggers piece, but it really did get my back up. Here is just a small sample of his genius, “Our chief executive has often divided opinion amongst Wolves fans – usually between those who despise him and those who can’t stand him.”
Oooh, how clever; see what he did there? But in his next breath, the blogger completely undermines his own argument with, “He’s far too undervalued by many of us for the work he’s done, alongside Morgan and McCarthy, to get the club to where it is now.”
And before any of you start getting the wrong end of the stick, I’m not simply criticizing because he is writing the column I wrote for three years. I’ve probably been guilty, and perhaps continue to be guilty of filling fan’s minds with propagandistic claptrap, but I’d like to think I’ve learned my lesson.
By attacking something Jez said and twisting it in this manner made my blood boil, not that you would guess it eh?
By taking what Jez said out of context and not really fathoming what he was trying to say, the blog was no more accurate than the chap who stood up at the forum intent on giving Moxey a hard time and wouldn’t have been placated even if we announced the signing of Messi!
We have an incredibly bright future. As a Wolves fan, we’ve never had it so good. Top flight football, great talent, new stadium……
If you get a chance to listen to the forum, there are some great highlights. My favourite is when a young lad asks Karl Henry if he can come to his house for Sunday dinner.
Thanks for reading
@Wolvesblogger 