When Joleon made his full debut against the Russian’s on Wednesday night, it reminded me of the massive pride I felt when Bully scored on his debut against the Scots in ‘89, writes Wolves blogger Nathan Lloyd.
So, because of the two week break in league action, I have painstakingly put together what I consider to be the all time Wolves XI that have played for the England National team.
I would love to hear your thoughts. Between the sticks is the ‘Cat’, Bilston born, Bert Williams, capped 24 caps for England.
Bert had 11 successive seasons as the Wolves number 1 through the 40s and 50s, picking up a league winners medal on route in 1954.
At left back is Bobby Thomson who won 8 caps for England, including being part of the 10-0 thrashing of the USA in NY in 1964, and playing in 300 games for Wolves.
Wearing the old gold and black with over 700 games between them are Billy Wright CBE and Stan Cullis in the middle of defence, what a partnership that would have been.
Billy played a staggering 105 times for his country with Stan’s best playing years cut short because of World War 2, although he did go on to become our most successful manager to date.
And playing at right back and often seen bombing up the wing is Bill Slater OBE, CBE.
Bill was the last amateur to play in an FA Cup when he was playing for Blackpool in 1951.
With 310 games for Wolves and 12 English caps, Bill won the league 3 times, bagged 2 FA Cups and was also the last Wolves player to win FA footballer of the year in 1960.
The midfield is the most difficult area on the field, because I have to leave a lot of great Wolves players out of my selection.
No arguments for the left wing slot though, with the late great Geordie Jimmy Mullen terrifying defence’s wherever he played.
At 16 years old, he is the youngest player to have ever worn the old gold and black, and was also England’s first ever International substitution in 1950.
Part of the awesome 1950s side, Jimmy played his whole career at Wolves, wearing the old gold and black 445 times and pulling on the three lions jersey 12 times.
In the middle of the park, I would play Paul Ince in a defensive midfield position.
The Guvnor’ was capped 53 times for his country and after Man Utd, played at Wolves longer than any other club in his career, with 115 appearances.
The attacking and creative central midfield duties are left to the great Ron Flowers.
With 49 England Caps and 467 games played for Wolves, Ron was part of 1966 World Cup winning squad and had Jack Charlton not recovered from a chill, he would have played in the final.
At just 10 stone and 5 foot 4 inches, Johnny Hancocks on the right flank was the master of the dead ball and regularly topped the Wolves scoring charts.
He deserves his name in the team as one of the few Wanderers to have scored a hat-trick against the Baggies.
A fantastic scoring record of 158 goals from 343 Wolves games and he certainly deserved to win more than his 3 England caps.
With just one England cap, John Richards takes his place upfront with Bully.
Top scorer at Molineux for six seasons in a row in the Seventies and Eighties, Richards formed a formidable partnership with the ‘Doog’, winning the League Cup of 1974 and later with Andy Gray in the League Cup winning side of 1980.
And as for Bully, my god how we could do with him giving Charlton hell on Saturday.
He has the third most Wolves appearances after Hibbitt and Parkin, and has blasted a record 306 goals in 545 appearances.
His England career was criminally short and gave us just 13 games and 4 goals.
So there we have it, my Wolves English XI of Williams, Thomson, Wright (captain), Cullis, Slater, Mullen, Ince, Flowers, Hancocks, Richards and Bull.
A formidable team, but who should be dropped and who should come in?
Other Wolves players to have played for England who might make your Wolves English 11 include Emlyn Hughes, Peter Broadbent, Joleon Lescott, Michael Bailey, Darren Anderton (sorry), Dave Beasent, Keith Curle, Tony Daley, Norman Deeley, Cyrille Regis, Paul Stewart, Alan Sunderland and Geoff Thomas.
Next week I’ll bring you my non-English Wolves International XI for you to discuss.
35 Comments
class blog
excellent blog Nathan, why not try an irish team most of them are in the present squad
Important note that of Bull’y 13 caps only 7 were starts, so 4 in 7 is a better return that most English strikers.
LESCOTT ONE TO BLAME FOR RUSSIA 2ND GOAL
3 ENGLAND DEFENDERS STOOD AND WATCHED RUBBISH.
NEWSPAPER GAVE HIM 4 OUT OF 10
THAT SUMS IT UP
NOT GOOD ENOUGH
SHOULD OF BEEN BARRY AT LEFT BACK
Good piece - wolves (like albion) have had some great players down the years- it almost makes you weep when you see where both clubs are now.
Don’t worry about disciussing the non-english XI though - we do that EVERY week.
5.Deadcastle
You may not realise but Lescott don’t play for you anymore…
As for the blog…very good Nathan
What a great blog, well done Nathan!
Personally I’d have Emlyn Hughes in the middle rather that Ince and I’d have to find a spot for Peter Broadbent.
Ignore Happy_Baggie, I for one look forward to reading about your choice for the foreign Wolves XI. Hopefully they won’t all be from the Emerald Isle!
Yes really enjoyed that blog too. For those of us born in the 60’s its a shame that we didn’t see some of the class players of the 40’s and 50’s play. Feel like I’ve missed out a lot as a result.
Astle SHUT UP!
You have no idea on what you are talking about, Lescott did a decent job, OK, may have needed to react quicker for the second goal, but a regulation save by Robbo should have been held. I am proud of Lescott, he did really well in what was a difficult game for him to come into, no friendly matches to try him out like some of the other players who have worn the 3 lions shirt with pride. Barry at Left back, dont talk wet man, Barry has been awesome in the middle of the park for england for the last 4 matches, is he continues to do well he is a certain starter for england. I hear no one and I mean NO ONE say nothing about that Gerrard miss which would have put us up 2-0 and the game would have been dead and buried. Come to think of it if that was Lampard who missed that chance he would have been crucified!
Excellent choices Nathan. All these players should be rated at the time they played for Wolves. Emlyn and Incey were past their best when they played for us so it has got to be the great Peter Broadbent. Also your list of subs should include Eddie Clamp, Chris Crowe, Alan Hinton & Tom Galley from the Cullis era - all capped as Wolves players.
This makes me think about our present team. A couple of years ago when we were promoted to the premier league there were players in the squad that have managed to make the grade and some of them have stayed there! I’m thinking of Lescott, Naylor, Seol, Murray, Miller and Newton. We also had quality with the likes of Rea and Ince. How many of our current squad do you think have the quality to get us there and even more importantly, keep us there?
I can think of just 4.They are: Murray, Hennessey, Olofinjana, Kightly. Am I being too harsh or do people agree that as the team is we just don’t have the quality.
9 - agree with you about the gerrard miss - also i would not pick Rooney - the guy is as likely to lose you the game as win it these days.
I thought lescott had a disappointing game - not all his fault, but he has been around long enough now to do the basics - but he didn’t. That may be his last cap (for a while at least).
Also agree with you about Barry - he has really stepped up - i think he is now in front of lampard - but maybe still behind Hargreaves when he’s fit.
Finally - Geoff Thomas !!! - when he trapped the ball it went further than I can kick it !
Richard, I believe that only Foley and a fit Murray are good enough to be premiership regulars, if George was as good as a lot of people believe some Premiership club would have had him away by now.
Only one man was to blame for Russia’s second goal and that’s McClaren, Robinson should have been taken out of the firing line ages ago. Routine save should have been caught or pushed away from the danger area, it’s a joke that is still getting picked and that’s only down to one man. Playing Lescott left back was also a bad call, however all of our recent performances have been in no small part down to Barry’s role in midfield that was a good call, Shorey or Neville should have played Left Back, Astle don’t let inter club rivalry get in the way of good judgement.
Is no one discussing the merits of the English Wolves XI or are we just going to grumble about the other night?
Lescott didn’t have a great game but it wasn’t bad either.
The goal wasn’t his fault, it was Robinson’s for giving it right to the striker, all Lescott could do was take a jab at the ball.
Good blog btw!
As for “which of our current players are good enough?”
Hennessey, Murray, Foley, Kightly(sometimes), Olofinjana and Keogh, maybe even Eastwood when he gets his act together.
We’ve got a lot of improving to do!
We need 3 defenders, 2 or 3 midfielders and a striker to step up if we hope to be good enough.
ASTLE IS THE KING I think you’ll fing it was Robinson fault for the 2nd goal.
Come back when you know something about the game.As you bore me with your simple mind.
Cpt_Wolves Good call, I’ll base my England XI on players capped while playing for Wolves and post war.
Williams, Clamp, Wright, Slater, Thomson, Hancocks, Broadbent, Flowers, Mullen, Richards , Bull
Subs Wilshaw, Swinbourne, Hinton, our sad that Parkin didn’t get a cap, because in reality he should be in this team.
Nice one Wolf66, can’t really argue with that choice.
People forget just how many Wolves players got into the England teams of the 50s and 60s.
Unfortunately you made your whole blog nugatory as you failed to include Broadbent. Perhaps you never saw him play and relied on hearsay . I recommend you take a trip to the British museum newspaper archive and read some match reports.
Paul, wasn’t that the whole point? A blog is for discussion, you can’t dismiss it because he didn’t choose Broadbent. Fool.
Its a tough call between Ince and Broadbent. And anyway, I doubt the blog writer saw all of the players he picked play. Most were part of the great 50s side. Nugatory? Not really the right phrase to use.
Get a grip.
Where’s my Tony?
Whilst I believe that you may have some journalistic talents (which is impressive considering you’re from Wolverhampton), I have to ask - don’t you think that you may be a little old for such blogging? Also, don;t you have anything better to do? If not, and you’re just trying to kill some time, you could always come round to my house and do some weeding?
Very good nathan very “impressive” but it’s obvious i would have had deeley in there.
Cpt I would never be so arrogant to dare give an opinion on players that I have never seen. That is why this is worthless or nugatory opinion. HoweverI have seen both Ince and Broadbent . To compare them in one breath is like comparing George Best and Bobby Moore. I may be a fool, but Peter Broadbent was the best player that I have ever seen in gold and black and I have seen a few.
So, presumbing the blog writer is under 50, should he just litter the team with modern day players and leave out Wright, Cullis, Thomson, Slater etc etc?
good blog nathan but how dare you leave out Peter Broadbent,my alltime favorite Wolves player.This man was a superstar and on to-day’s values
would be worth 30-40 mill of any
club’s money easily.
cpt_wolves if you are going to write a blog on the best Wolves team it should really be selected from players that you have personally seen and not based on assumptions. It requires a bit of thought because Broadbent played at the top level, week in and out for Wolves for many years. He was far better than Johny Haynes.
If you want to know about Broadbent, buy the biography. An excellent read and it confirms he was a genius. Ince not in his class.
Non-English Wolves international XI: In 4-3-3 (not one Irishman) Cyril Sidlow; John de Wolf George Berry, Frank Munro, Ricki Herbert; Jim McCalliog, Bryn Jones, Colin Cameron; Andy Gray, Kenny Miller Hugh Curran.
Great blog, but the first name those of us of mature years would think of is Peter Broadbent. He was a one off. you will not see his like again. More creative than anyone in an England shirt for decades. He had the most beautiful body swerve I’ve ever seen and was a great finisher with head and feet. Genius! Richards was a very good player but not in the same class.
Enjoyed the blog but you would have to include the greatest Wolves, Midlands and who knows maybe even Englands finest ever player, the unique and most wonderful Peter Broadbent
Old Timer, where is the doog?
Peter Broadbent should have been the first name on the sheet.
David Bartley, Tipton.
Talking about Wolves Greats, I was recently chatting to Bert Williams.
Bert rates Jimmy Dunn as one of the finest players who played in front of him.
David Bartley, Tipton.
Broadbent- well he lived in my street but I was only two! Um, wasn’t Alan Sunderland kinda good once he realised he wasn’t a defender?