Captain Gary Breen believes the current Wolves squad are ‘paying for the sins’ of their predecessors as he reflected on another promotion failure.
Wolves have spent 23 out of the last 24 years out of the top flight, and all but six of those seasons have been attempts to get out of the second tier.
“I can understand the fans’ frustrations because they have to put up with it every year,” said out-of-contract defender Breen, who is one of several players whose futures are unclear.
“As a new player coming in last season, you look at Wolves from the outside and you think ‘why have they only played one season in the Premier League?’
“Something is not quite right. I’m sure we’re paying for the sins of people before us.”
Breen admits he can only sympathise with the supporters after Wolves’ failure to make the play-offs.
“The fans are fantastic and they turn up in their numbers,” he said.
“At times they have been frustrated, but in general they took this team and what Mick has tried to put together to their hearts.
“But when they were getting a bit grumpy, they were probably thinking ‘we’re going to have to endure another season of this’. On the whole the fans have been fantastic and it’s been a pleasure to play for the club.”
Breen warned the young Wolves side assembled by boss Mick McCarthy that they must learn to deal with the ‘Molineux factor’ as expectations remain high among fans.
“The atmosphere shouldn’t make a difference because ultimately your aim should be to play in the Premier League,” said Breen.
“At times when I was watching games I was frustrated and I’m part of the squad so I can understand their frustrations.“When you play well, this crowd is fantastic.”
51 Comments
WE’RE FANTASTIC ALL THE TIME MATE!!!!!!!!
IT’S THE RUBBISH ON THE PITCH THAT’S THE LET DOWN.
BYE BYE ANYWAY!!!!!!
We have some of the best fans in the country, sure we demand a lot from our players but if they deliver we back them to the hilt.
Shame Thick Mick spends most of his time bad mouthing us.
‘Paying for the sins of predecessors’?!?!?
Don’t pass the buck! Take responsiblility - you’re supposed to be one of the main role models in the squad!
It is always someone else’s fault! The manager & players should hold there hands up, take responsibility for a period in particular from November to Februaury where the performances were a disgrace. Breen should because A) He is not good enough & B) Criticising the youngsters is being really supportive as captain!!!! MM should go because its been dreadful & the club stated it was a minimum to be in the play offs! We missed out whether it be one goal or fifteen points! Also MM was aiming for top two!!!!!!
I think he’s a good footballer. Too old now but I bet he will make a success at management somewhere.
And before anybody pulls me up - I don’t mean here!
“I’m sure we’re paying for the sins of people before us.”
However much you dislike him, what he says is true!
That is why we need a clear out from top to bottom. The defeatist attitude needs removing. Cut out the cancer!
Just read the comments, to realise what the problem at Molineux is
I can see his point really. He has done his best, and dsepite lacking speed has done pretty well so I wouldn’t knock him personally. You’ve only got to look at the defensive record when he has played to see he isn’t as bad as people make out.
Just another player at the tail end of his career though who is not likely to be part of our future. But we need a couple of old heads to bring on the youngsters.
Did well last season but has slowed this season with the injuries - thanks for the service - time to move on (and take MM with you!)
I’m sick to the back teeth of players appologising! Don’t say sorry just put it right on the pitch!
Another season gone. Main reason for missing out on promotion? Lack of goals. Amount spent this season on strikers/attacking midfielder? £5.1 Million.
You do the Maths!
THATS ONE OF HIS FAVOURITES GONE, JUST S.WARD, ELLIOT, KYLE, A FEW OTHERS AND HOPEFULLY THE MUPPET HIMSELF
“Paying for the sins’ of their predecessors”
Shudder. Sounds eerily like a Glenn Twaddle comment.
What is the point of the E&S ‘Will Wolves win automatic promotion next year?” poll. I think you’ll find that largely depends on what transfer activity happens in the close season.
IF Mick finally realises we need two central defenders with pace
IF we are able to keep Kightly, SEB and Hennessey
IF Mick brings in a midfielder with guile and craft who can create openings, pick a pass and play a killer ball
IF we have better luck with injuries
THEN maybe, just maybe, we could do it.
Breen’s right. The constant small minded negative behaviour of some of our support doesn’t help on the pitch.
Your support should be your 12th man and sometimes we look like we’re playing with ten.
“Something is not quite right. I’m sure we’re paying for the sins of people before us.”
What the hell does this mean Gary! Are you talking like a certain Mr.Hoddle or are you blaming previous chairmen and managers when this squad is all of Mick’s doing and you say the coaches which are from a previous era are “different class” (Henry,K 2008)
Sounds to me like he is slagging off the coaches, i.e Connor, in an underhand way. I don’t think you’ll be here much longer anyway Gary but then again Mick is your best mate so….
Spot on GLASGOWWOLF; the main problem this season has been the fans themselves!!!!!
Everyone is accountable - including the fans. Were not the best in the world simply cos we turn up. Reality check for all.
At the end of the Plymouth game Mr.Morgan said he was going to make sure we don’t need to rely on the play-offs next year.Actions speak louder than words and planning for next season should have already begun.Get rid of the failures and start again.Where’s Moxey hiding? He’S unduly quiet,thinking up another scam? On holiday? or at Stoke’s promotion celebrations?
13. wanderersscarf said…
“Breen’s right. The constant small minded negative behaviour of some of our support doesn’t help on the pitch.”
He didn’t say anything like that!
Why make things up to suit your own comments, if you think it is the fans fault that we are where we are then so be it!
If your right, then would Manchester United be mid-table without good support, or do the players and management do it really?
15. Cobblers! Some of the football served up at Molineux this season has been an absolute disgrace!
Same Old Same Old!!!
Is’nt it a pleasure to look at the 2nd division league table
1st MK DONS - Paul Ince
2nd PETERBORO - Darren Ferguson
3rd HEREFORD - Graham Turner
All ex wolves what i call WINNERS
23 of the last 24 years out of the top flight, i wonder why!!!!
There needs to be some serious questions asked this week and some BIG decisions made.
The main problems has been the fans… You both dont go to matches do you. How can it be the fans fault. We dont play the football, the players do. We dont pick the team, Mental Micky does. Fans turn up in droves to support the team and you name me on one hand what games did we play teams off the park…….
“Yep silence is golden”
The fault lies with the manager. He needs to be sacked!
He is right. We were voted the worst fans in the league earlier in the season - for moaning. It is true that we have been fed poor football for years, but large chunks of our “supporters” seem to revel in the disappointments and cant wait to dig the knife in. Grow up, or as Morgan put it “s** off”. Looking forward to the new start in August. It is as much up to us fans as it is to the management and players to make it a new start.
And those “fans” who are going to start shouting or using CAPS at me - just think how many of or former players go onto better things having left us and the moaning behind.
Up the Wolves!
I remember his posting earlier on in the season,he talks alot of sense and he’s right.Our fans are too hard and too impatient at home and far more forgiving away from home.We’ve had alot to put up with and it makes it doubley hard to take with those assoles up the road doing so well.We do get on the players backs but its frustration with having to tolerate disappointment year after year.I think he’ll be gone and overall,hes done ok considering he was way past his best when we signed him.Thanks Breeny!
22. We all knew how good Lescott and Keane were before they left. Name one other recent player who has done better since leaving. Henri “where is he now” Camara ? Seol can’t get into Readings team (is he still there?)
Seriously - name one from the last 5 years!
The problem has been with the managers - they sign the players and Moxey signs the managers!
Did Jez top the poll for best chief exec????
naylor,gabor gypes,jackin mac,miller,proudlock quite alot of our recent players are doing well in other terams or as a manager. so no the problem has not been with the managers
I don’t normally have a go at the players on here but, Gary Breen needs to step back and look at his performance and agree with everyone else that he’s simply not good enough for this division along with a couple of others. To try and blame previous managers and players is an easy way out for failure.
naylor,gabor gypes,proudlock,jackie mac,clingan,proudlock some of pur recent players are doing very well for their respective clubs so the problem isnt with our managers. stop moaning about mcarthy and have sympathy for leicster or you shud all become their fans and see what that is like.
you know relegation not promotion or respectable mid table finishing
stop blaming the manager
Fenwolf, the only other player I can think of to add to Keane and Lescott is Ingimarrson. A timid cente midfielder for us, became a commanding Premiership centre back. How did Jones not see that coming?
Come On lads! Dont blame Breen!
The bloke is 100% commited, and take note, the only member of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC to relate to and symapthise with the fans!
Wolverhampton’s population is 236,582 [2001 census].
Wolverhampton Wanderers average attendance 2007/2008: 22,097
That means, on average, 9.3% of the population of one of Britain newest cities attends each and every home game.
That is a sizeable proportion of the population.
However, the Molineux capacity is 28,500.
Of the seats available for our passionate supporters, we have only a 77.5% occupancy per game.
There has to be a reason why this big club has underperformed and is, looking at the stadium capacity, probably under-supported.
They’ve thrown money at it, thrown international managers at it, thrown household name players at it and still, somehow, it languishes in the second tier with a quarter empty stadium as fans don’t want to watch Wolves play Scunthorpe, Colchester and Blackpool again.
There’s been a string of owners, a stadium redeveloment, a new training facility and still somehow, somehow, the club is stuck in the second tier… playing Scunthorpe, Colchester and Blackpool.
My conclusion is that the only possible reason for this continued failure must be black witchcraft or hoodoo voodoo. So, it’s time to follow some of Hoddle’s hocus pocus and get some white witches in to clear Molineux of whatever hex has been cast upon it and bound the club down for, what is now, a ridiculously large number of years.
Sorry, but I can see no other justifiable reason for this continuing flip-flopping around. Either there’s a black magic curse on the Wolves, else the hierarchy has been the most incompetent in terms of recruitment since they hired an iceberg look-out for the Titanic.
When you find a new club for next season, for God’s sake (return MM’s favour to you) take McCarthy with you - and Clipboard too!!!!
Post 7 I think hits the nail on the head.
In conversations with a fellow supporter last August, we both agreed that the same old drivel would occur.
1 Automatic promotion required followed by
2 Tenth position by Christmas followed by
3 Articles in the Express and Star by players - must do better, let the fans down blah blah!
followed by
4 Another season in Drossville with the “sorry about that” comments and automatic promotion a must yawn yawn!
Should have put money on it at the bookies.
Meanwhile I have to work with Albion fans every day. Imagine that Mick and your bunch of incompetents. Thanks a lot!
27. My point was how many players in recent years have bettered themselves since leaving. Naylor apart - not one of the names mentioned so far has done better. (Ingimarson has been somewhat found out this season!)
Never made a comment before and dont get to the match living up here but even I can see there is no confidence in the manager lets just hope Mr Morgan acts quickly
31# Wandering Wolf, don’t you remember about 10-12 years ago there was a story about a gypsy curse on the Molineux and they had somebody in to remove it.
As for 27#Irish Smurf, a lot of us have been through all the pain and heartache that Leicester are going through at the moment! With regard to the players you’ve listed, look at the divisions they’re playing in.
breen - we wouldnt be moaning or complaining if you lot had of performed players and manager always take the credit when things go right well guess whta they havent this season so take the blame its your jobs and you have performed to the best of your ability in any other line of employment it would be out the door - so shut it moaning and go and take your ex sunderland has beens with you!!!!! step forward Paul Ince!!!!!
how can you blame the fans? I must put this point accross that at the start of the season we were behind the team but due to inept performance some of the fans got on the teams back which granted isn’t acceptable but at the same time understandable, I’ve had a season ticket for 15 years and go to virtually every away game too and we just havn’t been good enough thats the team not the fans, and the two guys who commented on the so called bad support was from glasgow and liverpool so I wonder how many times they have been to games this season?!
MM has slated the fans at pretty much every chance he has had and basically saying he couldn’r give a toss what we think, now is it just me or should your manager be saying those sort of things? if you ask me the players and especially MM have plotted their own downfall by being so pig minded and arrogant.
Sorry mick you had a great first season and overachieved but we have spent over £7 million and taken a step back, I wish we had a manager who actually cares what us fans think because if it wasn’t for 22,000 turning up every week then where would the club be now and don’t forget its a small minority who have been booing the majority have stuck with the team
At the end of the day, after paying hard earned cash to watch rubbish 60/70 percent of the time, we the fans have every right to moan at whoever we wish at the club whether it be players, managers or board level. 1 season in the top flight in the last 24 years is not good enough. This is why the ground isn’t full week in week out. Muppet Mick does not have the tactical knowledge to take this team forward, this has been proved game after game this season. The board need to dig deep and drop him now. They need someone like Big Sam to really motivate the players. If Muppet Mick is still there next season then I’m afraid it will be just another low key season and it will make it 1 season out of 25 in the top flight.
Good grief Mr Breen! A master of self-delusion! We would be in the play-offs apart from your disgraceful unprofessional assault to give away a needless free kick in the 93rd minute vs Ipswich.
Cheerio - and thanks for all the fish.
bye bye breen you donkey if you did’nt foul in the 94th min against ipswich it might be a different story now so bye bye breen and take collins and ward with you.
7 & 33 ARE RIGHT IN MY BOOK. JEEZ YOU ONLY HAVE TO LOOK AT THE WOLVES WEB SITE TO SEE HOW UNIMAGINITIVE THIS CLUB IS. IT IS ALSO TRUE TO SAY THAT WOLVES FANS DO EXPECT THE EARTH BUT WHY SHOULDN’T THEY? THEY WERE THE UNCROWNED KINGS OF EUROPE, ER, WELL IT WAS NEARLY 55 YEARS AGO. BUT PUT THAT ASIDE FOR A MO, WE WERE TOLD TOP TWO AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON AND NOW WE’RE TOLD MICKDOESN’T GO HOME AND WORRY IF WE LOSE, SUMS IT UP REALLY
31 - you get what you deserve. Fans on the back of the managers and players very quickly. Over agressive fans outside of your ground making it a horrible place to go for away fans (check the fans surveys if you don’t beleive me).
If people want to know why Wolves don’t get to the play-offs or perform to their full potential, they just need to read the fans’ comments, not just on this, but any of the blogs.And before any potential manager or player signs a contract on being offered a job at Molineux, they should be sent a sample of the comments. Bearing in mind that we have, as even the fans who go only to show their disapproval would admit, mostly young, inexperienced players, I think the potential “joiners” should be given an insight into what they can expect.As a baptism at first. And then, if they fail, are Irish or used to play for Sunderland, what they can expect every time their name is announced at home matches, or before they come on as sub. Certainly, the fans here represent the “12th Man” that Delia goes on about so much at Norwich. I couldn’t agree more.Only difference is, they spur on the opposition.
Gary Breen, who’s come in for his own share of abuse, is too diplomatic and mature to say more than comment about the “Molineux Factor”.Opposing managers must spell it out to their teams beforehand, “Just keep ‘em out till half-time, lads, when 0-0 will be worth
0-1 to us!That’s the power of MF!”
If the new player/manager still says he wants to come here, after reading all this negative rubbish, he should undergo a psychological test.Not for strength of character, but masochism and mental instability.
Fans who abuse their own players before they’ve kicked a ball have no imagination, sense of loyalty or plain common sense.True, they’ve paid thieir money and can say what they like. But if that demotivates just one player and therefore the team as a whole,they’re morons.Aren’t they ?
can’t blame predecesors now, this is micks 2nd season his team he has spent money too.
the blame lies with mick, the player, his duff formations, team slections, tactic i could go on.
mick needs to go and he can take you with him but can’t see it happening and we will have to suffer both next season
Reasons we didnt get promoted
1. Playing Elliott/Kyle/Keogh/Mr.Magoo instead of Eastwood
2. Refusing to buy a decent centreback
3. Refusing to buy a replacement for the injured Kights, claiming that Elliott was more than capable
4. Playing Ward for Jarvis even when Jarvis was fit
5. Playing Neil Collins for most of the season
6. No balance in a team with two defensive midfielders for most games.
7. No planned set-pieces. Try look at how we handle set-pieces for/against. For a guy from a country where you usually practice these things, that’s just not good enough.
8. Playing two at the back during most of the last game against Plymouth even though they only had one striker.
9. A poor pre-season that rained away in Ireland.
10. Just making things up as you go.
Hoping for McCarthy to get the sack is not being against the club.
In fact real supporters care about the club.
Think about this. Give McCarthy another season in charge. If we do not get promoted, and I doubt we will. We have wasted 3 seasons with this guy in charge. He will leave. So will the most talented youngsters. We are then left to start over..AGAIN!!
A new manager will get rid of McCarthys favourites and all the deadwood, and will have plenty of time to assemble a promotion chasing team.
Remember - McCarthy have shown all of his potential. There arent any hidden magic that he will all the sudden come up with. This IS his level.
Molineux plays a big part in our ability to fail year on year.Too many visiting teams take advantage of the lack of atmosphere (Derbies,and big followings excepted) and the fact that our fans are too far from the pitch.
This is a serious problem that needs to be addressed-bring the home fans closer and see what happens….
You mark my words.
i agree with norman if the pitch was nearer the home fans the team might get stuck in more,look at the boggies there 16,000 little crowd all sit near the pitch,so once we’ve moved breen collins ward kyle etc out of the golden palace,lets put the pitch near the wolves fans.
44– get a grip
your fans were on the back of your keeper kiely so dont start criticising. and what is it scared of a little chanting …its football! deal with it
lack of atmosphere? erm maybe the team needs to give the home crowd something to sing about instead of all this cobblers.. but our atmosphere hasnt lacked this season ,i know got a season ticket in south bank!
it might help if the other stands sing as well