No more tinkerman from boss Mick

Wednesday 29th July 2009, 9:20AM BST.

MK DONS V WOLVES 10 GD 28Wolves boss Mick McCarthy has hinted at halting his ‘tinkerman’ tendencies and playing his best team as the countdown kicks on to the start of the Premier League.

McCarthy used 20 players in last night’s 1-0 defeat at MK Dons, following on from 19 in Saturday’s 2-0 loss at Bristol City.

But he hinted at a more settled line-up more in keeping with his first-choice line-up for the curtain-raiser against West Ham starting with Saturday’s friendly at Doncaster.

The manager said: “Perhaps now it’s time to start settling the team down and look at the team that’s going to start the season.

“I’ve been chopping and changing the team and I don’t think we’re quite there.

“Maybe after the next three games, it’s time to see how we do with a preferred choice team.

“In the second half, the players out there were there for 10 minutes knowing there were coming off, so the whole thing is disrupted.

“Players are coming on who probably haven’t had the team talk, because they were getting warmed up so it makes life difficult.

“The team has been disrupted through injuries but so have a lot of other teams.

“As long as it’s OK by August 15, I’ll be happy.”

McCarthy was disappointed to concede from his side’s one defensive error, to let in former Molineux Academy graduate Jermaine Easter after otherwise dominating the chances.

The manager said: “I thought we played well in the first half.

“We shouldn’t really have come in 1-0 down at half-time and there was a suggestion that the goal came from a foul.

“But I’m not really interested in that – it ended up in our net, having played as well as we did.

“It was a tale of two halves – the first was good and the second we made changes and it wasn’t so good.

“We were punished last night by one mistake and then we didn’t hurt them in the second half.”


  1. 1
    English Exile

    Nothing to tinker with Mick, nothing to tinker with.
    I see Moxey is true to his word too. ”We won’t do an Albion”.
    They spent £20 million we have spent around £5 million less.
    Never mind they’ve got your season ticket money.

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  2. 2
    Golden Blood

    The problem is English Exile. We do not want to do a Leeds. We may have spent £15 million on transfers, but how much have we spent on wages. Including the increase in wages to the new contracts of existing players.

    Add to that, we can not actually find any players that are good enough or have the experience that we require, and you maybe able to understand that it is not just a case of saying. OOh I like him, heres £5miilon thank you very much.

    Put it this way, if you were Tom Huddlestone for instance. You were earning £50K per week and Wolves said. “I will have a bit of that”. The player says, “why would I want to leave Tottenham hotspur, who are guaranteed premeir football for the next 10 years, maybe even Europe, to move to a team that is one of the favourites for relegation?” Get the idea?

    Please stop banging on about how poor we have been in the market. If the players don’t want to come, we can’t pay the money. It is not that we won’t pay the money.

    We need to find some players, agreed. But we are not going to buy rubbish has beens like Nolan, Viduka, Butt who will cost a fortune. Even there own club does not want them.

    Calm down and let Mick weave his magic.

    By the way, I saw Milijas last night. He is special chocolate.

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  3. 3
    SouthWestWolf

    If we can’t score goals against MK Dons and Bristol City from numerous chances, how are we gonna score against Premier League teams who give away hardly any?

    And has the defence improved from last season where we conceded 52 goals in 46 games? Not on the evidence of the last 2 games it hasn’t.

    At the moment we are a long way from being a competitive Premiership side.

    It’s not tinkering we need – its a massive overhaul.

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  4. 4
    Bob Hazel

    The lack of quality in depth is frightening. We have a great chance of staying up because there are quite a few poor teams in the prem this season.
    If MM has S.Ward earmarked as first choice then this is a worry. Its looking like he’ll be in there somewhere with Doyle and Kites out.
    We need a quality defender. And a proven goalscorer.

    Report abuse

  5. 5
    TORQUAY MAN

    Thsi is the manger who took sunderland down with 18 points?, clown get a real manager in now, last decent manager we had was Bill Mc Garry, no wonder season tickets are struggling to sell, be lucky to see me attending.

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  6. 6
    WE R DOOMED

    I think it is about time the Top Brass at Wolves that this man McCarthy is not a Premiership manager. The man has absolutely no idea what is required to survive and compete with the big boys as can be seen by what happened at Sunderland and some of the “players” he has bought or looking at.
    We will be the laughing stock. Never mind he will please the Tesco mob.

    Report abuse

  7. 7
    matt

    5. Fine, sure no-one wants to see you attending and slating the team.

    Pre season is about FITNESS. We haven’t played our strongest side yet and won’t do until the latter stages of pre season to avoid injuries and to asses where backup players are at.

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  8. 8
    Bob Hazel

    7.Unfortunately with Doyle injured our strongest side to play in the PREM will be no better than last season with the exception of Milijas.

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  9. 9
    prasiet

    Doom and gloom already?!!!
    I agree with Matt. Pre season is about fitness and the players getting used to playing together.
    Dont forget, there are a lot of new players.
    it’s also not easy to sign real quality players as more established Prem teams usually get first pick.

    Report abuse

  10. 10
    Stoke on Trent Wolf

    5)

    I don’t know Johnny Barnwell was a good manager. Fifth in the old first division and the League Cup in that wonderful 1979-80 season – the double over Man U. in the league. Aaah! Sorry for getting carried away, what it is to dream!

    Report abuse

  11. 11
    WE R DOOMED

    7.So Ebanks Blake, Jarvis, Vokes, Hennessy, Mijas are NOT some of the strongest side!. Pray tell young man are they back up players/trialists or what?

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  12. 12
    SteveVERT

    I’d bet my last quid that every single one of these detractors were among those invading the pitch at the QPR game last year… that’s if they’ve ever bothered going to a game and SUPPORTING their team of course.

    It’s YOU who are the laughing stock. Not the board, not the manager, not the players. It’s you pathetic excuses for football fans.

    Report abuse

  13. 13
    SteveVERT

    My comment re. pitch invasion was to highlight how fickle these fans are, incidentally… not to criticise anybody for invading the pitch. My point being that in the space of a couple of short months without a competitive ball being kicked, these ‘fans’ will have invaded the pitch and sung McCarthy’s name, only to talk garbage on message boards and stir up trouble.

    Idiots.

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  14. 14
    PIP

    To early to judge yet, MM says time to bed down the team.Noone gets promoted relegated pre season.

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  15. 15
    Kernowwolf

    5. Just about all we can hope for from you lot in Devon. I DO hope we won’t be seeing you this season cos with that attitude your’s best off staying away.

    Even the most mentally challenged of you know pre-season isn’t all about winning, it’s all about fitness and bedding in new signings. So we ain’t winning…big deal…. I’d rather lose every pre-season game if we can win some when the league starts. So have a bit of faith please.
    As for MM taking Sunderland down, he didn’t have two ha’penny’s to rub together, rather like our own Dave Jones…..are you gonna slag DJ off while your there too?
    Get a life.

    Report abuse

  16. 16
    Fenwolf

    For all the heroics and of season – while we have the likes of Ward, Craddock, Berra and Keogh knocking on the first team door we will have problems, I’m not knocking these players for sake of it – they all played their part last season, but they are not up to the premiership. The writing is on the wall and we’re not into August yet – I hope MM proves me wrong but I can’t even see us coming close to staying up.

    Report abuse

  17. 17
    JIWAL

    What’s the betting Neil Collins plays against West Ham? The player he left behind on the Oz tour, wa splayed at Crewe last night, and allegedly played really well. So, so much for the not tinkering, I will wait for Collins, Ward, and Hill to be featuring again on 15th August.Pathetic.

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  18. 18
    Wolves Mick

    Im not panicking by any means as I genuinely believe we will make a fist of the Prem this time…but I do feel we havent done anywhere near enough yet to compete on the terms Steve Morgan would have us believe a few months back. We are a good 3 to 4 players short right now if not slightly more .

    Report abuse

  19. 19
    MIKE HAYES

    I notice that Paul Ince has joined al concerned Wolves supporters through a news report attempting to get through to the Management that the present Wolves squad is under manned and needs experience and leadership for their venture into the Premiership, now only a couple of weeks to go.

    His report reminded the reader of how weak the Wolves side were last time they were in the Premiership, and has indicated that the present Wolves management has learned nothing from that experience.

    If the Management of Wolves do little else, would think that bringing in a person like Paul Ince to be part of the Wolves thrust to stay in the top division, would be clever under the circumstances.
    Then, would Paul Ince want to come after his experiences with Wolves management attitude several years ago, which , despite new ownership, has not changed.

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  20. 20
    tellitlikeitis

    15 – Kernowwolf – Don’t waste your time trying to reason with TORQUAYMAN – he is quite clearly a sad little Baggie in disguise who has only just re-surfaced following a few pre-season defeats – just like he did when we had the bad patch at the beginning of 2009.

    For some MM can do nothing right.
    A little faith and support is what is needed now, he said he would get us promoted in three years, and he has.
    Give the guy a break and wait and see what happens, but above all else support whoever steps out onto the pitch in Gold and Black.
    Hi Ho Wolverhampton

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  21. 21
    dave

    leave mm alone. At sunderland he had no resources. At wolves he has to work to a budget. I am bored of reading thick fans saying we should sign players out of our financial league. Wolves were a big team thirty years ago. Wake up.

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