Why the Net has the advantage in the ‘Undies world’
- Shopping blogger Emma Iannarilli
Current Wolves lack that hard edge
Tuesday 9th February 2010, 11:35AM GMT.
Wolves’ Sporting Star columnist John Lalley believes that the class of 2010 may just lack the bite required to be a force in the Premier League.
I’ve never forgotten my first visit to Leeds United back in 1967. Elland Road in those days was an ugly, functional ground with the tiny, hideously named ‘scratching shed’ behind one of the goals where the hardened core of a truly intimidating group of fans congregated and brayed abuse at opposition teams and visiting fans.
Wolves had just gained promotion and were struggling to adapt to life at the higher level under manager Ronnie Allen. On this December day, we were facing the embryonic Don Revie team destined to become the most cynical enforcers in the history of English football.
They were brutal and talented in equal measure, driven by a fearsome determination to dominate their opponents by any means at their disposal.
Derek Dougan, God rest his soul, despised them and throughout his Wolves career rarely failed to raise his game against Leeds, frequently taking an intense delight in giving Jack Charlton nightmares trying to mark him.
Back in the August sunshine of that year, ‘the Doog’ had scored both goals in a truly superb win over the Yorkshire side at Molineux and for one was up for the challenge.
He duly delivered with a superb volley, blew a celebratory kiss in the direction of the scratching shed and then along with ten other Wolves players, did all in his powers to batten down the hatches and defy the Leeds onslaught for the remainder of the game.
They others failed, by a whisker, as two goals in the last couple of minutes denied us what would have been our best win of the season.
Against all the odds that day, our players performed magnificently and the likes of Dougan and Mike Bailey were not going to be bullied by anyone. If you took a liberty with either of them, retribution would follow, even if your name was Billy Bremner, Johnny Giles or Norman Hunter.
Trying to put the wind up Bailey was about as productive as firing a peashooter at a Ghurkha. On the pitch, his attitude was simple, damn the torpedoes and straight ahead.
Leaving the ground that day, the feeling of disappointment was just about as intense as a fan could endure, softened only by the relief of escaping Elland Road without suffering actual bodily harm.
But, ultimately, we survived that season after finishing seventeenth, nowadays the Holy Grail for any promoted club venturing into the Premier League.
Just three seasons after that defeat at Leeds, we finished fourth in the top division and enjoyed a glorious European campaign before signing off the era with a cup final win at Wembley. Dougan and Bailey were principal contributors all the way – you can’t beat a bit of savvy and know-how.
I felt as frustrated at the final whistle at St. Andrew’s on Sunday as I had at Leeds all those years back, but what makes it worse is the final outcome this season is not likely to be as positive as it turned out back then.
We saw first hand at Blues just why they and not Wolves have admirably adapted to the step up in class both clubs made last summer. Birmingham were below par on Sunday but they found a way to win. Wolves, despite abundant commitment contrived a way to lose.
Blues could rely on the old heads of the likes of Barry Ferguson, James McFadden, Lee Bowyer and most crucially Kevin Phillips to decisively swing the balance their way. Like it or not, and I hated it, the two finishes from Phillips were sublime.
He’s a veteran, like Dougan for much of his Wolves career, but a quality operator capable of exploiting any chink, any naivety or any failing in the opposition to ruthless levels.
Experience is often touted as a convenient but bogus excuse to halt the constructive passage of change, so I admire and support the Wolves policy of investing in young players with the potential for improvement.
But, indisputably, the management team at Molineux stand accused of failing to address a shortcoming they themselves identified immediately after we secured promotion. Fans were assured that as a matter of priority, the club would seek reinforcements with Premier League experience and credentials.
They singularly failed to meet their own stated requirement in this vital area in both the summer and January transfer windows.
At St Andrew’s, this glaring omission blew up in their faces as the likes of Nenad Milijas, Stefan Maierhofer, Greg Halford and Segundo Castillo watched from the sidelines as helpless onlookers like the Wolves fans suffering at the Railway end of the ground.
With more than a dozen games remaining, we are not relegated yet, but I don’t want to hear that relegation would be no disaster and that we can rebuild and try again.
It was our owner Mr Morgan, not the fans, who stated that he would not be satisfied with mere survival. It was chief executive Mr Moxey, not the fans who said ‘we won’t do an Albion’ whatever that means, although I suppose you can infer the gist.
It was Mr Moxey not the fans who assured one and all that the mistakes of the 2003/04 Premier seasons would not be repeated. The irony is that we have juxtaposed the problem and jettisoned experience this time, whilst under Dave Jones that season too many of our players were way past their best years.
If we do take the drop, what a glorious opportunity will have been squandered. With Portsmouth self-imploding, Hull broke and Burnley lacking hefty resources, we had the chance to emulate what Blues have turned into reality.
Our team strike me as a most pleasant, tidy and conscientious group of young players many still learning their trade. What would we give for a Dougan or a Bailey? The thought of our current squad locking horns with the likes of Bremner, Giles and Hunter in their aggressive pomp is not an appetising one.
But neither is the prospect of another visit to Elland Road for a Championship fixture next season.
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Amen. The worst offender is Andy Keogh, who practically soils himself every time he gets the ball. We’re looking more and more out of our depth with every passing game.
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How can you say that about Keogh, the lad has been injured throughout our poor spell, and he an Doyle are the best partnership upfront we have had all season! Atleast when Keogh was in the team we were scoring goals!!
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In the few games he played, he did very little other than panic and pass the ball backwards and comprehensively fail to get onto the end of crosses. Sure, we did well with him in the side, but it wasn’t BECAUSE of him.
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SPOT ON – KEOGH IS A PASSENGER AT THIS LEVEL
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There is not much point in blaming individual players for our poor displays. Its the lack of foresight by the club in general in failing to recruit player with premiership experience and ability.To replicate the same mistakes we made the last time we won promotion to the premiership is unforgivable. Lets hope we can survive.
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well said joker,breaking news from molineux the new music to be played when the team take to the pitch its called (entry of the gladiators) so apt for the bunch of clowns in charge of the club,if u dont know the tune youtube it then you will agree,,,,WE ARE WOLVES,,,in mad mick we dont trust,,,ilk
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How can you say that about Keogh? He is one of the hardest workers in the whole team! He and Doyle are the most productive forwards we have had paired up all season! Since this bad spell Keogh has been injured, so you cant blame him!At least when he was in the squad we were scoring!
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firstly, hard work will never replace class.
secondly, he ain’t ever gona score the goals to keep us up, he couldn’t score in the championship.
lower league player at best.
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without keogh we dont look as good as when we’ve got him in the team
team for 2mora
Hahnemann
Foley Craddock Berra Ward
Mujangi Guedioura Henry Jarvis
Milijas
Doyle
1-0 2mora c’mon me babbies
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Cloud cukoo land mate. That team means Mick will play most of the lads in their best positions!!! It will never happen.
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Jamie are you mad !
Look how we have been performing lately, and your saying were going to win spurs
Get a grip kidda !!!
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Are you joking ? Mujangi !
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I disagree. Keogh’s been out for a bit anyway, but when he played he was looking like one of the players that could actually hack it at this level.
We need a win tomorrow. I don’t see it happening. We at least need something out of the game. If we don’t then I might just start joining in with the ‘Mick Out’ brigade. Ludicrous negative decisions seem to be commonplace now, whereas earlier on in the season we did seem to be going for it a bit.
If we haven’t had a point by Thursday, Mick Out, Keegan in!!
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Is that Kevin Keegan? I actually agreed with what you were saying until you threw that bit in at the end. Apart from 1 decent season with Newcastle he has failed everywhere else. Now if you really want a top class successful manager Gary Megson is free !!!
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Jez I dont know where you get your information from.Keegan got Newcastle, Fulham and Manchester City promoted.He is the GOD at Newcastle.Oh for someone like him.He is probably the ONLY manager out there who could save us now.
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Petenuts
Where have you been the last few months obviously not at the matches. This is what I mean about some Wolves fans who comment on here, they don’t know what they are talking about.
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Why do I need to have been at any recent matches to comment on Keogh’s early season performances, Purewolves?
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PeteNuts- what you’re saying is completely and utterly irrelevant!! Its like blaming Kightly for the current lack of creativity on the right flank!!!! Get a grip sunshine!!
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Petenuts you clearly dont go to any matches and if you do then very few. If you had gone to wigan at the start of the season and saw Keoghs performance, it was the best wolves performance I had seen in mnay years! he is the player we have been missing these few months and cant wait to have him back.
Go and comment on the albion board where you may know abit more about the team than us!
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Ooooh! Someone’s played the “go and post on Albion’s board” card on me! That’s showed me!
I was using Keogh as an example of the team’s general lack of cojones. He’s as valid an example as anyone. Deal with it.
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JUst to let you know it was Kightly’s own reckless back tackle that got him injured, do what your good at!!
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Read your first comment again. You dont mention Keoghs early season performances, it reads as though he has been playing now but when he was playing he worked his socks off.
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You may as well blame Matt Murray as well…
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Peanuts…Keogh is a good footballer and a young one at that get of his back….he hasnt played for months so the current problem cant be down to Andy…he and Doyle would have been better than anything else weve had cus he can play football and hold up ball well…were you slagging him off at Derby last season…we would have more goals and wins if he had been available
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agree keogh is the only striker who actually looked like he could play with doyle but you do know that the more of us that say he is the best partner for doyle means when he comes back mad mick wont play him just to spite the fans thats the way mad mick does things,,,WE ARE WOLVES,,,in mad mick we dont trust,,,ilk
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Youve been going down a lot then Petenuts, Keogh has been injured for some time. As for you Mr Lalley, go and get your White Flag and start running for the hills. The rest of us will battle on to the end and save our obituaries for the final whistle on the last day.
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keough has barely played but for me was one of our better players. in the premier so far he looks far more comfortable on the ball than most of the others who seem to think its a hot potatoe.for me i’d like to see foley go to right back, zubar centre back as he has more pace than craddock or berra and keough on the right with jarvis on the left and doyle up front the team would have a much more balanced look to it then.
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Andy Keogh is not to blame for Wolves’ misfortunes.It is collective incompetency from top to bottom.We have a great opprtunity to stay in the Premier and they seem to be doing their damnedest to blow that opportunity.
I always thought that the appointment of Mick McCarthy was an expedient measure.there again expedience is Wolverhampton Wanderers’
middle name.Be it in the Premier or the Championship next season,i feel that it is time we did the job properly and it does not involve M & M.
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How can you honestly slate Andy Keogh, who hasn’t actually played in ages? He’s been injured for a few months now and before that he played very well. Do you actually bother to watch Wolves matches?
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Unfortunately I wasn’t around for any of our real success. I became a fan during the days of Bully and Thommo at their peak.
Totally agree that we’ve missed an ideal opportunity with the blame for our expectation firmly at the feet of Morgan and Moxey with their public statements of intent. What I would give for Ince and Rae at the centre of our midfield or even Paul Cook. The spirit of Ludo Pollet in defence would be nice as well because all of our on field mistakes are down to naivety and lack of experience.
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jeez we could do with ludo pollet now, or rae
if only
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yeh ludo and rae were class players.
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I read a blog yesterday from a few supporters getting bored with not just watching wolves but football in general and iv’e got to admit thinking about so am i! I just got to thinking about the excitement i had the morning of a game and then the buzz getting into the ground and participating in some great atmospheres, but its just dying! Especially at the mol! We all turn up knowing exactly 9 times out of 10 how were going to play AND whats going to happen, im no phycic but i can actually see where our players are going to pass next its just so predictable and basic! Last time i was told to play like this was learning basics as a kid for an under 13 side, so if i know what pass (or misplaced pass) is coming next a proffesional footballer playing on the opposite side can see it coming a mile off!
I cant believe so many of us keep turning up (me included) because its not cheap is it! Infact one of the most expensive in prem, now consider what it is were watching and tell me thats not a disgrace!! You wouldnt mind so much if we were paying half as much as we are OR that we wasnt PROMISED the earth then given nowt! Ive never spoke to so many fans that really have had enough!
The fact is the majority of our fans are happy clappers and are happy to take in the constant drivel spouted out by the club and not have a bad word said about our club, manager & so on then tell us its because they are loyal! Thats not loyality thats stupidity!!
If we keep paying the prices, keep re-newing our season tickets then the club will continue to be run like it is now with mediocre-ness very much being accepted!! If you add it up mr morgan has spent nowt of his own money (as promised) infact he still has loads left from our promotion and season tick sales, so that just leaves us mugs that are commited then!!
One more point before the happy clappers jump on my back and say but the club is being run correctly were not in a financial mess etc thats nothing to do with moxey!! Hayward wrote off 40 mill of debt ….. Remember? So without that we would have been in the same mess as most others in prem! So the point of moxey is? Answers on a postage stamp!
MM cant take us forward in any way! He just hasn’t got it .. Simples! Playing like this might MIGHT just keep us in prem but i ask myself…. Whats the point? To do it all again nxt yr? As he cant attract top players & more to the point we wont pay for them either!
MM the EGO out!! & take that pompus prat moxey with you!!
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Crowfish I said as much last week on a different topic in the E&S and was classed as ‘disillusioned’!
I’m glad someone else is questioning his own committment in watching Wolves. It IS an expensive ‘pastime’ and why do supporters continue to pay their hard earned cash on something which offers little or no satisfaction in return, particularly this season?
I can only relate it to a drug taker, a 60-a-day smoker, an alcoholic etc, it is habitual and they just cannot give it up, no matter how much it costs or how much it hurts!
There are times when you have take a long hard look and decide why you do something.
Wolves ‘happy-clappers’ never do that, they continue to buy their ‘early birds’, season tickets, shirts or whatever believing they are supporting the club, that may be, but what does the club think of your ‘loyal’ support? – It increases the cost of everything on show and clubs will continue to do so, because fans are gullible, they buy anything and everything that a football club has for sale or offer!
Some people just cannot see the wood for the trees, can they?
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WolvoWolf – I believe last week you were called delusional rather than disillusioned – bit of a difference.
Must be a sad life for you and Crowfish with nothing better to do than trying to slag off supporters.
Anyway, off to check my e-mails and see if the early bird offer has come through yet so I can continue to support my team at a discounted rate next season. Things might not be great at this moment but that’s the time the team need us most. Positive support and positive thinking – give it a try sometime.
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I am not there yet,but when you can no longer walk up the steps they chuck you out of the Billy Wright upper.That is the thanks they give you for a lifetime of support.
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I know I live far far away, and currently can’t get to the games, but you have identified how I feel.
A while back I used to get out of bed in the wee small hours, sit down in front of the TV with great anticipation of watching the game, not knowing what is going to unfold.
Sadly these days I know exactly what is going to happen, a lot of huff and puff, long balls from the back, who says you need a midfield, this team proves you don’t need to pass the ball through them – it’s quicker just to hoof it up field.
A manager who plays players out of position, just so us fans can have something to talk about, it is so obvious that the players have no confidence in MM. (Don’t leave your subs till the 89th minute, you really do have no idea.)
What is their problem with fitness, they always run out of steam at about the 80 minute mark, don’t tell me it is because of all the running around they do, I may be old school but when I played I was always coached to let the ball do all the work, and is your job to get into a position to receive it from the player that currently has the ball, and if you can’t do that pull a player out of position to make it easier for someone else to get the ball. See football is a very simple game, but what I watch on TV at the moment, I find it hard to believe we could even win a game in Division 2 at the moment. Totally Clueless.
The squad has no depth, very little quality (2 exceptions there) if you but the players up for sale, honestly do you think you would get any offers from the teams above us who would want any of them.
In the January transfer window – we got exactly what I thought we would get, put yourself in there shoes looking inwards towards wolves, would you want to come and play for them, I wouldn’t and I support them, enough said !!!
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Totally agree on the signings, but is it not true that mm does not seem to know what to do with what we have got?
One up front is not the way to score goals. Dropping our most creative player in milijas is crackers. Foley contributes little in that position.Stearman is not a fullback anymore than ward is. It’s mancienne or henry – not both. Last but not least it is the appalling attitude of the manager to the fans.We are going down and the earliest we can expect a sacking is the end of the year ( if the start is poor ). All so depressing!
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I have to agree about Milijas. He has single-handedly won at least one game for us this year. You can’t say that about too many of our players (Doyle and Hanneman excluded), but when did he last play a premier league game? At present MM seems to think he can’t play both Milijas and Jones as both are left sided dead ball specialists. I think we need as much class as we can get on the pitch and agree with those who say Milijas could play behind Doyle if MM insists on only one up front.
From a purely selfish point of view, as an Australian, I suppose I should be applauding the fact that Milijas isn’t playing, as it might give my mob some hope of getting something out of the game against Serbia in the World Cup.
I’ve been following Wolves since the early 70’s when a family from Wolverhampton moved in down the street from us. We get quite a lot of the EPL on Sky, although I have to set the alarm for 2am to switch it over on viewers’ choice. Strangely they always seem to televise Man U or Chelsea.
I thought we played quite well against Birmingham, but just didn’t have the killer instinct when it mattered. Like others, I squirmed when they brought Phillips on, knowing his record against us. He should have been better marked on the second goal.
One pet peeve- why don’t we have a plan at kick off? The ball always seems to go back to Hanneman, who invariably launches it downfield, where we’re at best 50/50 to get it back. Actually, we’re much less than 50/50 with only one man up front. Is there any other team in English football that just kicks the ball away every time it kicks off?
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Totally agree with the assessment of the players. Foley needs to play where he was brilliant last season,at right back. Instead of playing Mancienne and Henry we need to play a defensive midfielder and Jones and Milijas.
The manager will not be sacked this season but needs to stop being stubborn and play some of the creative players and not people out of position.
I am still gutted from Sunday as I thought we were looking comfortable until the curse of Phillips. We are not down yet, as there are other poor teams but I reckon we will need a win at Bolton!
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“Our team strike me as a most pleasant, tidy and conscientious group of young players many still learning their trade”
I would describe them as the following :
“Journey men in part, lack of quality in the main, and above all, assembled on the cheap”
This squad isnt anywhere good enough.
Ward, Henry, Bera, Stearman, Blake, Iwueluemo, the list goes on and on of players simply not good enough to play at this level.
Incidentally, Can Mr Swain lend me his glasses please. Foley and Mancienne 8/10 at blues? Henry back to his industrious self? You are having a laugh Mr Swain.
All 3 of them are at the root of our problems.
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Rich. I couldn’t have put it better myself. Congratulations.
I would however like to add to the “not good enough” comment. You forgot to include the Manager and CEO.
Otherwise it is 12 out of 10 or A++++++
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Great post John! God Bless The Doug!
Absolutely spot on!
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It maybe worth remembering that both Bailey and Doog were comparatively cheap buys, £40,000 and £50,000 respectively.So, I don’t think the moral is that you have to spend a fortune. It’s surely the case that class is hard to find, whether the player is young or old.
We tried it last time with Ince and Irwin but it wasn’t enough…the performances were generally not as good as this season’s. A problem both times has been buying foreign and finding the new guy isn’t up to it or takes too long to adapt.
One thing is clear, building a Prem team ain’t easy.
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your right its hard to build a prem team and to find the right balance, i think generally cheap players from abroad find it hard to settle into a team, they usually lack quality and we all know they all find it hard to adjust to the physical side of the game, where as people like torres can get by with there class, castillos, milijas, the hoff, and probably both our latest additions will struggle untill they are sold.you need to find a center forward similar to davies who wont be pushed around then a couple of battle hardened center midfielders and then add those to our young wide players and quite resilliant center halves and we might stand a chance
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Cullis Dome, We bought Doog in 1967,for £50,000 and from memory maximum transfers at that time were circa £100,000. In fact I think the £115,000 paid by Man Utd for Denis Law was still the record fee at the time.Given that, the Doog was at least an equivalent signing to say Doyle.The difference then was we also signed the likes of Wagstaffe, Bailey,Ernie Hunt for similar fees. As we all know this time round we did not sign the quality in other positions.So please no more talk of doing it on the cheap.
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@PeteNuts:
True! However… Keogh is probably the one player we’ve really missed for much of the last few months! Whatever many Wolves fans think of him, he did much more in that 90 mins at Wigan than the worshipped SEB has done this season.
A very good article tho.
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in fact mate keogh did the same at wigan as SEB did against villa scored 1 goal is that 1 performance going to be consistently used to justify blinding love with mick and some idiotic fans hes been crap for 3 years but at wigan he scored 1 goal keogh = league 1
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Use punctuation!
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Absolutely right the 3MMs new what would be required in this division they told us then failed to deliver.A lot of season tickets were sold on the back of lies and deceit the trading standards should get involved,I feel like many other fans totaly conned.
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Wolves’ Sporting Star columnist John Lalley believes that the class of 2010 may just lack the bite required to be a force in the Premier League.
Not much gets passed you is there !!!
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What an absolute gem of an article!!! Sums up everything I could have thought or felt! First class!!!
Not sure where we go from here but 3 points tomorrow would be a nice start! Keep the faith fellow wolfs, it isn’t gonna be easy but whilst there remains a chance we need to stay fully behind our boys and cling to any shread of hope!!
Up the Wolves!!!
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Rubbish article!
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Fantastically written article John. I share your sentiments but I do disapair at MM’s tactics and terrible signings.
Is it because of Moxey that we are in the mess we are in? He has to play a large part offering almost insultingly low transfer fees and wages.
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I agree with you Nathan and well put, but not necessarily about Moxey. He is following the decisions of the board.It may be of little comfort, but I think Wolves as a business is probably in good shape ! How many premiership clubs can say that.
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Sir Jack Hayward left WWFC free of debt when Mr Morgan purchased the club for £10 and promised to invest £30M of his own money in the club.
So far we have not seen any of Mr Morgan’s money and the club has been self-supporting so far, in fact, it has generated a very good profit for Mr Morgan.
Mr Moxey is a first-rate administrator and accountant, and has not allowed the club to over-reach itself. How many other clubs in the Premiership have a better balance sheet than Wolves?
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If there was a competition for the best balance sheet in the Premiership, then we would be able to win something!
Surprisingly, I don’t get much comfort from that fact, I’d rather win at football!
That is the reason that WWFC was founded in the first place, to bring football to the Wolverhampton masses, and it was not meant to be a hard-nosed profit machine.
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And unfortunately Accountant Wolf it is looking increasingly likely that the statement will read Championship not Premiership next season.Moxeys level.
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Winning a balance sheet competition would only satisfy Moxey and AW.
The idea of having a football club is to win football competitions, not balance sheet competitions!
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Word is that Mark Hughes will be wolves manager next season, i hope so as we wont come back up next season with MM, even if we did come back up with MM, we will have just the same poor season as we are having on this one.
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I hope it wont be Mark Hughes If and “if is only two letters but a very big word” we replace our Manager, I must admit I dont know who is out there, but Mark Hughes I would not want. If he spent all that money at Man City and still could not do it, why would we want him here and I have watched him on the sidelines and no passion comes to mind.
I know a lot of you fans think that it is Championship football next season, but there is still time to just survive.
Do you not think that all this negative talk has an affect on our players, cause it does and will they want to come out and play for us fans why should they when all we do is get on their backs, and before anyone says thats what they get paid for “wrong attitude”. We may not agree with what they do sometimes but we should be 100% behind them no matter what and I know its hard for you sometimes but we must.
I still think we can be playing premiership football next season and until it is mathmatically impossible for us to do that, I will support the lads 100% and even if we dont achieve it I will be extremely upset but I love The Wolves and will still be there.
I know that everybody is entitled to their opinion but there are some of you that I really do not know why you support the Wolves. Some fans out there, if the lads was to go out there and play the opposition off the field you would still complain about them, don’t anyone say they dont exist I have one sit behind me who has never got a good word to say about them. We dont need that kind of support.
COME ON THE LADS WE CAN DO THIS FIGHT FIGHT WHERE EVER WE MAY BE.
MESSAGE TO ALL FANS THAT ATTEND THE MATCH TOMORROW, LET THE WHOLE OF WOLVERHAMPTON HEAR US.
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Mark Hughes is going to Turkey
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I am finding it hard to see how any Wolves fan who actually attends games can say that Karl Henry has looked out of his depth? The lad has been quality with a few bad games as everyone has. Berra has looked upto this level, likewise Jarvis who has been covering Ward all season. Keogh was superb until he got injured and was much more suited to this level than the hit and hope championship. Dave Edwards has done well and if Foley was in his usual position would be a good premier league player. Kevin Doyle is a class-act, I am confident that his value has risen since our purchase.
I think we will stay up. Keogh, Kightly, Edwards and Murray are all quality players who are currently unavailable. Lets hope the tescos can scrape up for a premier league derby.
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I think that the players are probably capable of surviving, but not with the mismanagement of the current management team.
A total clean-out needed now, while we can still fight our way out of the mess that McCarthy has got us into!
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Interesting that you keep pointing out that the majority of the sqaud is upto playing in the Prem. So the question thats begging to be asked is, so whats the problem?
Manager?
Luck?
Or your rose tinted glasses?
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I think the problem is 3 things:
Terrible fortune with injuries. We have had key players out for long-periods and nobody in the premier league has come close to the number of inuries that we have had. If Matt Murray, Kightly, Keogh and Edwards were fit all season we would of been around 12-13th.
We have the 2nd lowest budget in the premier league. Westham and Pompey may have financial problems but they still have an abundance of talent on 100k a week plus on their books and they should be higher up in the table. I have no problem with this as our club is run very well and looks very healthy for the future. Even albion are 7mil in the red.
The manager: Constantly putting players out of position and it does not work.
I am glad you come onto our page for a debate, but believe me if Albion come up you will need to have around 7-8 players to not finish bottom like last season.
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LW – ALL teams have key players out with injuries at some time or another, that is what a squad is for!
Man.Utd. had 12 players out with injuries including ALL of their defenders at the same time!
Now Wolves cannot match United in spending power or in attracting those kind of players that’s true BUT we could at least have strengthened up in August and January but instead spent the time looking for cheap additions for the future… and I almost forgot, Stephen Hunt from Hull!
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If you think Berra is good enough at this level then you seriously need an appointment at specsavers asap.
I am getting bored of fans saying Berra is good.
NO. HE. ISN’T.
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I have been impressed with both Berra and Craddock, Berra especially has exceeded last years performances in the Championship. And im sure many will agree with me!
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Give Berra the armband and let him show his organisational and leadership skills from the back, that is how he excelled at Hearts. Instead we burden Karl Henry, who spends his time fighting fires across the pitch, unsure of what is role is.
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So with Albion second in the league and wolves second from bottom you “hope the tescos can scrape up for a premier league derby”.
You’re inability to see what everybody else can see is way past bizzare – I think you’re that lad out of sixth sense !!
Get help – now !
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Happy. Acording to my mathematical genius we are still 3 places ABOVE you.
Get back to your curlers and straighteners.
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As one who was not lucky enough to escape the Elland Road animals unscathed that day I remember it only too well!
I agree that the lack of Premiership experience and the leadership qualities of a hardened pro like Bailey have been our Achilles heel this season. It was not unforeseen and we have been let down badly by Morgan, Moxey and McCarthy, and to hear the pathetic spin coming from the club is repulsive.
I used to have respect for McCarthy as a man, but the way he is hanging on and giving us the blarney about how well the team played, when we can see with our own eyes how dire we are, is quite contemptible!
JUST GO NOW!
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Still need some calmness and grit when it comes to grinding out a result! Same players go to sleep all the time….. Ward, Berra, Henry, Jarvis,
Recall Hill from loan to play left back.
Team if the above ever happens!
Hahnemann
Foley Zubar Craddock Hill
Jarvis Guedioura Jones Ward
Vokes
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Vokes over Doyle??!?!?!?!?!
And Wardy on the Left wing? hes by far a better left back than left wing, dont you agree, so why move him somewhere he is worse?
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Left back he definitely is not.
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So who have we got better to play left back?
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Premiership player he is most definitely NOT. Still he is amongst others isn’t he?
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Great team selection mate – ONLY 10 PLAYERS!!
Move over McCarthy – Pete will save us!!
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Now that is the first decent article I’ve read on here in ages & I agree with it all, especially the reminder of the promises made to us Wolves fans by Morgan & Moxey!!…
Promises that we can all see haven’t come to fruition, the reasons of which are many no doubt…
I’m the last person to moan or be negative & still have the faith, all be it waning, that we can still survive mainly because of the state of the teams in & around us. However if we do survive the chances of this league being as poor next season are very slim, that prospect with Moxey & MM still around is a worry!! Failure to attract players & improve out squad, maybe they don’t wanna come or even play for MM, round pegs for square holes, constantly changing the team (UTD away – Joke), narrowing of the pitch, negative tactics, bad substitutions and mainly a real lack of giving everything to wear the Old Gold & Black shirts have for me resulted in us being where we are now…
For the first time this season I’m thinking would a change of management be the answer? There are no guarantees it would but if Mr Morgan is thinking about it, sooner rather than later would be my advise…
Lets get behind the team & fingers crossed we can manage the double over Spurs tomorrow night…
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The only hard edge at the molineux is the management and the way they treat the fans,we pay one of the highest rates for tickets in the Prem yet we have the second worst team,this club has lost its friendliness since Morgan took over remember when we were Champions last year they couldnt even be bothered to arrange a town parade,this club is being run soley to make money for Morgan and Moxey.
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It was the Police who stopped the parade!
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Moxey stopped the parade, he wouldn’t pay the policing fee.
just like he won’t pay the going rate for premiership quality players. jez always deflects the blame else where
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To right, failed promises, a lack of ambition and an owner who seems not to care about the clubs plight makes for an unhappy bunch of fans.
I have had my season ticket for 15 years now. I am now really undecided if I want the mick taken out of me any longer.
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I don’t always agree with Mr Lalley but I have to say I found this a thoughtful, balanced and valid insight into the season as it has unfolded so far.
It is not over yet but we are becoming more and more reliant on others imploding to a greater degree than us
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Up to this point in the season WE ARE THE 2ND WORST TEAM in the league!
McCarthy’s got it wrong. From not buying experience, to well…just buying rubbish players! (Admittedly Morgan must take some of the blame for not goin that extra mile with the wages/transfer fees!)
However, it’s the manager that picks the team and his current stubbornness and desire to play ‘square pegs in round holes’ is ridiculous, especially when it’s not producing any wins!
With only 13 games left and the likes of Spurs, Chelsea, Man Utd, Villa and Arsenal still to play, it’s a depressing thought.
We’ll have to win half our games to stand any chance of staying up and when you consider the teams around us are to be played away, its fair to say our home form has cost us!
As we can’t sign any new players, I advocate that if we don’t get three points against Spurs, Mick should be sacked, as only a new manager will offer us a chance of staying up.
I don’t see how, with our current position of 19th, and tough fixtures home and away, any fan can honestly say this season’s been good enough and we should stick by Mick as we will stay up. If you believe that then you’re clearly deluded!
It’s time for a change, ideally in players but as the transfer window’s shut, lets get in a new manager who might start winning some games.
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Good shout John lad!!!
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I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this makes perfect sense.
Sat in the pub on Sunday watching the match, I thought for 80 minutes we looked capable. But one thing happened that changed everything. Alex McCleish made three substitutions and they changed everything. Our manager kept the same players on the pitch, bar Guedioura (Who i thought looked a half decent player)and look what happened.
We are out of the transfer window now, no new players can brought in, MM looks totally devoid of ideas and refuses to give people a chance and he doesn’t have the bottle to change it early.
A new manager may well breathe new life and positivity in to a bunch of players who looked scared when a 36 year old centre foward was bought on.
MM Has one more chance to prove ME wrong, and it aint easy coming against Spurs tomorrow night.
A 4-4-2 formation like this:
Hahnemann
Foley
Craddock
Berra
Ward
Mujangi
Henry
Milijas
Jarvis
Doyler
Vokes (give him a chance, he may well suprise us)
This team, with a positive performance (irrespective of result) will at least start to show me that maybe, MM isn’t the stubborn tool I have come to admire for his straight up ways.
Kevin Keegan really is living the dream, but it would be great in my opinion to have him in charge at Molineux, at least there wold be some fire in the bellys!
UTW!
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Mujangi! You have got to be joking. I see beter players on the park on Sunday’s. Another one of Micks super buys along with Halford, Surman, Ward, Collins god the list is endless.
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Yes John great column but how may of our current crop of players bled gold compared to the past? Names like Dougan, Bailey, Palmer and Richards would die for the cause. Mancienne has admitted he would rather be at Chelsea than here so there it goes!
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Good write up there John ,great deal of truth in it me thinks,was so obvious to me end of last season that without quality investment Wolves would find it hard going in top League,and as proved so,running out of games now buti think one good result could turn things around.Lets hope it arrives tomorow.
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Great article (And it’s not often I say that about the Express & Star). Totally agree with what you say. The management has failed in achieving their own stated aims regarding staffing.
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Bravo John. What a fantastic blog. I can’t add to that, so won’t try! Sums up my feelings so well.
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I fully agree with the comments regarding the team having more ‘Bottle’. Now, it may not be very nice but someone, anyone, should have done a Mike Bailey or Eddie Clamp on Phillips two minutes after he came on, as it was we stood in admiration and allowed him to do what he does best.
I watched Phillips play for Baldock many years ago and as quick and good as he was then, he did’nt like too much attention and would moan and sulk. Surely someone on the coaching staff knew that ? With only ten minutes to go he was well worth a yellow card but Oh No! we proved the old addage that the Nice Guys Come LAST !
If we are going to survive we need a hatchet man, a tough guy who strikers fear because right now we are pussy cats, soft as a brush with absolutely no bottle, physically or mentally and it comes right from the top, no nouse whatsoever, totally negative.
As for the Administration, YES they are taking us for granted, it’s them and 25.000 MUGS!
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We have no agression,it shows in the team selection,and it shows in letters on here.I cant believe we still have people saying Andy Keogh is the answer..he cant score goals,he spends half the time on his backside and the other half running round like a headless chicken.We are scared to play football,all we are trying to do is defend,Sunday gone we could have taken Brum,but we sat back and let them attack,and dont tell me any different,as soon as Philips came on we knew the score,I still think we could have gotten something out of Man U and Liverpool iff we hadnt chickened out,our football reflects our manager dull and boring,and dont lets kid ourselfs we know where we will be playing next season.
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I agree with the statement calling us the 2nd worst team in the league.
Infact i’d go one further and call us the worst.
Results prove this.
lost to Portsmouth at home.
lost to west ham at home.
draw with hull twice.
lost to Wigan at home.
concede 5 at Sunderland
concede ridiculous goals at Blackburn
the list goes on.
We beat Spurs away. yeah. great. (Burnley beat Man Utd and drew with Arsenal.)
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Exellent article and 1967 was also the year I began to follow the Wolves. Standing in the Mol during the Mid 80′s was not a happy experience, those 1400 to 1500 supporters were truly the diehards .This season there should, in my opinion , have been a change in management at Christmas giving time for the new manager to assess the Championship team and bring in fresh faces during January but I suspect now, with it all being too late , we will limp on to the inevitable conclusion at the end of the season with our only “Star” Mr.Doyle on his way.A great shame but with the Owner and his Boards paralysis in making hard nose decisions at the right times this seems the final likely outcome. On a more positive note hopefully ticket prices next season will fall in line with the rest of the Championship and the Wolves will win far more games!
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we do lack that nasty streak, blues were constantly in the refs face, bowyer and ferguson didnt leave him alone for a minute, they chased him all over the pitch to argue, our players except the captain dont even approach or appeal to the ref, henry just talks to the ref arms behind his back untill the ref says go away and he does, how many prem teams do that ? none . when there was a little bit of pushing with henry and ferguson, there team were joining in from all over, ours were walking away, doyle actually turned away, we have to get nasty to survive we have to fight and be confrontational, stop helping players we foul back up and snarl over them like rooney does,being nice is not getting us any decisions .
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I agree with the article and agree with you Carl.
I think it was at Blackburn that one of their defenders moaned the whole game to the ref and subsequently bossed the whole game.
By the way, people calling for Matt Hill to come back obviously weren’t at Blackburn as he was awful
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Well said John.Hundreds perhaps thousands of fans have posted on this site from last April saying we need quality players.Let us not forget we had Wagstaffe in those days as well as a certain Peter Knowles to add to the Doog and Mick Bailey.When Jez Moxey arrived he told us he was really a rugby fan and as a kid I believe he played basketball.We need football people in the Boardroom to balance Moxey’s accountancy led principles.They used to say in the old days John Ireland was knowledgable about what makes a decent footballer and I think the same could be said for Jack Harris who kickstarted the Bully era. We have lacked this Boardroom nous since the early 90s except for John Richards.It is a pity they could not find a way for Richards and Moxey to work together.
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Very good article and agree entirely with your words Mr Lalley.
The main problem as you highlight so well is that we have always had players who had something different as well as grit and steal-Bailey/Dougan,Hibbit/Carr,Hughes/Berry,Richards/Gray,Palmer/Parkin,Bull /Mutch and so on. These were the guys who drove the team forward and the others looked for inspiration.
Sadly, today we have Henry/Craddock to very loyal but to be frank very mediocre players more suited to the Championship than the Premiership! How can the others look for inspiration from these two players. To us fans it seems obvious but to MM obviously not!
THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT WE DID NOT BRING IN THE QUALITY REQUIRED TO SUSTAIN US IN THE TOP FLIGHT.
MM HAS TO GO AND MOXEY/MORGAN NEED TO LOOK AT THEMSELVES AS THEY TOO HAVE LET US DOWN.
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Great post, sums up the views well of all us fans brought up on that great side. I remember another trip to Elland Road a bit later when cool Frankie Munro calmly took Mick Jones out all afternoon, how great it would be to have a real quality defender like him to hold us together. We have some willing triers, but sadly there really is no substitute for true class in this league.
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I would like to make a suggestion to Mr Morgan.
Albeit that he is now in his seventies and without fear of offending Micks ego, get on your knees and ask an old Liverpool genius to join the club for at least the rest of this season. Gordon Milne, not sure if he is still at Besiktas or even available but if he is, go get him quickly.
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Crowfish you are talking like an idiot! so just because we support our team, we are happy clappers, unlike you I look forward to going to the Golden Palace and have done since the age of 4 (now 61) and have seen it all before, managers come and go and we have had some bad, some good, BUT I like others have supported them, I bet you were on the pitch!!!? last season shouting for the 3Ms, it was stated then that it was going to be hard and to expect the rough times, now it has come some fans are running scared because they havn’t got the bottle to see it out or to ride the storm, me I am one of those happy clappers that you are on about and if “supporting” my team through thick and thin, good and bad makes me an happy clapper/stupid (stupid I am not)then so be it,from first division to fourth division and back again I have supported MY team with blind faith maybe, but thats me, I am a Wolves fan and bloody proud of it! when things go bad it is always the first thing that fans think about – sack the manager mostly the wrong decision, get rid of the CEO, and the owner, thats why they run our club they have to make decisions that are not always welcome but we still have a club thanks to them – it might not be what you agree with but eh the majority do, because if we had people in charge who jumped ship every time it went wrong were would we be, am I happy to be were we are -NO I AM NOT! but to just blindly sack the manager every time-now that is stupidity, just ask Man U fans who wanted AF out all those years ago.
We sacked one of the greatest managers of our time in Stan Cullis a decision that we have never recovered from, others have followed because we couldn’t see further than the nose on our face’s – Ronnie Allen, Brian Little, Dave Jones,Graham Taylor to name but a few – consistancy (in my opinion) is the way forward.
Ok we get Hughes in, then after a couple of seasons we end up the same – sack him I hear you cry,and the next, and the next…….were do we stop.
Every body keeps on about formations? but read the players comments, look at the players profiles and has for round pegs in square holes read Frank Munro etc,etc, players today are expected to play in numerous positions,some of those same players played “out” of position last season with the same un-qualified remarks to Mick and his team – we won promotion, you won’t hear Mick use the excuse about injuries-but just take a few minutes and think about it! all but about 3 of his team have been injured at one time or another, so do others you say- but how many b’ham inc had there 2 main strikers injured at the start plus their record signing, add to that Kites missing a large chunk of it and is it really surprising we have struggled or is that Micks fault as well,ah well sorry for going on – see you all 2mos.
We are Wolves……
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Now that’s a true supporter! God bless you johnwolf! Shame there aren’t more like you! Sensible, and bleed gold and black!
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Its a standing ovation from me John Wolf
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JOHN – I too am a long suffering supporter of this truley great club, however I will not let bling faith cover over the cracks. MM is not up to the standard required for this division whether you like it or not.
Too many mistakes have been made and if you were at the Palace last week you would see what a shambles the team is in. OK Sunday was a big improvement but you would have thought anyone with a little bit of sense would have said OK they are putting Philips on lets go man to man and make sure he does not do what he normally does to us and score goals! But know we let him have the freedom to do what he does best. I will ignore the fact that S.WARD was at fault as well.
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Couldn’t agree more! I would add to this very reasoned comment that when Mick took over we simply didnt have a team and were amongst the favourites to go down. If anyone had forecast then that 3 years later we would be where we are they would have been taken away by the men in white coats. The truly annoying thing about these boards is that people write the same old rubbish (square pegs, Henry is rubbish, Mick is a Muppet, blah blah) under several names, then others follow like sheep, including Nathan Lloyd(who really should know better) and before you know it, it appears to the outside world that all Wolves fans are in agreement that everyone from Morgan to the programme sellers should be sacked and that we are all unhappy. Well we aren’t and the vast majority of us go along to enjoy the match, have a pint and a natter and support our team. Sure we would like to see us in the Champions League and winning in style every week but we accept that it won’t happen (not just yet anyway). This does not make us traitors, disloyal, idiots, happy clappers (whatever the hell that means) or anything else derogatary.
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Interesting comments, obviously had first-hand experience, so how many names do you write under Jez?
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Wouldn’t it be better if only those of us with titles were allowed to write on these boards?
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It would certainly give a better class of postings!
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Most people writing here have acknowledged that we owe Mick for getting us promoted. But when it is obvious that he badly out of his depth it would be best to stop the pain now, and let somebody else with Premiership experience take over and maybe rescue us from the drop!
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The majority of posters on here are Wolves supporters first and McCarthy supporters second.
We’ll still be here when the 3Ms have made enough money and left.
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Countess, I think that you are judging others by your own standards, or you are Jez posting under yet another synonym.
There are so many supporters now who feel betrayed by the Wolves management that it is not surprising the discontent is being expressed in the only way fans can, other than at matches.
I predict that home games could start to become a bit nasty soon as the fans rebel against the management they feel has cheated them, and let them down AGAIN!
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Johnwolf At last a true Wolves supporter. I applaud you.
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Well I hadnt thought of it in terms of the fans hadnt been saying these things! WELL PUT! So people at the top need to look at themself.
Does that mean Mick has no blame, as he never promised anything????
As for Keogh, he can play at this level. Him and Doyle have been our best strike force. I remember the game at Chelsea, SEB did nothing! Then when Keogh came on we looked like we may nick a consolation goal!
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John, you are saying what many Wolves fans think but we are where we are and I just hope the players don’t read this kind of thoroughly negative comment as it’s the last thing they need. Surely the best hope now is to get behind the team and judge them all at the end of the season!
Wolves fans are world-beaters at getting on the players backs, it never ceases to amaze me. If we see they are giving it their all – unlike at Palace – why castigate them?!
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Excellent article John and I have very fond memories of that team of the sixties and early seventies . Mike Bailey was a giant in footballing terms and The Doug was a genius . Ally this to Waggy , John McAlle , Frank Munro and John Richards and we had a side that every supporter could be proud of . Football and footballers have changed over recent times and not , unfortunately , for the better although if any of us were offered the opportunity of such massive earnings in comparison to the fans average wages I am sure it would be difficult to resist . Among the broken promises mentioned was also the fact that , because of our earning promotion automatically rather than through the play offs , this would allow us far more time to recruit experienced premiership players than we had had previously . MM deserves the credit for getting us out of the cjampionship and into the premier league but he is out of his depth at this level and from a total of 62 games , with us and sunderland , he has managed to win 8 . That is a pitiful performance that will damn him far more than mere words in these columns .
Keep supporting lads because they will remain our team long after he has gone .
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does anybody agree with me , that , when ever we play there seems to be no talking within the team , no ” turn ” no ” hold it ” no “time ” no nothing . it seems no one is strong enough to shout at his team mate . also birmingham called for every free kick , throw in , penalty ,off side . we dont , even when there was a hand ball in the box on sunday did anyone see wolves shout for it , did one hand go up in protest ? the answer is no ! our team , which i love , need to grow some testicles !
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I’m glad I am not the only one who can see this. We need a skipper of substance who leads and plays with honour, pride and sets the example. Not a wimp imported from the Potteries!!!
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Totally agree, the supposed holding midfield players have no composure whatsoever!
They dont communicate and lack class, and they certainly lack an effective captain! Surely Craddock would be a better choice.
Regards throw ins did we win one at all, My dad said after the Palace game that they all needed to learn to take and recieve them!!!
Oh and whilst Im ranting get the hell out of midfield mancienne you havent a clue!!!!
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Spot on.
It reminded me of a game at Molineux long ago when a young Alun Evans was roughed up by opposition centre backs. (not dissimilar to the cynical treatment handed out to Sam Volkes in the Palace game.)
Back then Evans’ partner Derek Dougan stepped in and made the opposition instantly aware of the consequences of further such treatment of the youngster. I still wince at the thought of Doog’s tackle on the opposition centre back that night.
The seasoned pros proven at Premiership level promised by the management have not been delivered.
The squad numbers have increased, yet little strengthening is apparent from the play.
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I don’t know how Lalley can sit watching Wolves play blues and end up comparing, the great Leeds team of the 60′s to what was seen on Sunday.
Please can we have someone with sense writing these columns.. Who lives in the present day.
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A great article and echos my thoughts exactly.It is difficult to apportion blame due to the volume of spin that comes out of Molineux. However there is one fact that cannot be denied.It is very expensive to watch Wolves these days.A pal of mine,a Blackburn supporter ,could not believe how much more I pay compared to him.We have been promised so much by this current regime and they have failed to deliver.
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There is a difference between having a top defence and putting as many as eight defenders on the field and essentially parking a double decker bus in front of the Wolves goal and playing kick ball!!! MM’s strategy (if it can be called that!!!) is failing with every game that passes. We continue to ship goals through rank awful defending.
The idea that we win the ball and hoof it up to to a lonely Doyle up front is also failing as we continue to have the worst attack in the League. Doyle has to have support and needs balls played into his feet. Doyle is doing his best and is the only Prem level player in the squad. Jarvis would be more effective if he did not have to worry about what is going on behind him every time we lose the ball.
Am I wrong in not understanding what the deal is with Milijas? This guy is going to the World Cup in a very good Serbian side – how is it that he is not getting more playing time? How does he get better languishing on the bench? What has happened to Castillo who played with Milijas on a regular basis at their previous Club and won a couple of championships? MM needs to explain himself better to the fans instead of coming out with some amazingly idiotic remarks like the ones after Sunday’s match.
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So your blaming the lad for trying, just because he got injured he’s reckless?
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Current bottom 7 mini league table (Teams who have played each other)
Bolton Pl 7 Pts 11
Portsmouth Pl 7 Pts 11
Hull Pl 8 Pts 11
West Ham Pl 8 Pts 11
Wolves Pl 8 Pts 8
Wigan Pl 5 Pts 6
Burnley Pl 7 Pts 6
This is why we are in bottom 2 and we still have bolton, portsmouth, burnley and west ham away who are quite strong at home. Played all the teams around us at home and collected only 7 pts.
Interesting to see that portsmouth have got 11 out of their 15pts against the teams around them.
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How we on 8????
We Beat Bolton, Burnley and Wigan. Then two draws against Hull? It is 3 points for a win now and not 1960 when it was 2 for a win!
So I make that 11
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totally agree with 35. and wolvesmod if we are the worst team at the moment why are you wasting your time and money on supporting them?. as for the john lalley article, one thought comes to mind, it is this ,wwfc will never be any good in most fans minds because they keep getting compared to great teams of the past. as for the spurs game , they will come and sit back absorb the pressure and hit us on the break with the pace of defoe and jenas and co. we would do well to play on the counter and mcarthy please drop henry for milijas and berra is too clumsy. hopefully we will sneak it 1-0
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Chris Hoggard, So John Ireland had a good knowledge of the game, think again sunshine. He was the Muppet who sacked Stan Cullis who JohnWolf rightly descibes as one of the greatest managers of our time. If you read Len Shakleton’s book, he devotes a chapter to Football Club Directors and their knowledge of the game, you will find the pages of that particular chapter Blank ! However, JohnWolf, to mention MM as an example to Stan Cullis is over egging the cake a little and I doubt if Mick would have held even the youth team job under Stan.
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I agree John Ireland sacked Stan Cullis and I NEVER trusted him after that.I was in the South Bank for that Blackpool match after the sacking chanting ‘Cullis, Cullis’,like thousands of other fans. BUT Ireland was Chairman when we signed Wagstaffe,Dougan,Hibbitt,Munro,Parkin etc.Just because he got one thing wrong doesnot mean to say Ireland could not spot a good footballer.Obviously I did not know him,my source was a book by I believe the DOOG. Dougan clearly rated John Ireland he named a stand after him.
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Does anybody remember the night that Waggy was being constantly fouled by a defender and then the play went into the wolves half and left the defender and Waggy isolated on the wing,seconds later the defender woke up with a crowd around him priceless.
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I can remember Waggy thumping Alan Clarke when he played for Revie’s dirty Leeds side after being constantly fouled one afternoon at Molineux. Clarke tried to throw in a bit of bully boy intimidation to the foul play as Leeds did in those days to put Waggy off his game.
Clarke emerged from their next encounter with a real shiner from one hell of a punch executed on the blind side of officials as Waggy came away with the ball.
Waggy had no problems from Clarke after that. He was a class act.
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I think it might have been Webster of Derby,they always seemed to have clashes.
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Will Mick ever pick a team of players in their right positions?
Will Kightly & Edwards ever play again?
Will Keogh ever be seen again?
Will Wolves ever have a skipper with “presence” on the field?
ANSWERS ON A POSTCARD TO -
THE FAT CONTROLLER
MOLINEUX
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Morgan is a builder who has taken advice from Moxey. He is a self made man and I believe he is fully aware that Moxey and Mick have made a prat of him. Time will tell.
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HEADLINE -
Wolves Lack That Hard Edge!
They also lack -
A Manager with tactical nouse
A Manager, who, half way through a Prem season STILL DOES NOT KNOW HIS BEST TEAM
A player who can tackle well consistantly
A player who concentrates for 90+ mins
A player good enough to play with Doyler
A Board who act with ambition
A FIT TEAM
APART FROM THAT WERE IN GOOD SHAPE TO STAY UP.
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HOW TRUE.
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molly knew – I agree.
The team has no back bone and no real guts for a fight. Watch Spurs score 4 tomorrow!!
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with that attitude we dont need you at molineux
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Echo the thoughts of the article – signings have been very poor & have not strengthened the squad (Doyle apart, thank goodness!). Coupled with the fact that the best players from the promotion side have not made the step up (Ebanks-Blake) and also the managerial team also have not appeared to have bridged the class gap then I can only see one outcome come May.
One point I would like to make about a more hard, tough game plan is that in the current namby, pamby contactless game you can bet the first time we try & adopt it, it will result in a couple of red cards every game.
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Yes did you see the way the blue player went down after Zubar PLACED his hands on his back (it was no way a shove) to try and win that Pen.
Zubar should no better but the game needs sorting out.
My seven year old son plays Rugby and the difference in coaching from that of football is worlds apart. They are learnt to to show respect to the opponents and the officials. If football is to change it needs to be at grass roots up.
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To be fair the local football team my six year old is playing for is trying to instill respect for officials & opposition, but when they go to games & watch players on the TV mouthing off to referees & showing general disrespect, what are they to think?
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Thats great, and I totally agree with you re the lack of role models for the youngsters.
I used to take my son to football but pulled him out of it as every saturday, kids would be calling for sendings off and running up to the refs complaining. Probably just a bad set up.
At the Rugby the coaches are hard but fair, if a child is on the floor they just tell them to get up and on with it.
Id love to see the refs do that with the prima donnas that go down writhing in apparent agony only to be running round 1min later after the magic sponge!
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Lets face it Wolves can’t and don’t compete.It’s not so much the players who are to blame,but the people who buy the players,pick the team and determine the tactics.The palyers do the best they can but unfortunately with few exceptions are in the wrong league.Will it get better this season? probably not.
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50
Correct but wants to keep the team of Geoffrey, George Zippy and Bungle together so as to save up for and complete the Molyneux redevelopement for corporate, not real fans?
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Barnes, are you a baggie? We Gold n Black spell it Molineux
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Apologies but my mind is becoming a bit numb with the goings on.
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A lovely timebridging article John, between the then of Bailey, Dougan, bless him, and co., and the now of well, just now. Get’s the memories going tho’.
One of your points prompts me to ask this question, just who is Mr Transfer say-so at Molineux? It seems that too many players we are being associated with are just not arriving e.g. Dann, Johnson, Gardiner (all at Blues), McCarthy (James) and others. You talk about a hard edge on the field, agreed, but let’s get serious off it and stop this transfer pussy-footing, after you sir nonsense. Get serious with transfer policy – find ‘em, sign ‘em, play ‘em. It would answer this question for me, is McCarthy identifying the players he wants, but the club does not make these transfers happen, or is he saying the current squad is good enough, hence the smoke screens? Only one answer will be right.
As always coyw.
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The vast majority of Wolves supporters will follow the team throgh good and bad days and over the years have done so.What they will not tolerate are people such as SM,JM and MM not being truthful with them.
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Team for tomorrow: Chuck all the squad names into a hat and get David Blunkett to pick the lucky players names out!
Could be the magic formula – Clipboard, take note!
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There is no doubt in my mind if we had these four from our only other Premiership season we would be safe :- Irwin Ince Rae and Miller.
Let’s see what team he plays tomorrow but if we go once again with Foley Mancienne and Henry in the midfield we will lose. Spurs midfield is class and their weak link is the back line and therefore we must get at ‘em!
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If you ask me I knew this would happen at the start of the season I said we were no good cause we haven’t spent money well at all. Mind you we haven’t seen much except for Doyle and Milijas this season. If you ask me I think Mcarthy is arrogant and extremely stubborn. The manager has a player thats a captain of Serbia who ended top of their group over beating France and he won’t play him. You can see he has top quality class about him that he could get into a team such as Villa. He is the only flair player we have and now Mcarthy isn’t hardly playing him. I feel that wolves team has too many championship players. Examples of these are Foley, David Jones, SEB, Keogh (even though he was rubbish in championship), Jarvis and Kites. If this club wants premiership football we need to start from this manager as he has a lot to answer for. Spending same money as Birmingham and look where they are? And you know why? Because they have a manager that spends money well has good players because of this and knows how to play PREMIERSHIP football. No crap championship football. Get mick out now before its too late!
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Lalley is spot on
MM is a Championship Manager. Hasn’t got a clue how to deal with foreign players. Why does no one mention Ikeme. Best keeper since Bert Williams and sent on loan. Hanneman too old and Hennessey looks like a frightened rabbit.Get him back!!
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I’ve just been looking at the Premier League table and for the first time it has really hit me. Birmingham are SIXTEEN points ahead of us in the table. That’s 5 more wins plus.
Towards the end of last season I saw us as the likely Premier League success story of the promoted teams and Blues and Burnley as the teams that would struggle, if that doesn’t tell you what a monumental balls up the hierarchy have made at this club then nothing will.
What you have to remember is that Blues were then under Gold and Sullivan and they didn’t invest massive amounts into the team, but me, yes stupid me, thought that under our new chairman with all his statements of intent, would invest in players who were experienced in coping with Premier League football and that we had a manager who would buy the right players for the task ahead. Admittedly he did sign some players, but where are they now? I think Mr Lalley summed it up when he talked about the bench on Sunday – all of Mick McCarthy’s signings apart from Doyle are simply not good enough.
The last time we were relegated from the Premier League was disappointing but not entirely surprising, after all Sir Jack had probably given up spending all his money on the club that he loves (not forgetting that we probably wouldn’t exist as a club without Sir Jack’s philanthropy, god bless him) but this time I thought it was going to be different, I thought we had a chance, this time I’m angry because the bottom half of the league has never looked so vunerable and so weak – there for the taking, so to say.
While I’m disappointed in Moxey and Morgan for promising us streets of gold, the ultimate blame lies with the manager. This is a manager who is totally out of his depth at this level, he signs players then sends them out on loan, he signs players then leaves them on the bench week after week. He bought these players. HE SIGNED GREG HALFORD FOR CHRIST’S SAKE! need I say any more? (Sorry for the caps lock but I needed to emphasise the Point) and he is responsible for the most disgraceful episode in our club’s history – the Old Trafford white flag debacle.
But let’s go back to the original point of my winge – Blues are 16 points ahead of us. Any happy clappers out there willing to pacify me in my indignation at the way our latest Premier League adventure is hitting the rocks?
Please tell me that by not supporting “Mick and the lads” is somehow disloyal.
I’ll leave you clappers with an analogy. If you had a son that was going off the rails, besmirching the family and letting the family down, you would chastize him, you would critisize him and you would punish him. Why? Because you love your son and you want the best for him. If your son was, as I said, off the rails, it would be totally irresponsible to support him in his bad behaviour, but that’s not what the clappers do!! We are going down under a clueless manager with a team that aren’t up to the challenge, yet to have a go at the way we have approached the season we are accused of being disloyal. If fans take that position, then we will never be winners.
Rant over.
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I agree with virtually all of your rant,except the club was saved before Sir Jack put in his millions.It seems to me that many of the younger wolves fans do not appreciate the role of Jack Harris and the then Council headed by Wolves fan Jack Bird.These people saved the Wolves and due to good transfer decisions especially signing Steve Bull ,we moved through the divisions in quick style .It is the lack of progress on the pitch since then despite all of Sir Jacks efforts that I find so frustrating.We must of course thank Sir Jack for the new Molineux.
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i just watched the Portsmouth Sunderland game. I thought Jamie O’Hara was the outstanding player on the pitch. Was he not on the transfer radar. He looked a quality player He oould have added something for Wolves. I hope you Wolves supporters get in behind the team. The players look nervous and lack confidence.
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Looking at the Birmingham game and asking myself what went wrong, there was one simple answer. Nothing to do with Phillips, really. It was Foley and Zubar trying to play in each other’s positions! Foley is a defender by instinct, while Zubar loves to get forward and looks a real handful in the last third. If they had swapped positions from the off, I think two things would have happened: firstly, I think we would have cracked on and got the second goal; secondly,the defence would have had a proper shape and there would have been cover to take care of Phillips.
Sometimes the gap between relegation and survival can hinge on something as small as this simple positional switch. How the manager and coach can miss it is totally beyond me.
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All our opportunities seem to be sliding by. It has so far been a season of “if only’s”. If only we had held on against Blues, after last night’s results we would have been looking good regardless of what happens tonight.
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wembley u are a real idiot, wolves fc doe need supporters like u go away and support sandwell town, how can u say we ay got bottle we should ave beat blues who have lost one in 18 games! anyone new it was going to be tough!!.its our first season in the premier we were never going to walk it!!
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Whilst I have little time for Roy Keane, I have of late been thinking about his infamous bust up with MM and his petulant departure from the Irish Squad.
Taking into consideration the overall debacle this season I’m beginning to think that, although he has been far from successful in his own management career, there is no smoke without fire and a lot of what Keane said now as some substance. Bearing in mind that his rant at the time was in comparing the Irish regime under MM to what he had always experienced at Old Trafford.
The sad truth is that in all his efforts since in the Premiership MM as failed miserably to get even close to halfway in competing with the pace setters. Those who say that we have not had the money to achieve that goal or that we have suffered from a series of dreadful injuries, should consider the situation at Everton, by comparrison they have a class act in David Moyes.
I am now of the opinion that we have, this season, witnessed just what got up Keane’s back, naive, unprofessional wing and a prayer coaching and tactics. Frankly the man is totally out of his depth.
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Hang on a minute CROCKETT.I think Roy Keane achieved at Sunderland a tad more than MM did when he was there, other than that very slight error your comments are absolutely SPOT ON.
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You’re Right WILLY MAC WONKA, he did keep ‘em in there and certainly more competitive.
I bet Robbie Keene remembered the bust up with MM when considering a move back to us.
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MOXEY, your tight streak as cost us again.
Messrs Sullivan, Gold and Brady have ”done” you again just like they did with Johnson and Dann.
They have Mark Hughes lined up to lead West Ham.
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Interesting point by No 67 regarding Moyes. I have a good friend who’s an Everton fan, and at the beginning of the season their message boards were full of people saying things like sack Moyes, he’s out of his depth, doesnt know what his best team is, tactically clueless, etc etc etc. Ring any bells anyone?
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Similar comments on Evertons board there may have been but where are they now ? Answer, eleven points and 20 goals better off than we are, which makes my point. They still have major players to come back from injury.
Also, with regard to my comment on the Irish/Keane bust up, could it have been the reason Robbie Keene decided against joining us?
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Yes but after a poor start they have steadily improved and moved UP the table,Where as WE?
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You cannot start to compare Moyes with McCarthy. Moyes is a proven Premiership manager, and the other is a Premiership disaster. Look at his Premiership success ratio!
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thank you very much
to all the people thank had things to say about mccarthy i told you to keep faith the lads can do it. thanks for not voicing your opinions at the game
well deserved win against spurs.
atleast mick wont have extended pressure in next few games from fans come on you wolves do us proud
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