Why football could use more Doyles

A week which will climax with the John Terry media firestorm burning a path to Molineux reminds us that football could do with a few more Kevin Doyles right now.

The Irishman, who will carry his extraordinary lone-warrior role to the deposed England captain when Chelsea tackle Wolves on Saturday, has emerged as the stand-out figure around whom Mick McCarthy's players are waging their war against Premier League ejection.

Doyle's profile could not contrast more sharply with the man who will block his path to goal on Saturday, but Wolves will be thankful for that.

With him, there are no histrionics, no scandals, no controversies, no complaints - just a commitment to the cause which is undeniably admirable and has won him an army of admirers at his new club.

Having stuck by a pledge to try to help Reading regain Premier League status, the 26-year-old had his pick of a cluster of clubs offering better survival chances than newly-promoted Wolves last summer.

As a result, the player finds himself in the thick of a gruelling survival battle in which each precious point has to be chiseled out of the granite defences of Premier League opponents.

But is he complaining? Is he regretting his decision to throw his heart and career into the more taxing quest of establishing Wolves in this most ferocious of divisions? Does he wish he had raised his sights last summer and not been so taken by the Molineux 'project' McCarthy sold to him? Not a bit of it.

Doyle said: "I really believe my best years are ahead of me. This season is the best I've played - anyone who's seen them will know I'm really enjoying my football and I'm playing very well.

"I usually don't say that but this season is good - I just hope it doesn't come down to the last game. But I've really enjoyed the season so far. I'm happy with my form and it's been a reasonably good first half of the campaign.

"I would like a few more goals - any striker would - but they're hard to come by."

Six so far doesn't sound like a rich harvest but in a Wolves attack which has struggled to make anything like the in-roads of the previous Championship campaign, Doyle's goals have been precious in a division which the striker believes grows ever more arduous.

He said: "A few years ago Sir Alex Ferguson reckoned you can't lose more than three games and win the Premier League, but they've lost more than that already, as has everyone else. Before, it was two teams who could win the Premier League, now it's four or five due, so it's more competitive.

"Maybe it's just got more intense I think. At the top there's five or six teams who can win it, but at the bottom, there are eight teams who are two or three points within each other.

"A bad defeat or an away win can make all the difference. It's great to get a win because you relax for a week, but after a defeat, I don't want to see anyone after the game.

"I had relatives over for a recent game, but we lost and I just didn't want to see them. I really didn't want to talk to anyone afterwards or the next day, you get over it and you get going again pretty quickly but it's not very nice."

Doyle was a big enough hit with Wolves fans even before the manager made a tactical switch recently, which thrust even more responsibility on his shoulders as a lone front-runner.

But the uncomplaining manner in which he has tackled this demanding role, and the qualities he has displayed in the process, have advanced his reputation still further with supporters.

By its very nature, the role has asked even more of his fitness levels - but then Doyle was ready for the challenge.

He said: "I'm fitter and stronger at Wolves - we work harder and I look after myself better. I feel generally better all round in how I eat and live, and I'm learning to prepare myself better for matches.

"I'm more confident to do things - to receive the ball and hold the ball up – everything.

"I'm trying to get the balance right because we have to work very hard in the way we play. You can just as easily be in midfield helping out or helping out up front, trying to get the balance right between doing that and being selfish enough to just hang around in the box.

"But I really try not to let anything interfere with how I prepare for games now, whether it's my diet or little things - I don't eat biscuits any more, just simple things like that.

"You also learn over the years what to eat before games - when you're younger you experiment all the time. You play well one game and you say 'oh yeah I'll eat exactly the same before every game' but that's not the right way.

"I've learned what to eat and what works for me, I've learnt how to sleep better, generally look after myself and be more professional in everything I do."

Doyle cannot help but be inspired by the constant reminders of Wolves' glorious past which surround him at Molineux - and there are two black and gold greats whom he especially hopes to emulate.

He said: "You see the statues outside the ground of players who have won league titles and done really well. Reading don't have that history, they haven't really won anything. They are still a great club with great facilities and great people there, but it doesn't have the history of a club like Wolves.

"Historically, Wolves is one of the biggest clubs in the England and it's a privilege to be playing for them. I only really realised that before I moved here, when I was researching before I signed. The people are very passionate and rightfully so.

"Derek Dougan is a name that keeps on getting mentioned and obviously Steve Bull is a more recent one. Anyone who has a stand named after them has to have done pretty well.

"It's just nice knowing that you're at a club that has won things in the past and that they have an ambitious owner and manager who want to do well."

Despite the pressure of a survival fight - challenging for Europe with Reading was a "piece of cake" in comparison according to him - Doyle's life does not want for distraction.

Then there is his summer wedding to childhood sweetheart Jenny Harney to plan for as well, as work on a 9,000 sq ft mansion being built on family land back home in Redinagh, Killurin, Co Wexford.

It all carries the imprint of a successful footballer mindful of his blessings and providing for his own even if, at the risk of offending the future Mrs Doyle, he would rather have delayed the wedding a year to play at the World Cup.

But a certain Monsieur Henry took care of that leaving Doyle's professional focus on walking walk down the aisle as a Premier League footballer.

The core of that ambition lies another key relationship in his life - with manager Mick McCarthy.

He said: "Mick? He's the same as always – he's straight to the point but I enjoy that. It's been refreshing and it's brilliant working for him, there's no bull from him or us. It's been brilliant.

"When we talked about the move in the summer, it was probably the longest I've ever spoken to any manager in my life, sitting there with him in his office and talking about everything - not just football.

"But there was no messing about and it was straight to the point. He told me 'You won't play if I don't think you're playing well or you're not training well.'

"He told me 'I want you to sign' and all the things that go with it, so he was really good and he's been like that ever since. Straight to the point and that's how we like it."

By Martin Swain