You can’t beat a bit of Bully
Friday 19th February 2010, 9:15AM GMT.
Wolves blogger Nathan Lloyd took a phone call from one of his idols this week as his blood was still boiling from ‘that’ decision by the Premier League.
‘Is it OK if Steve rings you at 5pm?’ That was in an e-mail from Tim, from the PR company of our shirt sponsors, Sportingbet.com.
Because the other half of Steve’s name happened to be Bull, in my opinion our greatest player in the last 30 years, I decided that yes, it would be fine for the man that most Wolves fans refer to as God to give me a call.
Bully was ringing me to tell me about his involvement in the club’s new promotion, the ‘Wolves Accumulator,’ which is being run in conjunction with Sportingbet.com.
When Steve rang we spent a couple of minutes chatting about the promotion, which is both free and superb so I would urge you to pop along to the website to have a butchers at it.
We then debated for 10 glorious minutes about the current Wolves team with Bully admitting to always predicting results with his heart rather than his head!
Of course I idolise him, like I’m sure a lot of you do, and I couldn’t let the opportunity go by without saying to him that I wish he was in his prime now, partnering Kevin Doyle up front. Forget relegation, I think we’d be challenging for a Champions League place!
Anyway, now I’ve given his promotion a shameless plug, on to the asinine decision yesterday to give Wolves a suspended fine for putting out a supposedly weakened team at Manchester United back in December.
When boss Mick McCarthy rotated his squad, fan opinion seemed to be split as to whether he had done the right thing or not. Some argued that Stan Cullis would be spinning in his grave in disgust at the defeatist manner in which his modern day counterpart had approached the game at Old Trafford.
Others, like me, accepted that the game has changed and that Mick took a pragmatic approach, realising that the manager could field the same team that beat Tottenham for the first time a few days earlier and still come away from the North West with nothing but a probable defeat and perhaps some key injuries.
Let’s not forget that we played a near full team against a Man Utd second-string team in the Carling Cup a couple months earlier and still lost.
Of course, lots of cash was wasted by dedicated fans travelling up to Old Trafford to see the so called reserves, but Mick does what is right by the team and, as we know, not the fans.
But why now? Why punish Wolves for something Premier League teams have been doing for years. I won’t bore you with loads of examples, but to prove my point, how about when Saturday’s opponents Chelsea played two league games in five days back in 2006?
Only Ricardo Carvalho, William Gallas and Frank Lampard played in both games against Blackburn and Newcastle. So why is it that those eight changes are any less of a crime than the 10 that Mick made at Old Trafford?
It stinks of complete hypocrisy by the sanctimonious Premier League. They quoted rules E20 and B13 that the club had supposedly broken, but where is the rule which stipulates how many team changes you can and can’t make? And who are they to tell Mick what his first team is anyway?
What about trying to ensure that the people who run the clubs in this league are actually fit and proper in the first place? Forget setting a petty precedent with a ruling about rotation, how about ensuring that you don’t let debt-laden criminals take over clubs and run them into the ground?
I think Wolves have accepted the suspended fine ruling far too easily. I would tell them to stuff the ruling where the sun doesn’t shine. Come up with a rule which stipulates the amount of changes you can make to the first team from game to game. If that’s broken, then fine, give a club a rollicking, but until then, get your own house in order and leave us alone.
Can you imagine the Premier League trying to do this to Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger when he sticks the kids in for a cup match? He would completely lose the few Gallic marbles that he has left.
The league won’t slap the wrists of the all powerful Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea or Liverpool. No, they prefer to set an example by picking on one of the smaller clubs, because they are just a bunch of oppressive bullies.
Charles Ross, the brilliantly gifted editor of A Load of Bull recently wrote, “The rewriting of football history since 1992 and the advent of Planet Premier is bad enough, but it just gets worse. Every time I hear the phrase ‘a new Premier League record’ something inside me dies.”
Like Charles, I love and loathe the Premier League in equal measures. I loathe the fact that our top league has become all about the have and the have nots, with players on ridiculous salaries and fans having to foot the bill with inflated ticket prices.
Yet, paradoxically I love watching some of world’s greatest players in the best league in the world. We all know the alternative and I’m not quite ready for Doncaster on a cold Tuesday night in front of a bored Molineux just yet.
At the end of the day, the league are just playing right into the hands of the likes of Piers Morgan, who will no doubt applaud this moronic decision by the league.
But one ruling from the Premier League I would quite like to see though would be a play-off to play in the Champions League for the teams who finish fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh in the table.
Why not mix it up a bit? If we get established in the top flight, then we could well be contesting one of those places and as a result, I think Wenger may frown so severely that the lines in his forehead could suck his whole face into some kind of parallel vortex!
On to Saturday’s game, the visit of Team Terry and his men in blue and I happened to be in the same room as his team-mate, Michael Ballack on Wednesday night.
But before the tabloids start getting excited, we weren’t exchanging dodgy photos by phone, instead we were both at the Albert Hall roaring on the brilliant Depeche Mode at the teenage cancer trust charity gig.
Never mind the Ballacks though, what chance do you think we have of getting a positive result this weekend?
After the huge morale boost of beating Tottenham again, Mick is likely to start with the same XI against a Chelsea team that have already dropped points away against the likes of West Ham, Hull, Everton and Birmingham.
As I said in my ‘bostin’ video blog earlier in the week, we simply gave Chelsea far too much respect at Stamford Bridge, with our players almost looking overawed to be on the same field.
We can’t afford to start like that on Saturday. Yes, we will have to ride our luck a little bit like we did against Spurs. But with the nefarious Ashley Cole injured, we should unleash Matt Jarvis to test his replacement Yury Zhirkov at every opportunity.
After all, at just £18 million, Yury is only the most expensive Russian player of all time! But I think Jarvis is in a fantastic vein of form and that price tag means diddly-squat on the field of battle. Lets get Adlene Guedioura into the face of the Chelsea midfield, to see if he can get close to that extraordinary performance against Spurs.
Like Bully, my head says we’ll get beaten by a couple of goals, but my heart says there is always hope.
And on Saturday, Heidi my beautiful girlfriend of eight years, would love you all to join in a chorus of, “Chelsea, wherever you may be, don’t leave your wife with John Terry.”
Enjoy the game and your weekend. Come on the Wolves!
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When did this a blog become an advert for Sportingbet???
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You try getting a phone call from Bully and then not mention his promotion! They are our shirt sponsors at the end of the day.
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There you go again … giving them a name-check! :-p
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Where did he mention them again? Saying Shirt sponsors is not name dropping….
Don’t some people like a moan for nothing!!
good blog Nathan, disgusted we are not fighting the fine, really really am. Welcome to the greed league everyone!
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I agree with you,a blogg shouldent be promoting gambling niether should it be on the teams shirts,this is another reason i wont be renewing my season ticket.
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dear me. Who made you hollier than thou? There are much worse things we could have on our shirts. What about alcohol for a start? Much more evil than gambling.
Get a life you santicmonius old misery.
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People have lost there homes through gambling,ive never heard have anybody losing there home through having a drink.
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I’m sure WBA will miss your season ticket money. At least Wolves have a shirt sponsor unlike your team of stripey ****.
Go back to the sandwell town page.
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My father in law works with recovering alcoholics, most of whom lost there homes, there lives and family through drink.
So please don’t be so pathetic with the comments to think gambling is worse than drink, as its not!
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you dont deserve to call yourself a wolves fan do one
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Nathan,Good blog as always,
Firstly I think the fine was given because of the amount of changes–Could 10 really be justified?.Time to move on though now put the issue to bed.
Regarding play-off for fourth champions league place,Where do you draw the line,just another SKY money grabbing idea again for already stretched supporters to fill somebody else’s pockets.
Chelsea will arrive in town tomorrow brimming with confidence and we will need to be at our best to hopefully get some sort of a result.In the circumstances a point would be a good result,3 a big bonus.
Have booked flights to be in Wolvo for the Blackburn game(Thank you Ryan air).Hopefully meet up before the game and have a beer.
Enjoy the weekend.
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Hopefully see you in April for what will know doubt be an absolute 6 pointer!
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Cant agree with you Nathan about it being a 6 pointer, blackburn only need 2 more wins and they will be near enough safe,if i was abit closer id follow blackburn next season onlu £200 for season ticket.
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Follow Blackburn then, what a moronic comment.
Why would anyone want a beer with such a down beat whiner!!
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Hi malta id love to meet you for a beer mate might be last chance as i wont be attending next season,look forward to it.
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I agree its a shame for fans and for Bully himself that he never got to play in the top league in English football. A regret im sure.
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I completely agree with you mate. The hypocrisy of the league is getting beyond a joke now. The same people who never punish a referee for an unbelieveably bad decision have the gall to tell a manager who he should pick. Previous to this decision the FA told Blackburn ( who asked to postpone a game due to players with swine flu) that it is a squad game and they must use all their players to replace those injured or sick!! now this is just a compete 180 from them.
I have reached the end of my rope with the law makers in the uk be it football or govt. How can a small minded non-sensical referee be allowed to decide which team gets 60m for staying up and which gets nothing for being relegated!!
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The fine is a joke and now they have set a precedent they better keep an eye on the so called big 4. I personally do not give a damn that they are representing England in the Champions League – which it most definitely is not. Liverpool will always be our most successful team in Europe followed by Forest, as they won it as their country’s league champions and not in a league format. Based on this argument it should be thrown open to a play off.
We have no choice but to stick with the same eleven. Ideally I would drop Foley back but until our 3 injured are back there is no one to slot in on the right hand side. Saying that I would prefer to have Zubar there.
Not expecting anything tomorrow but you never know. If Hull can do it, so can we!
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We should not forget that Wigan beat them 3-1. So, why not us getting at least 1 pt today!! :)
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Nathan how could you! You have sold out to the corporate power! ;)
I already knew about the promotion and have alredy entered. Now its in the blog my chances have fallen (I was hoping I would been only one who would enter and win by default! :D)
Totally agree about the fine. I think you should apply for Jez’s job. Love to hear someone tell the Premier League to stick it where the sun dont shine! LOL
The Playoffs would be great and provide other teams a chance to enter Champions league. This only increases the Premier league competition.
UP THE WOLVES & NATHAN FOR CEO!!!!
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I’m sorry ay I!
I haven’t got enough hair left to brylcreem into play like Jez. I like the CEO bit though, that’d look on the passport!
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Here’s an interesting question. If we had drawn or even won at Old Trafford would the Premier powers have still questioned/fined us?
What do you think?
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Best post I have seen on the fine – just highlights how ridiculous it was.
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Shouldnt matter.
Man Utd fielded a weakened team against West Ham, lost eventually getting Sheff Utd relegated. Nothing happened.
Its a disgrace and hopefully will come back to haunt the Premier League.
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Nathan remember the score when Wenger put the kids on against us????
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I totally agree with your view about the fine. It seems to me that the PL have opened up a can of worms that they may well regret in the future.
As you point out, who is to say what the best team is for any particular match? How many changes can be made before the PL questions the selection?
McCarthy was quite open with why he selected the team against Man U, but what would have happened if he simple said that 10 players rested were carrying injuries? Would the PL send a medical team to check all the players concerned?
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Sportingbet.com?Nobody will infulence me with a football shirt logo no way!Hell going online now with Sportingbet.com to see what odds i can get for a 1-o WOLVES home win.Look on the bright side of life.As for never again,if my bet comes up i will donate some of it for his oneway fare to Blackburn.
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He obviously has never been to blackburn. He will enjoy it!
Lets have a whip round!
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Good blog nathan.
Perhaps you could e-mail it to the self confessed anti Wolves muppet Adrian Durham on
Talksport.He’s been banging on all week about how he hopes we get relegated for fielding a
‘reserve eleven’ at the mancs and,in his words,gifting them three points.
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Thanks for your comments. Perhaps you should email him the link, it might look a little egotistical coming from me!
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Nathan,Agree with the hypocrisy of it all….and why did they turn a blind eye to West Ham for getting our away game at Upton Park postponed ? They had a perfectly playable pitch and approaches areas …. but, Oh yes, a few injured players. Forget the local authority and police garbage, it was a stitch up. They owe us BIG time.
Totally disagree with play offs for 4th place. The whole thing becomes a farce.
Finally, don’t go drinking with Never Again you don’t want to see him on the rocky road to ruin for the sake of a few beers, plus the fact he might not have the cash for his Tesco season ticket.
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What about Gold offering Portsmouth a £10million loan to stop them going bump?
Of course, West Ham took 4 points off Pompy (and we lost at home). If Pompeys fixtures are declared null and void, West Ham are down – as they should have been at Sheffied Utd’s expence.
I really hope that shower go down.
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In real terms, the fine means nothing- it’s not as if we’ll ever have to stump up the 25K anyway. The Prem League, as suggested, are merely guilty of Tokenism,and pandering to the Football Media, who had nothing better to do in a slow week but rehash an old theme but with a different angle.
However, I personally wasn’t and never will be happy about what happened at OT; if,as was reported at the time, influential figures within the Club were unhappy with McCarthy’s actions, then some kind of action should have been taken internally, even if it had only amounted to a clear expression of disapproval. Filtering this back to the PL bigwigs would probably have been sufficient to smother any suggestions of an enquiry/fine; the PL, after all, wouldn’t care to set themselves a REALLY difficult precedent which they may ultimately have to apply to one of the ‘Big 4/5/6 whoever’.
In the end, if anything, the episode has served mainly to strengthen McCarthy’s position at the Club, as he probably now feels he can make his own rules up as he goes along, largely with impunity. As such, he’s probably in a stronger position than any manager of Wolves in recent history.
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re the subject of drink & betting you can only drink so much in one night but you can lose every thing in one night in the bookies
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