Solbakken exit rams home Wolves fall from grace

Two divisions, four managers and a whole lot of hurt, anger and confusion – this has been one of the most turbulent years in Wolves' long history.

Supporters will be hard pressed to remember a more troubled time, which has also consisted of embarrassing defeats, simmering tensions and dwindling attendances.

It started with Mick McCarthy's sacking after a 5-1 defeat to arch rivals West Bromwich Albion last February. And it's fair to say the club has not recovered since.

But rather than galvanise a new beginning, the sacking was merely the start of a miserable chain of events that saw Wolves lurch from one crisis to another.

Little did we know how entrenched the side had become in McCarthy's ways. While the board's loyalty to Mick was commendable, when the axe fell, it exposed a naivety that placed the club under huge pressure.

The board resembled a fish flapping on the sand, appearing to rush from one candidate to another at both ends of the experience scale.

It twice tried and failed to lure Alan Curbishley, while Steve Bruce waited in the background for an offer that finally appeared to be on the brink of materialising and was then snatched away at the 11th hour.

In between, Gus Poyet and Brian McDermott, who have built impressive CVs at Brighton and Reading respectively, were also approached.

That proved only for Reading to award McDermott with a lucrative new contract while reports of £2.5million compensation ended their interest in Poyet.

At the other end of the age scale, Walter Smith claimed that he was offered the chance to perform a rescue act on the club's ailing fortunes.

It was a mess that did little to enhance the reputation of Wolves. And then, after insisting it was "no job for a novice," they turned to McCarthy's assistant Terry Connor.

Loyal, reliable, honest and dependable, Connor served Wolves for 13 years in a variety of roles, but few saw him as a manager.

In fairness to the likeable Yorkshireman, he was handed a thankless task to revive a side which was already looking doomed.

The team spirit which had been such a cornerstone of the success enjoyed under McCarthy was fast beginning to unravel.

It came on the back of the high-profile signings of Roger Johnson and Jamie O'Hara and a downward spiral of results that had started the previous May, when Wolves stayed in the Premier League by the skin of their teeth.

Connor tried to dispel any notion that he was not his own man when he quickly dropped the captain Johnson.

But if he thought his problems with the expensive signing from Birmingham had ended there, he was sadly mistaken.

After an encouraging 2-2 draw at Newcastle in his first game in charge, Connor was soon exposed to the brutalities of life under the intense spotlight of the Premier League.

Following a 5-0 defeat at Fulham on March 4, Johnson turned up for training showing the effects of alcohol, hardly helping the cause when everyone needed to rally together.

The writing appeared to be on the wall from then on as the team lurched from heavy defeat to heavy defeat.

Six days later, after a 2-0 home defeat to Blackburn, hundreds of fans protested outside Molineux, with owner and chairman Steve Morgan and chief executive Jez Moxey the brunt of their fury.

Wolves midfielder Jamie O'Hara, carrying his infant son, decided to ignore a security appeal not to venture outside the ground and, while carrying his boy, was manhandled by angry fans.

Already plagued by a hernia problem that had required one operation and which had dulled his considerable impact as the club's main playmaker, O'Hara did not play again that season.

A predictable 5-0 defeat followed to Manchester United but, when more winnable games came along, Wolves were unable to stop the flow of goals against them.

The tensions that had been simmering beneath the surface all came to a head in public during a game against Bolton on March 31.

Goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey was involved in an angry head-to-head spat with Johnson, and team-mates had to drag them apart.

It was another sorry episode in the story of Wolves, and was another indicator of how it was all falling apart behind the scenes.

Wolves limped on, seemingly delaying the inevitable until April 22, when champions-elect Manchester City hammered the final nail into their relegation coffin with a 2-0 defeat to end their three-year tenure in the Premier League.

There were still four games from the end of a truly wretched campaign. The honourable Connor showed his feelings for the club by breaking down in tears in his post-match interview.

But, if his effort had been commendable, the results had been tear-jerking as he failed to win any of his 13 games in charge.

Wolves held off from any announcement on Connor's future while the final throes of their Premier League relegation campaign were played out.

But, behind the scenes, Morgan was already working on his third manager in a matter of months.

Through his football contacts, he had been alerted to the work of Stale Solbakken, who was soon to be sacked as manager of German club Cologne, a side which also went on to suffer relegation.

If Morgan's work behind the scenes was designed to shock, it had the maximum effect. When the announcement came, it surprised the football world as Wolves turned to a foreign manager for the first time in their 135-year history.

Solbakken's experience in England amounted to a six-match career at Wimbledon in the late 1990s and boyhood support from afar of Liverpool, gleaned from his TV set in Norway as a kid.

But his appointment heralded a bright new dawn, with Wolves deciding that the football had become dated under the old regime. The arrival of Solbakken was designed to bring a shiny, new style of football to Molineux.

Morgan said at the time: "It's my first appointment of a manager, but I don't believe it's any more of a gamble just because he hasn't had football experience in this country.

"If you look at anyone else out there, yes they've got much more experience in English football but they have nothing like his success rate. It's an alternative appointment, it could be considered left-field.

"All appointments are a gamble but I don't feel it's a big gamble because of his tremendous track record."

Solbakken arrived with a glittering CV after leading FC Copenhagen – the Manchester United of Danish football – to five titles in as many seasons and further in the Champions League than they had ever experienced before.

Having learned German in a month and come from the intense media glare of Cologne, the Norwegian was an extremely polished performer in front of the notebooks and cameras.

But, unfortunately, as bright and insightful as he was in front of the Press, his team were stodgy and dull.

While initially promising to play like Barcelona, his players ended up playing like Barnet. If Connor was a novice in management, then Solbakken was a novice in the Championship.

While he may have proved himself at the top levels of the game in Europe, he struggled to get his message across to players who had been programmed to a battling style of play over the previous few years.

In fairness, Solbakken was unlucky from the start. Inheriting a toxic dressing room full of unhappy players, he was always fighting a losing battle to keep the best stars at the club.

Despite long and protracted battles, he failed to prevent Michael Kightly, Steven Fletcher and Matt Jarvis leaving for a combined £28million.

Those were three of seven departures which were matched by seven new arrivals. Picking up on Solbakken's charisma in front of the media, the Molineux masses were desperate to champion him as their saviour.

But it was always going to be a difficult job to integrate a failing squad who were already infected with a losing mentality with a raft of foreign signings who, like Solbakken, were alien to the second tier of English football.

And, while French import Bakary Sako quickly suggested he was a major player in the making, others struggle to follow his example.

Tongo Doumbia flickered from the start and then faded, "hitting the wall" as he struggled to cope with the relentless nature of the division, while Bjorn Sigurdarson was beset by a series of niggling injuries before finally showing his true form.

Off the field, the turbulence continued with the departures of long-term scouting team Dave Bowman and Ian 'Taff' Evans, who joined McCarthy at Ipswich in October.

Unfortunately, others, such as Razak Boukari and Georg Margreitter, barely featured because of injuries. With so much uncertainty, it was little surprise that Wolves failed to impose themselves from the start of the season.

An opening day defeat at Leeds was a real 'welcome back to the Championship' as Wolves were bullied out of their stride.

And, although Wolves beat a poor Barnsley 3-1 in their opening home league game, performances were rarely convincing, especially in front of the long-suffering home fans.

In fact, by the time the axe fell on Solbakken, Wolves had failed to win eight home games in nine.

A string of former employees, starting with ex-Wolves midfielder Keith Andrews on that calamitous day against West Brom and continued by more ex-gold and black players Robbie Keane, Mark Davies, Adlene Guedioura and Andy Keogh queued up to rub salt into the wounds against their old club, scoring goals to continue Wolves' demise.

Naturally, McCarthy became the latest as his rejuvenated Ipswich team pitched up at Molineux on December 29 to deliver another crushing blow to the Solbakken regime, winning easily, 2-0.

By then, players challenging Solbakken's methods had become common knowledge, and there was another heated exchange after that Ipswich collapse.

The Molineux chief refused to compromise his ideals and the chain of events that led to his dismissal were set in place.

Because while most fans were desperate to see him succeed, the football had long become stale, stodgy and sterile.

Along with the decline in results, what killed the Norwegian's chances of keeping his job was the way his team failed to play with any passion, pace, width, flair, creativity or imagination – unfortunately all hallmarks of McCarthy's team when they stormed to the Championship title in 2008-09.

Whatever he wanted them to do – and it was difficult at times to see what it was – the players, couldn't, or wouldn't, put into practice.

After being accused of not having a plan, Morgan was determined not to be caught out again. And, with the appointment over the weekend of Dean Saunders, he has at least acted decisively.

But just like Connor and Solbakken, he is inexperienced at the level he has been employed to operate at, and it is controversial.

Saunders was at Doncaster for almost all of last season in an experiment with football agent Willie McKay which saw Rovers finish bottom of the Championship, 12 points from safety after he spent three seasons in the fifth tier of English football at Wrexham, finishing 10th, 11th and fourth.

This season, the former Aston Villa striker's star has risen after he steered Rovers to joint top of League One. Wolves are only a few places above them in 18th place in the Championship.

But this is easily the biggest test of his fledgling managerial career. And another big gamble.

By Tim Nash