Flashback: Steve Morgan speaks out after taking over Wolves

On Friday, August 10, 2007 Mark Douglas visited Steve Morgan at his home in Cheshire for an exclusive interview about the new owner's Wolves vision.

"Steve Morgan today reveals his blueprint for creating a new era of Old Gold glory to the Express & Star in his only in-depth interview after taking charge at Molineux.

I travelled to his magnificent Cheshire estate at Carden Park where the new Wolves owner revealed his plans for the club he paid a tenner to take from Sir Jack Hayward.

That included:

? His three-year target for the Premiership.

? How he turned down 15 other clubs – including Premiership sides – to take over at Wolves.

? How his £30m investment will not be squandered on players who are 'big time charlies'.

? How Mick McCarthy has a huge part to play in his Wolves revolution.

? How he intends to shun the limelight and be a behind–the–scenes chairman.

How did the deal happen?

I hadn't been to Molineux for a long time but I went to the Wolves-Norwich game in December because Delia Smith is a good pal of mine and I went with her.

While I was there I got a great reception from the Wolves directors and was made to feel very, very welcome. During the course of that evening, a couple of the directors asked me – given Liverpool had fallen through – would I interested in looking at Wolves?

I took that away with me and over the Christmas period I was thinking about it long and hard, particularly as I had always had a soft spot for Wolves.

It was always sad to see a top team, from when I was very young boy, hit somewhat lesser times over the last 40 years. That's why it sparked the interest.

Sir Jack's grandson Rupert works for a finance company that I'm chairman of in London called Salamanca and when I saw Rupert, in January, he repeated to me that I should have a look at Wolves because it's a great opportunity.

So I phoned Jez Moxey and met with him, had a number of discussions, but couldn't progress matters because Sir Jack was away on a cruise which was several months long.

When Sir Jack came back we met up and, literally in a matter of minutes, we agreed the deal and that was just before the end of the season.

After the Liverpool deal fell through, did you have other opportunities to get involved in a football club? And why did you pick Wolves?

It's not that I particularly wanted to get into football.

I have been approached by 15 different other football clubs to get involved and put an investment in but I turned them all down.

They were split across four divisions but there were some high profile Premiership and Championship clubs in that 15 – there were serious options.

One of the things that attracted me to invest in Wolves over the 15 other opportunities I had and what I found reassuring was the fan base. That is so important. Wolves has always been my second team and I see trying to get Wolves back into the top flight and keeping them there as part of the challenge. It's a big club and again that is part of the challenge.

What are your expectations for the coming season?

I just want to emphasise I am not, and would never, put pressure on Mick.

I don't think anybody needs to put pressure on Mick or the team – they are self-motivated and I know he is going to be working with the boys to do his level best to get us promoted.

If we can solve the goalkeeper issue and we strengthen defence with at least one more signing – possibly more – then we have a realistic chance of promotion. I wouldn't want to say anymore than that really.

I don't want to make grand claims; I want to use this interview to get the point across that I'm not promising the earth.

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All I can promise is I will work with Mick, the players, the backroom staff, Jez and the directors to do my very best to bring about success for the club.

But, as for making promises I can't keep – I won't do that.

If I was good enough to be on the pitch and scoring a hat-trick every week believe me I would do so! I was never good enough in my prime, let alone now. But I think we have a realistic chance.

You have mentioned the fans – how much of a deciding factor was that?

Wolves have a huge underlying fan base and that obviously turned my head.

By that I don't just mean the 27-28,000 that will be in Molineux on Saturday – I'm talking about the underlying fan base.

I believe that if we can get Wolves into the top flight and challenging, that a nice problem is going to be that the ground isn't big enough and what do we do about that?

That is going to be a lovely problem in the future. You've only got to look at the catchment area of the club.

It is a huge catchment area and if you take a club like Liverpool, that is a bigger city than Wolverhampton but it shares its catchment with Everton.

If we're up there and challenging I'm absolutely certain that we can get much bigger crowds back at Molineux.

How important is it that Wolves are back in the top flight?

One thing is certain – we've got to see Wolves back in the Premiership.

Whether that is this season, next season or the season after I don't know but certainly over the next three seasons we have to get there.

There is a big expectation this season because we finished fifth last year and that was a huge achievement in Mick's first year – particularly given the squad and the morale he inherited. Understandably, there are big expectations for the coming season but I would ask everyone to be patient and if we don't get promotion next season it won't be for the want of trying.

People have talked about establishing Wolves as a topflight club but how difficult do you think it is to break into the Premiership and challenge for honours?

We've got a long way to go before we can do that – it's very difficult. I'm not here to promise that we'll get into the top four. All I can say is that we'll go a step at a time. I'm not used to running companies and not making a success of it.

It's an extremely difficult road that we're heading along but, for sure, we'll give it our absolute best to get into a strong position in the Premiership.

Mick McCarthy is obviously a very popular manager at Wolves. How important do you think he can be?

I see him as an integral part of Wolves' future. I have always admired Mick – I admired him as a player first of all and I always thought he was a great, solid player.

I really felt for him during the Keane incident at the World Cup.

Keane was an icon in Ireland and for Mick to take the stand he did was very brave. I'm not getting into the rights and wrongs of the argument but the fact he took the stance he did made me think he was a man after my own heart.

He's a strong individual who I get on very, very well with. I think the role of the manager, chief executive and chairman is a triangular role that has to be a successful one in any club.

I'm pleased to say the three of us get on very well together and I'm looking forward to developing that role for the benefit of the club going forward.

Much has been made of the £30m investment. Where will that be spent?

First of all the club obviously has some debt – the first thing is to pay off the existing debt.

The inevitable result of the capital injection is that Wolves will be debt free, certainly at the beginning.

The capital injection is for the overall benefit of the club. Going out and spending a fortune on players does not necessarily get us the results on the pitch.

Who we buy is down to Mick but if we do get into the Premiership, clearly we'll need to strengthen the squad yet again and resources would be made available in that situation.

We have already spent some of that on transfers and there will be some available but it would be complete folly to go and spend the money we have got willy nilly.

Neither myself, Mick or Jez think it is the right thing to do to go out into the transfer market and throw money around. It's very important to bring in the right players to the squad.

We've got a good young player base and the last thing we want is to bring in players who don't mix with them.

We want players who want to come and play for Wolves. We want players who wear that Old Gold jersey with pride and want to play for the club.

The club have seen in the past what happens when players come in who think they are too big for the club – and we want those days to be gone.

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What kind of a director will you be?

I'm not going to be the kind of chairman that wants to be seen – I'm very happy to work behind the scenes.

I'm giving this interview, I spoke at yesterday's press conference and I will be addressing the fans parliament just to make it clear where I'm coming from but after that hopefully you'll not see me.

As far as I'm concerned Mick is the man who runs the team and speaks for the team, Jez is the man that runs the club and speaks on club affairs. I'm quite happy to be anonymous behind them.

I'll be there – for sure – and they will know I'm there, in the nicest possible way. It'll be rare that you'll see future quotes from me and I'm certainly not one of these high profile chairman – quite the opposite.

You were obviously once a high-profile Liverpool fan – is there any question of split loyalties if the Reds visit Molineux?

There is absolutely no question where my loyalties lie.

My allegiance has completely and utterly switched.

I am really looking forward to the day when Liverpool come to Molineux and if that day ends up in victory for Wolves there will not be a happier Wolves fan on the planet than me.

I'm first and foremost a huge football fan – I have been all my life and the Wolves fans have absolutely no reason to doubt my loyalty whatsoever.

And to be fair I don't think they have – I have had many, many messages from Wolves fans who – to a person – have been very, very supportive and very, very positive.

I couldn't have had a better recpetion and it's something both myself and my family are very happy about.

Inevitably there will be one or two bad patches going forward but I would always ask fans to be patient with Mick and the team and anyone connected with the club. But most of all I'd ask them to get behind the club and we know which way we need to go and believe me – we're heading there.

How do you assess Sir Jack Hayward's legacy?

He inherited a very old, very tired infrastructure and built Molineux as we know it today, he put a considerable fortune of his own money into the club and I think he's arguably been the club's most loyal servant ever.

I also look at the manner in which he wanted to pass the baton and it was very selfless.

Sir Jack was looking for the right person to come along and thankfully that was me. I think the selflessness of Sir Jack, in not trying to get some of the tens of millions of his own money he put in, is very admirable.

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His legacy is to ensure that rather than selling the club to try and get his money back he has ensured that all the money involved in this deal is going into the football club.

Lots of football clubs get bought by people and consortiums and all the money goes into the deal and they are left with possibly even more debts than they had before.

But Sir Jack was determined that wasn't going to happen at Wolves and thankfully as a result of our deal the club is in great shape going forward. My deepest wish is that Sir Jack is coming to Molineux for many, many years to come as life president and he has the satisfaction of seeing his legacy being turned into success for the club.

There has been talk among some fans of building a statue as recognition of his contribution. Would you be supportive of that?

I would be very supportive of that.

You seem to have a very keen sense of Wolves' history. How important do you think the takeover is in that proud history?

I see the takeover of the club from Sir Jack as very much him passing on the baton to me.

I'm a custodian taking over from Sir Jack as the previous custodian.

The club isn't mine, I'm just passing a period in time and I will do my best to bring success while it's under my control. But the club is bigger than any one individual – and that includes both myself and Sir Jack."