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Wolves blog: What could have been

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Barring a series of freak results, Wolves should still be playing Championship football next season. But it could – and probably should – have been so much better.

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With 10 games to go, the Molineux Men now sit in 12th place with 48 points – 11 more than MK Dons in 22nd place and 14 less than Sheffield Wednesday, who currently occupy the final play-off berth – mid-table mediocrity at its finest.

So, now that our outcome is more or less determined it's time for the inquest. What has gone so spectacularly wrong and what needs to be done in order to address the issues?

It is often said that success has many fathers, whereas failure is an orphan. The use of this Russian proverb sums up recent times at Molineux rather emphatically.

If everyone wanted to take credit for Wolverhampton Wanderers' success over the last two years, nobody is really accepting their share of the blame this time around. It's easy to stick by your team and accept the plaudits when they're doing well, but less so when times are tough.

For the last few months we have all pointed fingers, cast aspersions and scrutinised the performance of key personnel. But the age old question remains: who is responsible for this season's downfall?

The easy option is to point the finger at the club's hierarchy; the traditional focus for discontent. Do they deserve some of the blame? Undoubtedly, yes.

To say the purse strings have been tightened since the club's return to the Championship would be a huge understatement. Gone are the days of multi-million pound splurges synonymous with the Sir Jack Hayward era, instead we now have a more frugal recruitment approach consisting of investing in youth and signing players with resale value. However, this has now led to selling approach akin to 'cashing out' a bet when an offer comes in – if it represents a good return on investment then it will be accepted.

Of course, this policy does have its advantages. Players like Rajiv Van La Parra will arrive on free transfers and be sold-on at a profit and prospects like Jordan Graham, Kortney Hause and Dominic Iorfa, brought in for a relatively small outlay, are already attracting the attention of Premier League suitors. But you cannot ignore the distinct lack of investment in the current playing squad. If the reports are to be believed, the club has received over £10 million in transfer fees since the season begun, yet less than a third of that revenue has been reinvested.

Then there's the ownership situation, what can be said here? Nothing, because no one knows what is actually going on!

Another easy option is to blame Kenny Jackett. As the team's head coach he is responsible for on-field affairs and, ultimately, the team's results. So it's without question that Jackett deserves to shoulder some of the blame.

His tactics have been questionable at best, completely baffling at worst; he is reluctant to make changes one minute, then tinkering all the time the next; he has unnecessarily undermined and unsettled players, look no further than Carl Ikeme; moreover, his squad has lacked leadership, balance and quality in depth too many times this season.

Could he have asserted his will more strongly on the departures of Bakary Sako, Benik Afobe, Richard Stearman or Scott Golbourne? Yet while he may have wanted to keep them the majority of these players, if not all of them, the club wanted a lower wage bill and more cash in the bank. Guess who won that battle?

Playing issues aside, Jackett has been hamstrung by factors beyond his control. The Kevin McDonald contract saga went on for far longer than it needed to, the injury toll has got worse and worse throughout the season and there has been a fundamental lack of support in the transfer market.

But there is another key factor in this conundrum: a squad of underperforming players. Unfortunately too many players have let their guard down, much to the detriment of the team as a whole.

In August, nearly all of the players that finished last season so strongly were still at the club with only Sako departing. Yet for much of pre-season and the first few games, they looked like a team surprisingly bereft of confidence. Should one player make such a difference? Normally, no, but it soon became apparent that something wasn't quite right.

Nobody could have predicted that Afobe would come back a shadow of a player who was the most prolific striker in the league, McDonald has had a few standout performances but his influence has dwindled, Nouha Dicko got injured and others have been found wanting.

Plus, as I have said many times, the new recruits have not added much in terms of quality. Conor Coady is probably the pick of the bunch, but even he has taken six months to properly get going.

They need to deliver more, both individually and collectively. Some need to worry less about their earnings and concentrate more on their performances. They should feel privileged to play for Wolverhampton Wanderers, not the other way around! We can accept losing games, but all we ask for is a little bit of passion, drive and desire when pulling on the shirt.

Yes, Jackett chooses the first team and whether or not he provided the wrong tactics, are we not allowed to expect handsomely paid professional footballers to realise something is going wrong and mend it on their own accord?

The biggest problem with Wolves this season is that there have been far too many questions and not enough answers.

How about an update on the ownership situation to start with? Will there be investment in the summer or will we remain in a state of flux? Will the manager – whether it is Kenny or someone else – be given enough resources to transform the squad into one capable of challenging for promotion or is mid-table anonymity our best bet until a new owner comes in?

Whatever the excuses, the time really has come for the club as a whole to execute a strategy for moving forward, and hopefully one with enough clarity to satisfy the disgruntled supporter base. The early bird figures have shown that the majority of the core supporter base is willing to draw a line under this season and start afresh, let's hope the club are willing to do the same.

Graham is the editor of Wolves retro magazine Old Gold Glory. The Old Gold Glory team are currently looking for overseas Wolves fans to tell their story about how they have followed the club from beyond the shores of Great Britain. You can send your story to info@oldgoldglory.co.uk