Richard Homden - a man who made Wolves happen

It was sad to note the passing of our former chairman Richard Homden last Thursday, writes John Lalley.

He fulfilled an important and considerably understated role in the revival of Wolves after assuming the role late in 1986.

Part of a consortium alongside his colleague Jack Harris and the then owner Tony Gallagher, Homden was instrumental in the appointment of Graham Turner as manager almost immediately after assuming his role as chairman.

It was a controversial move; initially many of the fans who still attended a sparsely populated Molineux voiced their opposition.

Turner's arrival saw the brutal removal of Brian Little, the acting manager at that traumatic time. Little had become immensely popular with his straightforward and honest appraisal of how to tackle the dire mess that the club had allowed itself to cascade into.

He had installed a new spirit in the players and genuine progress appeared on the horizon after the darkest days in the history of the club. It appeared a callous decision; a bright and inspirational young coach who had restored some dignity to a shambles of a club jettisoned without justification.

Double League Cup winner Geoff Palmer who served the club with such distinction, was on the coaching staff at the time. Many years later, he told me that when he saw Little's distress on the day of his dismissal, Palmer decided that he wanted nothing more to do with the game. He immediately began planning for an alternative career.

In retrospect, harsh as Homden's decision may have appeared, it certainly turned out to be an astute one. The chairman immediately provided Turner with financial support by stumping up £70,000 to sign Steve Bull and Andy Thompson from West Bromwich who clearly thought neither player had much to offer.

Homden was prepared to dip into his pockets and substantially back Turner's hunch and difficult as it appears to recognise now, there was an air of pleasant astonishment that Wolves were again able to shell out such money in the wake of a startling decline that had almost dispatched the club into oblivion.

At the time, you could only admire Homden's optimism; after all none of us had ever heard of Steve Bull. This was no ego trip for the chairman; Wolves were fourth division on merit, he was no preening television junkie like so many Premier executives are these days. The likeliest outcome was that Homden would see little or no return on his investment but his faith in Turner was to be spectacularly vindicated.

After the nadir of the FA Cup fiasco against Chorley, the club suddenly clicked into overdrive. Not even the bitter disappointment of a play-off final defeat at the end of that season could cloud the sense of resurgent optimism. A purpose and a sense of direction, so dismally lacking under the previous administration had returned to Molineux and the impetus had been started by Homden.

There was a sense of inevitability about the success story of the following season. Champions of the fourth tier of English football may not have resonated too loudly in the overall achievements of a club of such stature but it signalled an amazing upturn in the fortunes of a great institution which in recent years had appeared hell bent on its own destruction.

For Homden, it's not hard to imagine just how elated he must have felt sat in the Royal box at Wembley as Wolves won the Sherpa Van trophy in front of over 80,000 spectators. Having been grateful for any Molineux attendance that topped five thousand when he joined the board, Homden must have savoured the irony of over fifty thousand people taking to the streets of Wolverhampton to welcome the team back with the trophy.

The tour began at the old Three Tuns pub on Stafford Road and as the open-top bus slowly meandered on its course, Homden somewhat self-consciously offered the occasional thumbs-up by way of acknowledgement to the cheering masses. I don't think he could quite believe that he was an integral part of such a renaissance. Remarkably, this parade turned out to be Homden's final public engagement as chairman.

Graham Turner gave his perspective of Homden's strange departure from Molineux. After the double success of 1988, one of the Wolverhampton members of parliament invited both Turner and Homden to Westminster in recognition of the club's achievements.

As the two men left to go their separate ways on returning from the capital, Turner presented a letter to a slightly bewildered chairman outlining the manager's case for a long-term contract with the club. Homden promised to give the contents of the letter his full and proper consideration.

Turner did not see Homden again. On his return to Molineux Turner was informed by the club owners the Gallaghers, that Homden had been relieved of his duties and that he had left the club entirely. It was a sad end to a brief but highly eventful tenure for Homden who in later years became a season ticket holder to continue supporting the club he had done so much for.

With Wolves now returned to the highest level of English football, younger fans may wonder why following the club in the lower divisions turned out to be such a rewarding experience. After the depths of despair of the Bhatti era and the very real threat of extinction, Richard Homden was able to instigate and sustain a revival of fortunes that had previously appeared impossible.

The very future of the club had been in real jeopardy and anyone such as Homden prepared to invest hard cash into such an ailing organization merits the highest praise. One look at the ghastly, crumbling old edifice that was Molineux should have been enough to deter even the greatest of benefactors.

The word 'dump' barely scratches the surface; it was an eyesore, a monumental insult to the great players who had graced its turf.

And the club was flat broke, on its uppers and ready to expire. On occasions, it would have been seen as a mercy had it done so. But Homden was undeterred; he returned a sense of pride to the club so that attending matches even at such a travesty of a venue again became an absolute delight. It was a wonderful time and Richard Homden helped make it happen.

What more could you ask of anyone?