Time to unleash The Hoff?

I was flying out of Zurich airport on Sunday just as we kicked off against Birmingham, gutted that I couldn't find a method to follow the game in the air,

.

By the time I landed in Vienna, I had a dozen texts waiting on my phone from Rachel, who was making use of my seat in the Steve Bull and kindly keeping me up-to-date with the joyous events unfolding at Molineux.

I think the words, rubbish, clueless and pathetic were used as the basis for most of her texts. By the time I had stumbled into Charlie P's, an Irish Bar on the outskirts of Vienna, I caught the final five minutes which, by all accounts, was Wolves best period of the game.

As well as meeting my heroes, Dieter Meier and Boris Blank of Yello, whilst in Vienna, I went to watch Austria's most successful club team, Rapid Vienna, in a training session. One of their players, Christian Thonhofer, recognised that I was wearing the colours of Stefan Maierhofer's new club and came over for a chat.

Christian, pictured above, is good friends with the Hoff and spoke to him on the phone soon after the Birmingham game.

I won't share everything that Christian told me regarding their conversation, but he did say that the Hoff was desperate for a proper chance to show what he can do in gold and black and couldn't understand why Wolves were playing the long ball against the Blues whilst leaving him on the bench.

Now I'm not saying that Stefan Maierhofer is the answer to all our current woes, but with Sylvan Ebanks Blake struggling to convert the few chances he is getting at this level and with no one else chipping in with goals, maybe the time has come to start Stefan against Bolton.

I watched the Birmingham game when I got back to the UK and it really was an incredibly abject performance. All the talk about a relegation scrap and taking a kicking from Arsenal and Chelsea had obviously taken their toll on the players.

The belief and confidence that was there as a result of a successful season in the Championship has now ebbed away to the extent that the player's look beaten before they have kicked a ball.

I'm getting sick of reading statements from Wolves players saying that they don't expect to get any points against the bigger teams of the Premiership. I want to read that they have got the passion and determination to go to the likes of Anfield and Old Trafford and put up a fight.

It should be a privilege to play for this club and the majority of the squad need to realise that wearing a Wolves shirt might be as good as it ever gets.

Mick must surely know he got it wrong in the summer. He sounded confusing when saying that on the one hand he is happy with the players he has got but then admits that the club has players with experience, just not Premier league experience.

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! I know he couldn't say it, but wouldn't it be refreshing if he said, look I couldn't sign who I wanted in the summer so I've got to work with what I've got.

Apart from a third of the £18 million spent to bring in Kevin Doyle, I would argue that the other £12 million has been wasted; spread too thinly bringing in too many average players with no top flight experience.

It's obvious the team is a bit of a mess at the moment, with Mick doing his old trick of trying to wedge square pegs into round holes, ridiculously playing four centre backs against Birmingham.

And unfortunately the desperation of the January transfer market is never an ideal time to address the problem. Players in form are usually players who have something to win with their current club.

Would Kevin Nolan or Jermaine Beckford want to swap almost certain promotion parties to come and join in the fun of a relegation battle?

January isn't a time for gambles and somebody like Nigel Reo-Coker would be a welcome addition and a potential leader to galvanise a squad that are beginning to look far too battle weary with only a third of the season gone.

The Birmingham loss has hit everybody hard and understandably some frustrated fans are calling for the heads of the four M's' McCarthy, Morgan, Moxey and Mr Clipboard.

But for a little luck this season we could have found ourselves in a much healthier league position and I wouldn't be an advocate of a change at the helm, just yet.

Notlob come to Mol tomorrow and, as well as starting with the Hoff, I would also switch Jarvis to the right wing, now that Kightly has been cruelly hit with injury yet again. Ward should come into the left back slot and I would keep Hahnemann in and fill the middle with Henry and Castillio.

Bully is right, if we can't beat Bolton at home then we don't deserve to be in the Premiership and the players need to shake off the nerves, show some bottle and get stuck in from the off.

Enjoy your weekend and keep believing.

UTW!