Wolves Blog - All Hail the Hoff

Wolves blogger Nathan Lloyd cannot understand how some fans are getting on new striker Stefan Maierhofer's back.

With Neill Collins shipped out on loan and Andy Keogh now looking like a decent Premiership player, it must be a miserable time to be a boo-boy at Molineux.

So, the boo-boys have decided that a replacement must be found and have amazingly decided to hassle the 'Hoff, giant new striker Stefan Maierhofer, before he even kicks a ball in a Wolves shirt.

With Chelsea spending over £60million on an academy that has failed to produce a first-team regular in four years, a couple of million quid is surely worth a punt for the new boys of the big league?

Proven Premier League quality has obviously been hard to attract for Wolves and was bound to be for a newly promoted side with only one previous stay in this division.

Therefore the 3 M's have had to take some gambles on the nine players they have brought in over the summer. That gamble will pay dividends with some of the players and obviously not for others.

So when Maierhofer arrived at the club why have the grumbles in some quarters begun? The simplistic and moronic equation by some is that goals will now either have to come by the long ball route or via a Greg Halford thrown bomb onto the Hoff's head.

Is it such a bad thing; to have this kind of option at our disposal?

When I first started writing this blog, it was our manager Mick McCarthy's second season in charge and it was a pretty woeful campaign. I got bogged down in negativity, probably because it was easier to jump on the band wagon and say the team was awful than try and look for the positives.

This even culminated in a final blog of the season where I said that Mick should have got the boot. That's how I felt at the time and I'd come across as slightly pathetic if I said I didn't mean it.

But I did make a conscience decision that when writing the blog last season. I was always going to try and have a rosier outlook on the Wolves and not get bogged down in all the misery and melancholy.

As it happens, it wasn't difficult to be upbeat last season, considering how utterly brilliant we were for most of the campaign.

So this season I want to take the same approach to the blog. I'm not going to spout happy-clapping cobblers if we are rock bottom of the Premier League and struggling. But I will try and look for solutions rather than persecutions, if for no other selfish reason than to keep me sane and my blood pressure down.

Anyway, I'm straying from the point. If you were to ask a non-Wolves fan to describe a typical Wolves fan in one word, what do you think they would answer with?

Optimistic, passionate, grounded or perhaps even supportive?

If only. Sadly, most will describe Wolves fans using the 'f' word. No, not that one, but I've asked a few lately and a lot of said, 'fickle.'

I'm sure you have come across it yourselves at games. The person sitting next to you will be calling Andy Keogh every expletive known to man. Then suddenly Andy will score or create a goal and that profanity will miraculously turn into a chanting of 'Keogh, Keogh.'

It happens at most clubs, but some Wolves fans must be up there with the worst offenders. Remember when Paul Butler was booed? Our own player and we are booing him. Next game he plays and he gets cheered. Utterly ludicrous.

So, what's the point of bringing this up now you may ask? Four games into a season where we have held our own and with some real quality to come back from injury into the side.

I suppose my point is that I just hope that we stick with the team and that the boo-boys find another aspect of their lives to be miserable about.

As 'Taffywolf' pointed out on a certain Wolves forum this week, even Stoke are shopping at a different store now, having spent £11million on two players. That could be us next season, but we have to get there first.

So let's judge the Hoff when he has a few games under his belt and if he wants hassle, let him stroll down Wolverhampton city centre where he can be pestered by all manner of clipboards, cowboys and preachers.

After the international break this weekend, it's back to business and up to Ewood Park for a game I'm sure Dudley-born Wolves fan Sam Allardyce will already see as a must win.

Blackburn have played some pretty football, but only have one point and one goal in three games to show for it. They also haven't scored in either of their two home games, yet will see the Wolves game as an ideal opportunity to get that first win of the season.

It's likely that Republic of Ireland international Keith Andrews will start the game. Irish International? If a Wolves fan had given him that tag during his six injury ravaged years at Molineux, they would have probably been carted off to the funny farm.

Fair play to him though. He has obviously worked hard and become a much improved player.

Rovers' other striker Jason Roberts, on the other hand, left Wolves over 10 years ago never really getting a sniff of first team action.

Mind you, he did have to fight for a place against the likes of Steve Bull, Robbie Keane and Don Goodman!

We played Blackburn at Ewood Park on the first day of our last Premier League adventure back in 2003. In goalkeeper Matt Murray's first and only game so far in the top flight, he managed to keep the score down to 5-1.

That might sound slightly bizarre, but it could have been double figures that day had it not been for Matt.

Along with Matt, Jody Craddock is the only other Wolves player still on the books from that game six years ago and of course he to will now miss the game through injury.

With future Hall of Famers Silas, Oleg Luzhny and Steffen Iversen gracing that lovely Doritos sponsored shirt in our first crack at the top-flight, it is no wonder we made such a feeble start to that season.

Of course, things are vastly different this time around, and although Wolves are nowhere near being a full strength side, I'm sure we won't be traveling to places like Ewood Park and suffering another humiliation like in 2003.

Apart from Christophe Berra coming in to replace Craddock, I wouldn't anticipate any major changes from Mick.

But there may well be come lethargy from players like Nenad Miljas returning from international duty with Serbia, after scoring a fantastic penalty against France in midweek.

And will the manager revert to one up front as we have done so far away from home, maybe pushing Keogh out onto the left wing where he played so well for Ireland against South Africa and shoving Matt Jarvis out onto the right flank?

I'm sure we will see the Hoff and loan signing Segundo Castillo get a few minutes in the second half, but the game has probably come too early for Michael Kightly, who I would rather see fully fit than be risked and pick up an injury.

With no opportunities to have a knock at Hull boss Phil Brown this week, I thought this blog was going to be slightly more succinct, sorry Jarrod!

If you are traveling up to Lancashire, enjoy the game. I would be happy if we brought a point back down with us and then beat Fulham in next Sunday's fixture.

But then I'm no Derren Brown, so that could be difficult to confirm right now.

Have a splendid weekend.

Up the Wolves!