Ahead of this weekend’s opening game of the season with Stoke, I’ve been chatting with Potters fan Topher Knowles about the summer goings on at the Britannia, his thoughts on the coming season for both clubs and of course his predictions for Saturday.
Hi Topher. Thanks for taking the time to talk with us. What have been the big developments at Stoke over the summer? Have there been any major comings or goings in the squad?
We’ve had a summer clearout, Peter Reid has gone along with some older squad members, but perhaps the most surprising thing is the players that have stayed. Despite a season of fallouts with the boss and public tantrums Dave Kitson and James Beattie are still with us. Time will tell if they will actually feature this season. Unfortunately there are no big signings to speak of despite plenty of links which suggest we are being ambitious. Pulis tends to leave things late and he has come good in the last few windows bringing in Abdoulaye Faye, Matty Etherington, James Beattie, Tuncay and Robert Huth… so for now we are keeping the faith.
How do you think Stoke will do this season? I think it could be tricky for you if you don’t get a good start. Do you think there’s a chance you could be dragged into a relegation scrap?
After two mid-table finishes it’s tempting to think we are safe from the relegation struggle, we’ve barely spent a week in the bottom three since getting back into the Premier League. We know it could also easily change though and avoiding 18th place is still good enough for most fans. Realistically the best anybody is hoping for is a top-half finish.
What about Wolves? We finished 15th last season and have spent a bit of cash over the summer. What do you think we should be aiming for this season?
Wolves seemed to do well last season and like us never really looked like going back down. It would be nice to see Stoke conduct their transfer affairs in the same prompt fashion McCarthy has and the signings you have brought in look solid. At the same time you haven’t got carried away and I think you will be looking to consolidate your Premier League status more than anything else this season. You found a formation that worked well for you with Doyle as the lone striker and I seem to remember that your results towards the end of the season were good, I would expect Wolves to pick up where they left off.
Both games between the two clubs finished in draws last season. What did you make of those two matches?
The less said about the second game the better. In the first game we threw away a lead against you after looking like the better side in the first half (in my humble opinion), we then went onto do the same thing against Hull in what turned out to be a bad patch for us.
I have to ask you about the Rory Delap throw-in. If he was out injured for an extended period of time, do you think Stoke would still get a similar amount of points? I suspect you’re a better footballing side than most people make out, but his throw does seem to contribute to a lot of the goals you score.
It was a blunted weapon last season, teams are too wise to it (with the exception of Arsenal!) and the towel-drying ritual was even beginning to grate on Stoke fans. People don’t seem to notice that Delap is also one of the most reliable central midfielders in the Premier League who will run box-to-box for ninety minutes. If he were to be injured we would miss his workrate more than his throws. On the other hand, his deployment on the right side of midfield for most of the season left us terribly unbalanced in a lot of games and most people would rather see Etherington supported by another true winger. After our low goal tally last season its obvious that we need to find more routes to market.
Onto Saturday’s match. Who should we be looking out for in the Stoke side?
Tuncay. By all accounts he has been in scintillating form in pre-season and has picked up 5 goals in 5 games. We all wanted to see more from the Turkish captain last season and with a full Tony Pulis pre-season under his belt the gaffer might even go crazy and select him to start. Also expect to see a rejuvenated Ryan Shawcross back in the form we saw in the first half of the season and pushing for an England spot for all his worth.
Finally, of course, what’s your prediction for the game?
A cagey 1-0 to Stoke with Fuller conjuring some Jamaican magic for the goal. I think this game could go either way but with the fixtures we have coming up in the first six weeks a bad start at Molineux could prove disastrous and I hope that will spur us on to get the result.
Best of luck to Wolves for the rest of the season, despite our rivalry it’s good to see you back in the Premier League and I very much doubt you will be the team in orange getting relegated at the end of the season.
Orange?! You mean old gold matey.
Thanks again for taking the time to chat with us.
Fair comments. I’m going for 1-1. Fletcher (18), Huth (78). Up the Wolves!
I loved that “You mean old gold matey” line at the end.
Good interview, but I think he’s wrong about the score.
I say 2-0, UP THE WOLVES!
Look at the new shirt. Orange. (Sadly) he’s spot on.
He’s got the result wrong though …
Yeah I was always hoping WE WOULD get Tuncay, definitely a threat, but I think it will be another draw, perhaps 1-1 Jarvis either scoring or providing.
WE ARE WOLVES
Look positive. Its a new season, a new start and we are Wolves!!!
Nil nil…
A round of applause Thomas for finding a Stoke fan that could actually string a sentence together!
This could be a close game and I’m afraid has a high scoring nil nil written all over it!
First point on the board – we could be off the bottom of the league for the frst time in three months!!!!
With the exception of the Blues game, the home game against Stoke was my least favourite game at the molineux last season.
I vowed never to go to the fixture ever again – until it came out of the hat as first game of the season and I just couldn’t help myself!
I (and around 20 odd thousand that attended last seasons game) cant help but think there was one important question missing from your interview Thomas “How do you watch that every week?”
I go one nil to wolves – Fletcher on his full debut. I think Stoke could struggle this season unless they have sorted out the internal issues that were rumbling at the end of May.
Cant wait now – roll on Saturday, roll on football first, roll on match of the day and welcome back Monday night football!
4 – 0 to the lads!!
Bollocks to this dour and miserable football that Stoke and a bunch of others play, we’ll go out to kill ‘em from the off, and scare the snot out of them, and the rest of the Prem wannabies!
That said, interesting to read that Craig Bellamy has threatened to give up football.
Thought that happened a few years ago!
Just like Berra, Keogh and Ward, although some would argue, me included, that Ward never started to play football!!!
Ben, where is thy gnome?
FOWB
Thing is with Bellamy, City are ditching there best player from last season
I cant understand the whole Bellamy thing – he was talking about playingfor Cardiff on sky sports news yesterday.
Much as he is a horrid little tw@t, and I’ll never forgive his unsporting pointing at his Prem badge after we beat them in the FA cup, I cant help but think he would walk straight into the first team of 75% of teams in our league? He looked electric for Man City at times last season.
Maybe we could offer a swap deal involving Keogh ha,ha,ha!
I’m brimming with confidence so will go 2-1. One for Fletch, one for Doyle bad calf or no bad calf
I had a dream that wolves came 6th in the prem this season – so im with clive, why the hell not 4-0.
*i think the sun in asia has fried my brain!*
Wolves 1 – Stoke 0, Fletcher.
Just to let everyone know, if you want to enter the prediction league, you’ll have to re-submit your predicted score for the game in the preview, which should be up tomorrow (Thursday).
How do you enter Thomas?
You just leave a prediction in the preview to each game (just the final score).
I’ll pick everyone’s up from there and keep a tally of the scores and produce a table.
Do you get bonus points for the goalscorers?
Sorry to be thick Thomas – I mean where do you enter the predictions? Is there a website like the fantasy league?
No probs Stourbridge. Here’s the explanation in full:
As a few people asked for it, I’ll also be running a prediction league for anyone who wants to get involved.
I want to keep it as simple as possible (to begin with at least), so it’s only going to be Wolves scores that are predicted.
As you know, we run a preview prior to every match so all you have to do is leave a comment with your prediction: For example:
My prediction: Wolves 10 – 0 West Bromwich Albion
You get 3 points for predicting the correct score.
You get 1 point for predicting the correct outcome. So if you said Wolves 10-0 Albion but it was only 9-0, you’d get 1 point.
And that’s it. Told you I was keeping it simple!
As some of you will know, Mark Lawrenson predicts all the Premiership scores every Friday on the BBC website, so just for a bit of fun I’ll be tracking his predictions too and including him in the table.
Again, I’ll come up with some sort of prize for the winner (unless it’s Lawro).
Duffer’s question [I'm even thicker than Stourbridge ...]:
Thomas, should I put my preddo here (as many have done), or do I wait for a blog called “Wolves vs. Stoke: Preview”?
OK, OK. I’ll make the prediction here then:
Wolves 1-2 Stoke
No, not a result I hope for or expect. If I am wrong, I’ll be happy. But, if I am right at least I could have the consolation of taking an early lead in the prediction league!
For those who haven’t seen:
SQUAD NUMBERS 2010/11 SEASON
1. Marcus Hahnemann
2. Jelle Van Damme
3. George Elokobi
4. Dave Edwards
5. Richard Stearman
6. Jody Craddock
7. Michael Kightly
8. Karl Henry
9. Sylvan Ebanks-Blake
10. Steven Fletcher
11. Stephen Ward
12. Stephen Hunt
13. Wayne Hennessey
14. David Jones
15. Greg Halford
16. Christophe Berra
17. Matt Jarvis
18.
19. Andy Keogh
20. Nenad Milijaš
21.
22. Steven Mouyokolo
23. Ronald Zubar
24.
25. Geoffrey Mujangi Bia
26. Matt Hill
27.
28.
29. Kevin Doyle
30. Carl Ikeme
31. Matt Murray
32. Kevin Foley
33.
34. Adlene Guedioura
35.
36. John Dunleavy
37. David Davis
38. Sam Winnall
39. Danny Batth
40. Ashley Hemmings
41. Scott Malone
42. James Spray
43. Jamie Reckord
44. Nathan Rooney
45. Aaron McCarey
Why the hell isn’t Jarvis 11 and Doyle 9?
Jesus Rich – no sentiment in football!
Why dont you give Doyle SEB’s changing room locker too! ha,ha,ha!
David Jones can p*ss off IMO.
I hope someone comes in to buy him after todays news.
Bet he didn’t mind his current contract terms when he was picking up his wages during all the months he was injured.
Don’t agree there SW. He could simply be asking for more cash than Nenad Milijas gets paid. I bet you there’s some earners at the club that take home more than he does, and offers less. It doesn’t sound like he’s bleating on like some kind of Camara.
I think he’s vital to us.
According to the e&s we might be about to flog Jones so we can get Mancienne and or N’Daw. It is unlikely for us to go public, so maybe that’s us saying ‘come get him’
Great – I hope it happens! Lets have players that want to be at the club.
Bet if Jones picks up a long term injury or has a poor season I bet he’d be happy to sign again.
PS I’ve still never forgiven Dean Richards either!
When are you gonna change the pic at the beginning of the blog?
FOWB
Who should be featured in the picture Clive? (serious answer please).
I ask as I’ve drafted a few new versions but can’t decide between them.
USA making a brillo save, or the sea of shiny faces at the away end at Upton Park after the third goal went in, or ‘arry’s face after we completed the double over Spurms, or just wait until after our third or fourth game this season, when there will be even more celebrations, coz we’re gonn take the Prem by surprise this year!!!
FOWB
I was going to suggest Doyle, Jarvis and Fletcher, but it was a curse last season
The hof gets my vote!
Is there actually a picture of him during a match??
Sad bastard who took it if there is!!!
FOWB
Talking of sad bastards, is there anyone over there going to actually watch our fabulous World Cup stars tonight?
They are showing the game live over here, can you believe it, and guess who aint gonna goof off work to watch?
FOWB
Nope Clive-us. I’d prefer to watch America’s biggest loser on UK Living. Speaking of which, when are you getting on the scales big man?
Last time I got into it on here Thomas smacked my legs, so I’ll be nice, but keep yer gnome well hidden when I come over for your dad’s 60th!!!
I’m not slightly overweight, just a bit vertically challenged.
FOWB
That isn’t til next year though is it?! (I bloody hope so or else I’ve got to get my thinking cap on!!) I had to get one dig in after you referred to my little boy as a gnome! Speak soon big un.
1-1 with KJ scoring on his debut
Good luck this season as unlike many other Stoke fans I like Wolves and Mick McCarthy. Some good signings this summer including Stephen Hunt and I hope Jelle Van Damme is not on the large side otherwise he’s in for a season of stcik with his name.
http://stokieboy.wordpress.com
Wolves 1 Stoke 1 SEB