Wolves Media Watch

Well it’s been quite a week. Although we’ve lost two games and only scored one goal I think most of us are satisfied with our first away win ever in the Premiership (as we all know football started in 1992 – prior to that everyone was just playing mob football where matches would last five days and only be decided once fifteen people had drowned in a canal, a Ford Capri had been torched and the “ball”, the head of a local nobleman, had been manoeuvred by the throng to the disused police phone box on the north side of the village green) and competitive performances against Citeh and West Ham. We can now be confident that our young side isn’t out of place in “The Greatest League in the World” and that we can at least avoid a repeat of the anal violation we received on our last foray in the Premiership. But how has the media at large reported on our first week?

Wolves are back on MOTD

Well, starting with that most holy of organs , Match of the Day, I won’t pretend it wasn’t at least a little exhilarating seeing us on there properly (FA Cup excluded) for the first time. That the voice-over for the West Ham game was provided by the grand old man of football commentary himself added to the magic. Motson may no longer be (and may never have been) entirely compus mentis but there is no denying he currently has the most famous voice in football. However, the highlights themselves have been either annoyingly short or unfairly cut. In particular, the coverage of the second half of the Citeh game was particularly galling as it completely misrepresented the flow of the second half and ignored what I thought might have been a decent penalty shout for a challenge on Doyle. Shearer’s analysis that “Citeh should have won 4-0, 5-0 blah blah blah” was particularly annoying when you just know he hadn’t seen the game and instead had been watching Palace-Newcastle on a monitor somewhere. If Ashley had kept Hughton instead of installing tactical wunder-spaz Shearer as manager Newcastle probably would have stayed up. Other than that, MotD’s analysis of teams other than the Sky Four plus City/Spurs is to toss in a throwaway comment along the lines of “they should be okay” or “I worry for them”. Currently Hansen’s assessment is that we “should be okay” – so we’re probably f**ked.

I haven’t heard much about us on the radio but I tend not to listen to Radio 5 in case any I accidentally catch Mark Pougatch on the airwaves. As for the written press I have the overwhelming opinion, that with the exception of Wolves fan Peter Lansley who writes for the Times, that the London media have always disliked us as a club for some reason. I could go on a little review of what each of the papers said about us after each of the games but broadly speaking the reports all followed the same formula:

West Ham – West Ham money trouble, Upson may be leaving, Zola pissed off, Noble is the second coming blah blah blah. Wolves also played in this match.

Wigan Athletic – Roberto Martinez’s homecoming, Wigan sold all their best players, Dave Whelan broke his leg against nasty Wolves in the 1960 FA Cup Final blah blah blah. Wolves also played in this match.

Man City – Lescott, Lescott, Lescott. Tevez, Adebayor, money, money, money. City gunning for top four. Wolves also played in this match and hit the crossbar.

There have been a couple of decent articles about us. Gabriel Marcotti appears to be one pundit at least willing to acknowledge we have a lot of injuries to key players at the moment and said some semi-kind things about us on Radio 5 and in this piece for the Times Online. While this report in the Telegraph was particularly gushing over Milijas. Hopefully after we spank Swindon Town in the Rumbelows Cup I’ll be able to bring you a report on a Wolves feature in Time magazine or even Sky Sports News though I wouldn’t hold your breath.