“If you look at West Brom, they’ve spent good money and they’re currently bottom of the league. Maybe they’re not paying enough to their players or getting the right quality in. Stoke have spent quite a bit of money, but probably not enough.”
I wonder if our esteemed chief executive regrets uttering these words on March 19 2009? Probably not – the early bird window had barely opened at the time, let alone closed.
Jez Moxey - Promises made
What about: “Having been there and spoken to people in the Premier League, it’s fair to say money is the be-all and end-all. So you’ve got to be competitive.”
Or: “If you draw up a table of the average over three years of where teams finish and then correlate that to their wage bill, they’re going to be very well aligned.”
So what has happened Jez? I haven’t even got to the promise of experienced Premiership players yet. And I’ve opted not to use another quote about how we have learnt from our mistakes of 2003. You get the point I’m trying to make.
We couldn’t afford Scott Dann, nor Roger Johnson, when we desperately needed defensive reinforcements. What price now? We couldn’t even lure Jerome Thomas on a free transfer, who opted instead for the club that Jez has promised we will not replicate.
He makes a fair point. We will not do a WBA, because when we make our inexorable plummet into that God forsaken league from Hell, we will not be coming back for a while. Not on Sunday’s showing.
It wouldn’t be so bad if we hadn’t been there before. Jez was there when he promised us the earth in 2003. Jez was there to deny that we hadn’t invested sufficiently in the team in 2003, and he is here again in 2009, admitting that we did make mistakes in 2003 and are not going to repeat them now. (Not after winning the championship – it was all the play-offs’ fault I recall)
He was also there when Colin Lee had to phone Radio WM, live with Paul Franks, to deny Moxey’s claim that Lee wanted to sell Ade Akinbiye. See you later Colin.
Anyone remember his programme notes when he publicly shamed Glenn Hoddle, only to beg for him to stay while eating ice cream in West Park?
The only thing I don’t recall is Dave Jones’ thoughts about the Molineux hieracrchy after he was sacked. Gagging orders prevent free speech.
So as I sat through one of the most inept and utterly depressing games on Sunday, I realised that there has, and always will be one constant denominator in whatever happens at Molineux. The Fat Controller.
The man who will price me out of my own seat at Molineux next season, (unless he re-addresses his obscene 30% hikes in light of this whole farce) is the man who has made himself one of the richest men in the history of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
For what? For “getting the job done.”
Spot on Ben. Out of the 3 M’s, this is the guy that concerns me the most by some distance. The slick back hair, the 4 wheel drive w/ personalised number plate… it’s more like he’s running a gentleman’s club. It’s his position that should be called to question first and foremost here.
I understand how Jez can get on the wrong side of people, especially as he seems a little sleezy but the season isnt over yet. call me stupid or ignorant if you wish but im refusing to believe we are doomed and relegated just yet.
yes ok we have done terribly so far, some good performances and draws but not enough goals or wins to make these performances worth while in the grand scheme of things. however, life as a wolves fan is never easy. of course its gauling that we arent doing better than brum or burnley but its not over until its mathematically over *screw the fat bitch!*
17th is all that matters this season and while we are four points clear of safety anything can happen but we do need a couple of wins before xmas to keep spirit up.
the most gauling thing for me is the lack of passion and commitment at times from the players. this is there chance to make a name for thmselves and keep playing in the best league but sometimes it jsut looks like they dont care. yes tactics and players could be different from the 3 M’s but once they cross the white line its down to them and i think they need a kick up the arse. we speak a good game but dont play one yet.
tbh im not sure what we can do about anything and january can be a difficult time to get any decent players. we just need to take it a game at a time.
(kind of positive ramble over!)
Sam, agree with you mate. The players need to show more passion and fight.
I think it’s far too easy to say we didn’t get this player and we didn’t get that player.
The fact of the matter is, the players we do have simply must do better and it’s up to the manager to get the most out of them, starting this weekend.
If you look at your squad of players and think they’re doing the best they possibly can and it’s not good enough, then you know you aren’t good enough. Wolves don’t look good enough at the moment, but we’re definitely not seeing the best of our players and that needs to be the first thing we get right.
Thing is Thomas, we have all been waxing lyrical about our earlier performances in the season (me included) and we were still getting beat. (Remember your match report after West Ham for example?) I would argue that the players, Blues aside, are doing the best that they can possibly do. But due to chronic lack in quality and Premier Leaguer experience, of which we were promised, it makes little difference.
Got to say it seems that the ‘lack of fight’ arguement only appears to have arisen in the last two games (perhaps even just the last one). Against Arsenal, despite losing, we were all positive about the manner in which we played.
It’s a bit of a sweeping statement to say ‘we were getting beat’, end of.
We didn’t get beat by Everton, Stoke or Villa prior to the Arsenal and Chelsea back to back drubbings. In fact, prior to those games, we were all in pretty good spirits, because the players were probably doing just enough, bearing in mind a point a game (38) is roughly the required number to keep you up.
The Blues match was easily the worst performance of the season and it’s left us all feeling like garbage (and rightly so).
One point that was made when the transfer window closed, was that there was a problem with ‘availability’ when it came to proven, experienced Premiership players. I’m inclined to agree with that, because neither Blues or Burnley brought anyone in who fall under that category.
I am a bit disillusioned with the manager and his tactics at the moment. I am frustrated by injuries to players I think we need in the team and I’m not particularly confident we’ll win on Saturday.
But we’ve just got to keep going. Until January now, there’s absolutely nothing we can do off the field to improve things.
Should the worst happen at the end of the season, then I’m 100% behind starting the inquisition into promises that were made and not delivered, but in a way it’s pointless even discussing it now, less than halfway through the campaign.
Who knows, we might sign Ronaldo in January!!!
(…or Rob Hulse)
i’ve enjoyed the promise we’ve shown but never thought we really fought tooth and nail to win games. fulham was probably the best game we’ve played this season. scored a couple of goals and really got stuck in even if the last 15minutes was a bit nervy.
the rest of the season i think we’ve been second to most balls, not willing to shoot and in general lack flair and passion. i’ve seen lots of things that make me happy but never for 90minutes. dont get me wrong im not having a go but why cant the same determination be found for every game? also i think the way we just folded against our biggest rivals this season has got everyones backs up
Thomas. I don’t think it’s pointless to start asking questions. Not when I saw two players eat up Doyle and SEB for 90 minutes…players who we couldn’t bloody afford.
Is a CEO on 400k a year not allowed to be made accountable for repeatedly lying to fans and failing to deliver on promises? I guess not. He’s got you, and thousands others, right where he wants you…Pointing the finger at the convenient scapegoat who is too damn loyal to tell everyone what’s going on.
So okay then, Blues didn’t buy experienced Premier League players. They didn’t bloody need to with Quadroue, Carsley, Parnaby, Bowyer, Larsson, Taylor, Phillips, etc etc did they?!
The point is this: We were promised Premier League players. We didn’t get them. We are doing shit. You do the maths.
Seems pretty perverse that all this is ‘pointless.’
Ben, you make good points, especially when you say Blues already had Premier League experience. That’s certainly helped them a lot.
I’m certainly not going to tangle with you over Moxey and you’re right that he should be held accountable for promises that were made and not kept.
But for me personally, in my opinion, the squad of players we have is good enough to finish 17th in the Premier League, if the manager gets the most out of them.
So if we don’t achieve that, in my opinion, the finger of blame should lie with the players and the manager before anything else.
The board were silly in my opinion to say they would get proven Premiership players, as names never materialised that matched that description.
But as I say, my opinion, not gospel.
The money was there to spend but Mick chose not to, or not wisely. It’s not Moxey’s fault, he can’t say to Mick, ‘go and buy x, y and z for this amount of money’. Maybe it’s Mick’s lack of know how at this level or reluctance to spend that’s costing us
Rich, sorry mate but it was Moxey who wouldnt sanction an extra £5k/week for Dann or £5m transfer fee for Johnson – despite the earlier assurances that Ben unearthed.
Never mind a £400k salary, what was his bonus this year? He was paid a £2.1 MILLION bonus in 2003 so what do we suppose it was in 2009? Does the wage cap apply to him??
And I wouldnt mind if he delivered on his promises but he has repeatedly lied to us in repeatedly scamming inflated season ticket prices under false pretences.
What amazes me is why so many Wolves fans seem so laid back about the guy.
For Gods sake Morgan – get shut of him!
As a former resident of Stoke on Trent, I know only too well of the ‘issues’ with Moxey. Stoke fans were jumping through hoops when we stole Moxey off them, that day for me was a very black day, and I knew that Moxey was in it for one reason – himself.
Over the years that Moxey has been our Chief Exec, how many deals have failed because of last minute difficulties? Too many too count. The most recent example is Scott Dann, and look how it was spun – he’s a greedy player, he wanted more money – look how we fell for it. In reality Moxey is the king of false economy – saving $5000 a week is great, until you lose $30 million by being relegated (sorry about the $ but there is no pound on my keyboard). The main priority this year was to stay in the league. To stay in the league we needed guile and experience to bolster our young energetic squad, to see them through the tough times and to show them how to close out games when we’re winning 1 – 0, experience, premier league experience. We failed to do that and now we are suffering as a result.
You can blame McCarthy all you want but he was given a budget including a wage structure that matches the CCC not the PL. He is doing his best with the sow’s ear of talent he was able to bring in. Although his tactics do bamboozle the crap out of me!
My point is this, we attract players to our team with 2 things, chance of survival in the PL and the main reason cash, how much am I going to be paid each week.
at the end of last season we would have been hot property for players wanting a contract. We won the CCC by a distance, we have a great deal of talent, great facilities and everything was in place to attract decent PL players, so why didn’t we??? Answer – cash! We don’t pay enough. Again Dann is the perfect example – desperate to come to us, but Brum offer him a little bit more a week, the rest is history.
Imagine if you apply for a job at Sainsbury’s and you are lucky(!) enough to get it, but before you start, Asda offer you and extra $5 an hour for the same work, how many would turn them down, I know I wouldn’t.
Now the wage structure and policy is put in place by the Chief Exec – Moxey. So Moxey is directly to blame for the position we are in, with a squad that simply isn’t good enough. Yes MM has contributed with some dodgy tactics and selections, but when a pig wears a pretty dress it’s still a pig!
Moxey won’t destroy this club, he’ll just keep it simmering in the not quite good enough pile. He is the devil himself and the sooner we’re rid of him the better!
Jed, very well put, and you echo my sentiments exactly
We’ve all got to be honest here moxey might be held accountable come the end of the season (although i doubt it) but he wasn’t to blame for sundays abject
display. What frustrated me and i would guess most fans wasn’t the team selected or the effort level of the players (although both were contributing factors on sunday) but the total lack of a game plan or structure to the way we approached the game and there is only one person who is responsible for that and that is mick.
I think he’s done a great job since he’s been here, turning this club around after the mess we were in under hoddle but more and more i’m starting to believe that maybe he is out of his depth managing at this level.
I hope i’m wrong and i hope he turns things around because like most wolves fans i like the guy but i’m not sure he can.
Superb post Jed.
I see the Fat Controller is on Radio WM Saturday lunchtime. I’ve emailed Bens brilliant post to Daz Hale at WM and asked him whether any of the ‘journalists’ there will have the guts to raise some of these issues with Moxey.
Do us a favour Jed, email your post to Daz as well (daz.hale@bbc.co.uk) because real sports journalists aware of the strength of feelings about our C.E. should be all over this like a rash.
I suspect they’ll give him his usual easy ride, give way to his platitudes and allow Moxey to patronise us all as WM always do but hey who knows, perhaps Moxey might get more than he’s bargained for. Wouldnt that be nice!
And Thomas, now your creation is blossoming into something special. This thread proves that football fans enjoy the banter but are much more than a pie & a pint assembly of disperate morons.
This (and other threads) has a maturity of reasoned debate that coupled with the passion of life-long fans make it a potent forum through which reason WILL be heard.
I dont know about Moxey being the devil Jed but he is for sure a cancer within our club. A cancer that has consumed a succession of credible managers, failed abysmally in the both the day to day running of the club (e.g. Undersoil heating??!!) and its long term strategic planning whilst simultaneously making himself a multi-millionnaire (WITH OUR MONEY)!
Enoughs enough!
I’m a little torn on the subject. I just want to make a couple of statements, and discuss as you see fit. I have a degree of separation being here in Australia.
1) I don’t want McCarthy sacked, even if we go down. Instability would be a bad thing, and, if we do go down, McCarthy will have better resources to do what he does well – escape from the CCC.
2) I’m not too unhappy with Jez copping the flak. To be honest if it diverts it away from MM and the players, it seems a good way to avoid negativity around the club doing the most damage.
3) I’m not too downcast about this season, we probably have a greater than 50% chance of going down, but I thought that at the start. To be honest, I still think, with some confidence, we are still close enough. We have shown that we are capable of taking points from mid-table teams, so even if we lose our “mini-league” all is not lost.
4) I’m not overly pleased about what Moxey said, having proved to be false. If he hadn’t said it, I wouldn’t be so concerned, as a fiscally responsible club is a refreshing thing (can anyone imagine being a Valencia fan?). It is that he has (or at the very least appeared to have) mislead us which is upsetting.
However – if you read what he actually said here at the end of the transfer window-
http://www.wolves.co.uk/page/News/0,,10307~1786424,00.html
it is not quite so arrogant as you guys suggest.
Please let me know what you think.
But t’om, apart from the last two paragraphs the whole article reeks of smug self satifaction!
And even had he attempted to dampen expectations in the strongest possible terms at the end of August it was months after we’d all parted with hard earned money for our season tickets!
He conned us in 2003 and he’s done it again! And to think our mighty club could be associated with such a scam is a scandal.
Scoop – I never said it wasn’t arrogant. I’m just referring to quote such as
“We believe we really are an underdog and every match will be a struggle”
“Whether it will be good enough, remains to be seen”
“all we have done is get in the type of players we said we would, apart from the caveat of getting in the amount of Premier League experience.”
I’m not trying to absolve Jez, not by any means, I just wanted to point out that statements like this do exist, and balance the other statements which are well reported and anger us all (me included).
Agreed t’om and apologies if I didn’t express myself better but my point about these (more modest expectation) quotes is that they came months after a lot of people had purchased season tickets (including a 30% price rise) based on the high expectations his ealier utterances encouraged.
I’ve never felt so betrayed. Its much worse than 2003 and if Moxey or Morgan think people like me are gonna stump up £600 for the CCC next seasn they’d better think again.
They may lack class and experience (two crucial ingredients) but passion, no. Part of the problem is surely Mick’s obsession with the work ethic and ‘putting a shift in’ at the expense of guile or creativity. This is fine in the Championship but in the Premier League something else is clearly required. Milijas, easily our most imaginative midfield player, has not been given a proper run in the team and the service to our forwards (and, for that matter, wingers) has been decidedly poor. The only thing you can really be sure of with Mick is that his teams will always give their all but at this level that just isn’t enough.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2756056/Wolves-looking-in-for-Beck-bid.html
“player-plus-cash offer which would see 20-year-old Sam Vokes move from Molineux to the Yorkshire outfit as part of the deal.”
God help us if we lose Vokes. He’s going to be a player and a half in a few years.
I’d rather have Vokes than Beckford. Vokes will be a top player, he’s young aswell.
I don’t think our signings have been half bad. I jumped for joy when we signed Mancienne on loan. I was glad we signed Doyle. Zubar looked decent before hand and I knew about Halford’s long throw.
Maybe we could have got Dann, and Johnson but we didn’t and won’t now so we have to get over it. Who knows, maybe Mick has an amazing centre back lined up (not that Nolan guy).
Would you lot welcome Kevin Nolan to our side though??
Also remember, we had only just signed Berra.
Moxley is the Devil Scoopped and MM should have been sacked the second we got promotion as I have said before.
Proven CCC promotion on a shoe string but also proven the 2nd worst PL manager of all time.
Jez Moxey is a strange one for me as I really cant decide either way. I can look past his smug look, his arrogant manerisms etc – it doesnt bother me.
He has spent years being the bullet proof shield for the Club’s owners which he has no doubt performed effectively.
He has run the business side of the Club on a level footing neither speculating to accumulate or risking the Club’s financial future – this is comforting to someone who remembers the bleak days and the fact this club was 50 minutes from going to the wall.
His pay, although excessive, is probably in line with a CEO of a company turning over in excess of 30 mil, the 7 figure bonus apart which I believe was an unusual one off. As far as we know he is clean unlike Gartside, Storrie, the porn barons allegedly
The transfer budget is set by the Board and the estimated 15-18m spent would equate to around 30-35m if you include extended and new contracts, fees, wages etc. Not a bad sum if you look at other clubs.
However, the club has been a PR disaster during his tenure, the ticketing prices are ridiculous, there is too much spin and the utter contempt the fans have had to put up with and still do is nothing short of scandalous. I hate the idea that mascots are being charged 400 quid per match and that disabled fans are being made to move seats because of corporate twats under the guise of health and safety likewise longstanding season ticket holders.
Lastly, I wish Moxey would for once stand up for the fans and show some balls be it with the anti-Wolves policing policy and the jobsworth health and safety numpty.
However, at the moment I am more concerned at Micks team selections and tactics to worry about the merits of a Chief Executive.
What I have a problem with is Mick not being able to teach how to defend a corner. Sometimes it seems like they are just not paying attention to what they are doing.
I also have problems with the goalie kicking the ball up the field and then losing possession of it 75% of the time. I think some of the players have trouble judging the flight of the ball and have to rush to it at the last minute while the other team’s players are already there waiting for it.
And what is so hard about a midfielder looking in the direction of the other teams net and kicking the ball into an open space for the strikers to run to? Is it really that hard to try to get the ball up to them? I know they won’t be successful much of the time but at least try to move the ball forward for goodness sake.
Thirdly, some player seem to like to wait for the ball to get to them. Many times, other teams player run up and intercept the pass. They should have clued in by now that that is unacceptable in this league. If you are closest to the ball, get it as soon as you can!!!
These mistakes are giving the ball away too much and keeping possession is important at this level.