With cup of tea in one hand, slice of cake in the other and a 30 minute pitch to assume the Sky remote, my work for the evening was done.
The onerous Big Brother replaced with the warm, welcoming bosom of Natalie Sawyer and her teasing, tantalising breaking news column.
The first slurp of transfer deadline viewing felt good.
So good, that for one fleeting moment between David Bobin at Loftus Road and Rob Dorset at the Britannia, the dark haired Natalie looked celestial.
As Aston Villa bid £4 million for Alan Hutton, I swear Jim White described transfer deadline day as a temporary madness, erupting like a volcano and then subsiding.
Not if you’re a Wolves fan though, where Wednesday August 31 is not breathlessness, it is not excitement and is certainly not the promulgation of eternal passion.
The cup of tea cools as Scott Dann walks past the Jack Walker Stand and the cake crumbles as Peter Crouch negotiates Tunstall.
On football’s proverbial dancefloor, we tap our feet to a Party Rocking song, but the QPRs make the real shapes, catching the attention of some tasty bits of stuff.
Deadline day they’re shuffling.
We either summon up the courage to join in or we go for a wander.
A change of scenery it is, but yet more talent catches our eye and our already tortured mind conjures up a filthy image of indulgence.
Natalie starts purring at the TV screen again and the need for a short term fix becomes ever more desperate. Time is running out.
Warnock unzips his flies, Pulis licks his lips. Even Arsene Wenger cops off for the first time in six years.
We somehow resist the urge to join them, grab our coats and remember what we already have at home.
Namely, a selfless squad who’ll do everything to make things work, a smouldering, smiling Natalie Sawyer on our TV screen…
… and absolutely no sense of regret the morning after.
Transfer deadline at this point in the season is a joke.
I am happy to see the Wolves management team have the sense to get the players they want in way beforehand so they get a proper pre-season, rather than trying to get new players to gel so long after the starting gun has been fired.
Big Mick has faith, proud day for the players – and for the fans.
a thoroughly enjoyable read… cant say i didnt suffer a little envy myself !!
Nice Ben. Transfer deadline is now more of an event than 3rd round FA Cup day, or even the final.
Personally I feel broken hearted that my club (Everton) has yet again been stripped of another asset.
Like a home owner that has fallen behind on mortgage payments, Everton are flogging off prized possessions and tat at every opportunity to appease the bailiffs.
Instead of selling up, the owner is continuing to run the house, blinkering himself to the greater need of his family.
One day soon the situation will reach tipping point and the house, family and all the possessions will fall down and scatter like confetti at a wedding.
On the football motorway that is the Premier League, at least at Wolves you have a solid vehicle and driver that knows its limitations and strengths. Another solid season in the slow and possibly middle lane beckons, but please prepare to wave as you pass the Everton car, parked up on the hard shoulder, smoke coming from the engine and the driver scratching his head while the passengers simply walk away.
Without wanting to turn this into an Everton blog, isn’t your owner looking to sell the club?
I thought it was simply a case of nobody has come in for the club. Or am I mistaken?
I agree that things at Everton will reach a tipping point though. Keeping Moyes and the young talent like Rodwell, Barkley, etc is vital.
On a tangent, can’t blame Arteta for wanting the move. Last chance to play at the very top.
Arsenal? the Very Top? I’d 8 – 2 be a gooner these days…
That joke has been around less than a week and already it’s tiresome. And I’m not even an Arsenal fan.
I expected better sleachy.
I did think twice before posting it, but it’s not appeared on the hallowed pages of Wolves Blog yet so I thought I’d chance it.
Sorry to disappoint mate, will try harder next time!
Looking? possibly. Wanting? most would say no.
Rumours abound that the owner of Man City enquired before he took over there and Randy Lerner did the same before taking over at Villa.
Don’t blame Arteta, but it’s a sad indictment on the whole of football. Money counts and the trophies and glamour will only be spread out among a select few.
Anyway, back to the Wolves blog. Good luck for this season; a great start could give you a top 12 finish.
All good stuff!
Ships may pass us in the night, but aren’t they mostly old, continuing to search out opportunity to extend their careers, slowing down, wearing out, and no longer with any fight to fly the flag?
Right now, we’ve done the “near the sell by date” players (Dave Jones era), and we aren’t yet able to attract some of the young and up and coming, but we’re getting there bit by bit, with increasingly good young talent that will die on the pitch for MM.
And the best thing? Not sure anyone has noticed yet, we’re still under the radar!! Good times.
Although I was on here just a few days back spouting the merits of appreciating the squad we already have, I couldn’t help but have my head turned by a few transfers yesterday; players I thought would have been worthwhile additions for Mick to pursue.
I’ll name three:
Traore – Gone to QPR from Arsenal for a fee in the region of £2 million. Still has a lot to prove in the Premiership, but surely must have been an option over the summer to cover the left back position? Mick basically came out and said there were no decent options out there. Well, a guy whose played in the Premiership with Arsenal and Portsmouth as well as for a small club called Juventus, seems like a decent option to me. Must have some pedigree. Disappointed we were never linked with him, not yesterday specifically, but over the summer.
Kakuta – A player I mentioned specifically in my previous blog. Ended up at Bolton on loan until January. I’d like to have seen him at Wolves. Can operate out wide, but would have been useful down the middle for us with his pace and trickery.
Yakubu – Ended up at Blackburn. Probably a long shot given his rumoured bad attitude, but would have been a lovely alternative to the strikers we have. Strong, direct and a proven Premier League goalscorer.
Agreed, we are still weak at the back too – please please please can mick stop persisting with stearman and berra… Foley is one answer on the right, but we dont have anyone competent for that LB spot.
As an aside, someone made a swipe at Ward on here, and i think he shown now where his strenghts are – it’s not hs fault mick keeps forcing him into a defensive position – when he is clearly a great winger / striker.
Still thought we would sign more than one player. Disappointed.
Of those three the only one I’d like is Kakuta. He is a very talented player.
Yakubu is past it, and Traore is awful.
I have a soft spot for Everton partly because my darling wife loves all things football including MOD, thanks entirely to her dad`s unswerving support of the toffees. While now she is a converted black & gold fan, she still looks of course for the Everton scores at ten to five on Saturdays.
Everton are a proper football club, as wolves are, with great support, although unfortunate not to find a wealthy benefactor like Sir Jack to keep them competitive. There are many other clubs who could have been in the same boat, but their day will come eventually.
I thought the chances of wolves signing in the transfer window were more remote than Ward running the 100 metres in less than two minutes. I`m not sure exactly what young Davis is going to learn in Inverness, having holidayed there a couple of summers ago there is some wonderful scenery but as for helping develope as a footballer, may as well have had some porridge for breakfast every morning and played for a decent pub side in town, where at least he could have understood the locals.
A nice satisfying read mate.
BUT – the devils in the detail….tell me more about this cake….I lurve the cake! CAKE!! CAKE!!!
Tell me it was our friend Battenberg.
It was battenberg mate. Seriously! Very moist and rich in taste – until I saw Rob Dorset at the Britannia Stadium!
It’s a classic tea/cake combo mate make no mistake! A solid 4 part system glued together with marzipan magic. Sounds like our new back line! I’m calling Henry the marzipan I suppose…
After going to watch our reserves labour to a one all draw with a poor Newcastle youth team the other night, I’m a touch disappointed we didn’t try to strengthen several areas of the squad, ideally well before yesterday’s merry go round.
We lined up with Craddock and Elokobi at CB and Newcastle could have driven their team bus through the space between them in the first half. The latter was that woefully out of position continually he was moved out to left back at half time. Our midfield 4 was arguably the replacement 4 for the present 4 should any of them get injured or suspended. Kightly: Huffed and puffed but still has a huge amount of work to get anywhere near back to a level where he can compete in the prem. Edwards: Poor but did have the excuse that it was his first outing from injury. Milijas: Uninterested, unathletic and showed that he is a complete luxury that no team can afford, certainly in a 442. Hammill: Showed glimpses of class but inconsistent. Full backs and strikers were kids and did admirably but nothing to suggest any of them are close to cutting it in the prem. James Spray was the pick of them and got a goal for his efforts.
Up front is a obvious and massive problem if anything happens to Doyle or Fletch (Vokes in the Prem??!!) until Blake gets back and even then I hardly think he sets the world on fire, especially as a bench impact player.
Sorry to be negative folks and I’m delighted with our start to the season and with our first 11. However, looking past that when the inevitable injuries and suspensions kick in, I feel that we’ve left ourselves a bit thin on the ground quality wise. There will probably (hopefully) be three worse teams than us which will be enough for the board but I feel that we’ve missed a trick or two and that by the sensible addition of a couple of players (even loans) we could have took that worry away and had us aiming that bit higher this season.
Couldn’t agree more. Would we have thought that this squad was strong enough had we of not taken 7 points from 9? Seems all a bit short termist for me.
Must admit I think Dave Edwards getting back to full speed is very important as he adds some versatility to that midfield and can play off a front man if one of the two strikers gets injured, so we could revert to 4-5-1.
Good points there Carl. I just think that a lot of the comings and goings were actually more short-termism than we need to be. My one bugbear with the squad is the very fact Spray, Davis and Winnall won’t be anywhere near it – despite us being short on numbers.
If these boys are as good as reports suggest, they’d be better value than a lot of the names being banded about last night, particularly when being immersed into a successful team.
EG: Winnall on the bench for the next game, a bit like West Ham had with Freddy Sears a few years ago, and Blackburn with Matt Derbyshire.
But alas, Sam is on loan at Hereford United, despite scoring freely for the stiffs and Burton Albion.
That annoys me more than nobody coming in last night.
Another blog for another time perhaps.
Agree with everything, save one thing.
If Doyle or Fletch get injured, Vokes won’t come in. One of the following 2 things will happen:
1. We’ll revert to 451.
or
2. Ward will go up front and Elokobi will come in at left-back.
More likely the latter.
Totally agree. Not wanting to have a pop at Mick but he must be off his head not to bring in another striker, if not just on loan until SEB gets fit. There had to be somebody out there. Let’s just pray Doyle and Fletcher stay fit.
Good post Carl,very true got to agree 100% of what you said does the club
know what we have in reserve i don’t think so,
They must think our first team are invincable and will never get injured,as
you have said our reserves leave a lot to be desired.then again we have the
Moxey factor tight bastard.
On the plus side our new Dutch keeper can’t half kick a ball!
I totally agree with what Carl has to say.
It’s difficult to moan given our start to the season (which has been excellent) but I can’t help but think injuries to either striker, Johnson or Karl Henry will expose the frailties of our squad.
I would have liked to have seen a striker (especially as SEB is out), defensive midfielder and the left back we have been crying out for the past three windows and have still failed to address. Even QPR seem to have been more ambitious – causing me immense paranoia about those relegation places!
Oh and I see Moxey in the E&S saying “We did all the business we wanted” – well why earlier in the week were you banging on about loan signings coming in? Pull the other one mate, it’s got bells on it.
Oh well, at least we are only 33 points from safety!!!
So that’s 11 wins.
Norwich, QPR and Swansea twice = 6
Bolton, Wigan, Newcastle, Everton and possibly Arsenal at home = 5
Total 11.
Throw in the odd victory over the likes of Chelsea, City, Utd and Liverpool.
Easy peasy japanezie.
No worries, we’ll be mid table for sure.
Oh, I forgot Blackburn, who are already doomed, and the double over the shit!!!
Champions League here we come!!!
Stourbridge, if we had bought a left back over summer and in his first 3 games he’d scored a winning goal and kept two clean sheets, looking pretty comfortable and confident throughout, would you still be arguing that we desperately need a left back?
Spot on! That is a fantastic point, it’s Ward though, they need something to go on about!
Mr Doyle, I don’t know about Stourbridge Wolf, but for me it’s not the left back or the rest of the team from the first three games that concern me, it’s the back up squad. At the moment, there’s only really Foley and our injury prone Algerian friend that I would have any degree of confidence in coming straight into the team and not weakening it significantly. We’ll inevitably have our share of injuries and suspensions like all teams and like Thomas said earlier, our first move will either be to revert back to 451 or to move Ward from where he’s actually started the season really well. I’m not one of these unrealistic fans that think we should have spent £30m over the summer but I just think a couple of sensible signings (another competent CB, a CM with some steel and some decent cover up top) and we would be in a far more comfortable position going forward instead of admiring our first 11 and hoping for no injuries or suspensions!
Too right Carl – I would be happy if say Ridgewell or Bassong had been added, Kakuta plus a defensive mimdfielder to cover any injuries.
Even if a couple had been added on loan we would have more strength in depth. I think the first team is good enough to be outside the bottom three – but as an example if we lost Johnson to injury we would have the same back four that were very close to relegation last season.
Super Kev – I hope you are right about Ward, it would be great to see him continue his form of the first three games. But after two seasons of seeing what I have – caution is required, lets take a view 10 games in when he has faces some decent right wingers.
I see your point Carl and would also have been pleased to see us bring in a quality addition to bolster our options up front.
I would however add Milijas, Hammill, Zubar and Edwards to the players you mention who can come into the side without significantly weakening it. This makes me cautiously optimistic about how we’ll fare when injuries etc kick in.
Definitely take your point about Hammill, there’s something there without a doubt. Not convinced by Milijas, he’s had long enough now to prove he’s got the drive and desire to suceed and I can only conclude that he hasn’t. Zubar’s a funny one, can look brilliant but also decidedly dodgy. I’d worry bringing him back in after a long break. Edwards can be a bit of a headless chicken but definitely offers us something wherever we play him. It’s definitely not all doom and gloom by any stretch but as we say, just those one or two sensible additions would have made the rest of the season so much more comfortable.
Ridgewell would have been a great addition because I believe he can also play centre half. I’m sure wages would have been the stumbling block though, I think he’s on a fair whack at blues. Dann at £5m would also have been a bargain but I don’t think you get away with crossing MM twice! Someone like Livermore from Spurs or Spearing from Liverpool (Just how hard did we try to sign him before? He’s hardly kicked a ball for them since.) would have been good additions on loan. Oh well, all if’s and but’s now. I see James Beattie and El Hadj Diouff are both free agents as of today so we should be ok. That’s a point, has Marcus Bent got himself a club this season?!
I’d still prefer Winnall on the bench over either of those two on the grounds that a) Beattie is shit and b) El Hadji Diouf is vile and shit.
If Winnall is just shit, then at least he’d be no worse and we’d know either way, with the knowledge he could improve.
But nope, he is away at Hereford United. That’s my bugbear, more than fawning over Alan Hutton for £4 million.
Oh come on – how can you resist having El Hadji gobbing at the Albi*n fans?
I was been sarcastic about those two mate. I’d rather put pins in both of my eyes and bathe in acid than have either of them ever grace our great shirt! The other night was my first reserve game for a while so I wish I was in a better position to comment about how good our latest crop of kids acually are. My instint is that they’re not quite up to it though. It seems we’re producing good lower league kids but question mark prem quality. Although i suppose you don’t know unless you give them a try. Hopefully, the imrovement in the training ground, youth set up, etc, will mean that we’ll see a big improvement in this department in the coming years though. Crucial to this remains staying in the prem though. In Mick we trust! (I think!)
Interesting that Ward, at left back, is the only Wolves player starting for Ireland against Slovakia.
Be very interesting to see what would happen if he got injured, and was out for a month or two.
Elokobi up front?
We should revert to the old transfer system, when anything was game up until the middle or end of March, whenever it was, and also reduce the “squad” to 20.
Then, with a reduced wage bill, and all the second rate flash harrys looking for a club, wage demands could actually come down, players could actually remain loyal to one club for a good number of years, clubs get in the black, and the spiralling costs and agents fees could become a thing of the past.
Progress isn’t always a good thing.
One can dream I spoze.
FOWB
Ward’s positional versatility, considering the ‘squad’, has become vital to us!
Great shout Clive, poor old Bentley, Beattie, Bridge, etc, might not be able to afford the personal number plates on their Porsche’s though bless em’! We’re in a generation where we’re seeing the best football ever seen by the likes of Barcelona but paying for it much further down the ladder by paying far too much of our hard earned £ (indirectly through sky and supporting the big sponsors) to the likes of the dick heads listed above. At least we support a club that doesn’t tolerate such nobs! (Still think some sensible investement over the last couple of weeks could have made our season a damn sight easier!)
Jesus Clive – I find myself agreeing with you more and more often. Have you changed or have I?
August 2000 Colin Lee buys Temuri Ketsbaia and Robert Taylor for about 2.5 million (which is a lot of battenburg in todays money and Robert Taylor played like he was paid in battenburg)
Sometimes not buying players is the right thing to do.
I remember him well – Rob taylor, the man that trained so hard his calf muscles became “too big for his legs”.
I reckon Man City put that rediculous fee in an ISA – and that’s why they have all the cash they do now! Rob dogs!
Lee definitely didnt buy Taylor. That deal was done without Lee’s prior knowledge. It was down to Sir Jacks “rottwiler” I understand.
The glass is half full – we have not sold any players we wanted to keep.
The glass is half empty – we have not strengthened with a left back or a defensive midfielder.
Which means there may be a reliance on some youngsters coming through –
who did mick mention might get first team football in pre season. Next article on the younsters please.
Arthur Smallman is a name for the future.
I have been reliably informed by my many spies that he will in fact be the next Wolves left back.
Although his age is a closely guarded secret, believed to be 3 or 4, he already has shown the talent required for the position, and has expressed the opinion that by the time he reaches his late teens our current incumbent will have finally been dropped.
Mark my words, this blog is a mini scoop.
That would be perfect Clive! He’s all right foot unfortunately – just like his old man I’m afraid
Even better!!
MM always plays his players out of position, so young Arthur will dovetail nicely at left back.
Actually, it’s an advantage being wrong footed (look at Ward) as when you are chasing back it is easier to kick the legs from under someone and into touch with your left foot rather than your right, unless you are playing right back, and going towards the goal on the left from the middle, and take away the number you first thought of and you’ll understand it’s been a long day and it’s only 9.12 in the morning!!
What a great post! I’m a Newcastle fan and I wish our supporters had half of your perspective. Over on our blogs, they’re all going bonkers, wanting to rip ownership’s heads off and stick them on pikes because they didn’t spray money all over the landscape in a spasm of frantic spending.
Meanwhile, Wolves and the Magpies have 7 points. Not bad.
Cheers mate, that’s very nice of you. I’m kind of hoping that you are in fact Natalie Sawyer in disguise, but I’m guessing not.
Reason being is she supports Brentford, not that I looked up this fact!!
I was on Soccer AM on Saturday and spoke to Steven Taylor. What a cracking bloke he is!
His mate said that the Carroll thing was completely blown up out of proportion, while we almost bought him not so long ago and he was close to signing. Loves his hometown club too much, (unfortunately for us!)
Barton seems like a strange situation, particularly as most of the players got on with him, apparently!