The last surprise package that made me smile with happiness was a moss coloured tank top from my Grandma the other week.
God bless her. She bought me a Christmas jumper in navy blue, marveled at the cut of my jib and bought me another one in green, not realizing it was sleeveless.
I didn’t have the heart to tell her I now look like a cross between the Wallace and Gromit character and Victor Meldrew.
“I don’t belieeeeeeeveeee it!” (in Meldrew style amazement) A midfielder playing with confidence, aggression, composure and a general swagger barely associated with a Premier League home debut.
The ‘new lad’ could be forgiven for being fazed in the world’s biggest league, particularly when nobody’s heard of you and you’re up against internationals like Krankjaer, Jenas and co.
Not a bit of it. The Algerian snapped into tackles to win countless balls, then shimmied and Cruyffed his way upfield in equal measure. It was a feisty, belligerent display and you just sense that he would laugh at you if you told him that ‘it takes time to settle into the Big League.’
For the past few weeks, Mick and his men look like they’ve been searching for the da Vinci code with this 4-5-1 system, then along comes a kid from Belgium who cracks it in the space of an hour!
Maybe, just maybe, we have found a little gem. And who would have thought that after our depressing January window watching?
But such debuts need to be treated with an air of caution. Can an unknown kid from Belgium keep making the game look so simple? Can you pin so much hope on a 24 year-old whose name we barely know?
The performance got me thinking of other home debuts that warmed the cockles of my heart. Now I’m not saying that Adlene will suffer the same fate, but worth remembering that first appearances don’t always last!
- Ryan Green v Sheffield United. Remember the youthful Green, hair gelled like an extra from Grease, playing with the coolness of John Travolta? He made me forget about Thommo in the space of 5mins, such was his impact. He soon disappeared and still plies his trade at Hereford.
- Tony Dinning v Norwich. Oh Tony! He played in a 5-0 demolition of the Canaries (I think) and even scored at the South Bank end with a header from a corner. He looked quite sumptuous, but he flattered to deceive and was out of Molineux like a bat out of hell when he heard we’d signed Paul Ince. Last seen at Chester City, via about 20 other lower league clubs.
- Chris Marsden v Crystal Palace. I remember we bought Chris Marsden and Darren Ferguson at the same time. We all expected big things from Fergie, but it was Marsden who shone, picking passes and cruising round the pitch like he owned it. He got injured, then pissed, then booted out.
Any others that you remember? I recall Paul Blades looking like some sort of white Socrates while on loan from Derby County, only to play like the Greek philosopher once he signed.
I recall him scoring away at Victoria Park, Stoke, Boothen End, with an audacious lob over the keeper. He looked like Bradley Branning off Eastenders when he saw that video of his old man shagging Stacy Slater. He couldn’t believe what he had just witnessed. Nor could we.
Mark Rankine then took the piss on a future ‘travel club’ video for us all to enjoy. “Yeah, we’ve ribbed Bladesy about that. He doesn’t score many does he?”
Shabba, the man who notched 1 in 132 games.
I digress…A great debut from our new lad. I’m sure he’ll be more use in the coming weeks than the moss tank top I’m not currently wearing.
Nice post Ben, a great debut. Obviously didn’t witness the other’s debuts.
He looks like he will be a bit of a cult figure, and he might get sent off a couple of times between now and may. He might be the person we need to score the goals as well as Kevin Doyle. If he plays like that against Chelski we are in the game (if the others perform too)
He looks like an absolute machine. Apparently, he’s had 8 clubs since 2004… that’s a lot of clubs to get through, no? Hope it’s just a result of weaving his way up to the top rather than anything else, because he looks seriously good…
He looks a fantastic proposition, could be just what we need to save the season.
By the way, are you sure you got my middle name right?
OK Nathan, you’ve got me. What do you mean when you say ‘are you sure you got my middle name right?’
That one has sailed over my head.
Is this THE Nathan Lloyd?! I tried to tweet you on a number of occasions to no avail – hence the hastily conjured middle name – you anti-social git. 🙂
Glad to see you on here mate. And sorry for that. I hereby declare you Nathan ‘Fucking glad to see you on here’ Lloyd!
I remember Sami Al-Jaber have a barnstorming debut in a pre season game v Soton (I think). I’m sure he scored a beauty and we all purred over him. Trouble was, he used to fast for 40 days, and it meant he wasn’t strong enough for the rigours of Ensleigh football. Apparently.
A couple of years after hearing this excuse, I saw him bag one of the first goals for Saudi Arabia in the World Cup!, so not sure what happened there.
Club photographer Dave Bagnall told me he once scored the best goal he had ever seen in his life on the training ground. Some sort of van Basten effort. Again, you’d think he would have got into Colin Lee’s team.
Ben, I didn’t check my tweets for a few weeks, I’m back on it now, so sorry about!
I just thought it was another bit of stick I seem to get a few quarters for my opinionated blogging, which I make no apologies about!
Tweet me again, I promise to be more social this time!
Good blog squire. What a complete surprise Adlene has been. After all the mud I threw at Mick over the January transfer window, who would have thought that he has uncovered another potential gem?
Bring on team Tezza!
Don’t be daft mate. You certainly need a thick skin posting your weekly blog, so well done for keeping it up.
The stick you get on another forum leaves me so perplexed. It gets quite sanctimonious and self righteous doesn’t it?
One of their esteemed posters once said Jody Craddock should be burned alive, in his shirt, due to a poor run of form. He was revered on there and never ever questioned about it!
And another used to launch into a tirade about Jarvis every week for being crap.
We all got a bit heated on here last week, but (apart from one isolated post) we all respect eachother’s views, which is testament to Thomas.
Right, enough of being nice. I’m off to do some mother f**king work for some ungrateful b**tard of a client.
You have been visiting your Dad again, haven’t you?
Your language is atricious, and I thought you were a nice polite little boy!!!
It wasn’t so pleasent here…
“Dazza. That’s better mate. I decent, structured argument instead of an insult about me looking like Nathan Fucking Lloyd. :-0 (is my writing that bad as well?!)”
And there’s me saying you needed a thick skin!
Do you want me to apologise again? It was a jibe to counter the tweets and attempts to offer you story ideas for your blog a while back – all of which ignored. Call me petulant.
Your writing is great mate, even if you are an ugly fucker like me 😉
I wasn’t having a go mate, far from it! Just illustrating your bad language for the masses.
I love the aggro on the forums, just shows they haven’t got anything better to do. When you read some of the interaction between a few of the main contributors, its almost like they are blowing each other. They were even congratulating each other for having a go at me, which I found hilarious.
Remember, even angels go bald! Oh and any other suggestions for a blog topic would be most welcome. It was tough writing the blog after the spurs game when the week before I’d gone a bit mental about all the season’s mistakes.
Wasn’t that hall of fame night just fecking amazing? I don’t think I could have been any happier. Amazingly the lovely chaps on the wolves forum even decided to have a knock at me about that!
Keep up the blogging, I need to steal my ideas from somewhere! 🙂
Blimey, we’re getting narrower! Yes, that hall of fame evening was one of the best nights I have ever enjoyed as a Wolves fan. Felt like I didn’t deserve to be there, and there was Mike Bailey, telling us that he didn’t deserve to be talking to us! I do knock the club for a fair few things, but they deserve a lot of praise and credit for what they did that evening and how they did it.
A personal mission by Steve Morgan I heard, and coincided with his arrival at the club
I reflected on the sad loss of Blues’ Gill Merrick, and hope he got an evening at St Andrew’s like Bert Williams got at the Mol that night. Very humbling.
I guess your blog will be about he early bird? Can’t really let that one pass. Read it here first mate!
Early bird and a reflection on the last time we played chelski in the Prem and Crespo scored with his first touch.
Mike Bailey was incredibly humble and brought a bit of a lump to my throat. Shame Peter Broadbent wasn’t there. I met him when I worked in HMV and we had Peter and Bully in for a video signing. All the kids flocked to Bully, but the real fans headed for Peter, the greatest midfielder ever to wear the old gold.
I had a good chat with Jez that night, a very astute, if a tad tight man!
Great post Ben.
You could hear 25,000 Wolves fans all muttering their approval as he twisted and turned away from tackles and picked out those incisive forward thinking passes.
It’s always great when you sign a player for big money, but I think it gives you even greater satisfaction when you unearth a gem.
Like Ben points out, that one performance could be a flash in the pan, but at the very least, we’ve seen the levels he’s capable of reaching. Potentially though, what’s very exciting about this guy, is that he could get even better.
I wonder what the fee is should we agree to sign him up in the summer?
Fernanado Gomez had a home debut to remember, smashing home that dipping volley to put us two up against Stockport. I thought we were going up when that goal went in (it was only the fifth game of the season), but two Brett Angel goals brought me crashing back down to earth. Gomez hardly ever featured again.
And what about our old friend Silas? I remember more than a few people getting excited in the trousers after one decent pre-season performance. He subsequently looked like an infant who’d been invited to play with the bigger boys when he eventually graced the Premiership. Hopped around like a cricket in a few cameo appearances and then hot-tailed it outta here on the first plane back to the Med.
Great performance for an hour, now has to do it again and again and again.
Too many players have been flash in the pans especially when it comes to earning a new contract!
I believe the deal agreed is for 3m.
3m? I was going to say that seems a bit hefty, but if he plays like that every week, it’s a snip!
Remember Michael Branchs Debut…. on loan to us from Everton i Believe, the whole of Molineux was purring over his talents and begging that we sign him……
Oh dear Oh dear………
Branch wasn’t that bad in the first six months or so.
I’ve certainly seen worse partnerships than the one he shared with Akinbiyi. We enjoyed an excellent run of form, particularly at home, with those two starting up front under Colin Lee.
When we shipped Akinbiy out to Leicester, that was pretty much that for Branch. I think he was still knocking around when Dave Jones arrived but he was soon moved on.
I remember Branch being a decent player for a while too. Never forget that goal he scored at Forest when their keeper tried to kick it out as one of their players was down injured. He had to be taken off because of the abuse he was getting from their players and fans. Brilliant
Surely Simon Coleman’s debut deserves a mention as it’s widely regarded as the worst debut ever by a player in Old Gold. On a slight tangent Paul Butler’s ROI debut was pretty poor also. He lasted 45mins and was then hauled off never to be seen again.
Was that the match against Oxford away when Joey Beachump twisted and turned him to exhaustion? Coleman was gash.
What about Darren Peacock? Played shit against the Albion, got injured and then tried to take us to court, like it was somehow our fault that he broke down. Knob.
I think Peacock had a case.. can’t remember too well but didn’t he break a bone in his neck and our physio failed to diagnose it, allowing him to drive home?!
Probably the same physio that checked over Tony Daley and Geoff Thomas before we signed them!
EARLY BIRDS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED!
http://www.wolves.co.uk/page/News/0,,10307~1965809,00.html
Amazingly the weasel appears to have behaved himself somewhat.
Why do I get the feeling you’ve just opened up a massive can of worms?
Premier league bargain or overpriced CCC ticket???
Some great memories there, Tony Dinning is still plying his trade at Stafford Rangers. Paul Blades had a spell at Hednesford when they were in the Conference, found his level!
Guediora seems to have all the tools, as hes admitted himself he needs to prove it consistently to get his contract. One recalls other players whoes form blossomed dramatically around contract renewal time (admittedly in the SJH era), Kennedy, Olofinjana, and back even further Hindmarsh!
I remember being in the John Island for Ryan Greens debut – I left saying he was a future star! Actually he turned out to be constantly injured.
Anyone remember that goalie we had that looked great for a season or so a few years back? Matt Murray I think his name was. I hear some mugs are still paying him £20k per week to warm the treatment table! Ha,ha,ha!
Did someone mention Island…..?
We’ve lost our discs!
Proof of the pudding will be in the eating with Adlene. My first two sightings tell me he has the cavalier attitude needed in the team by some, not all to get the blend right. He is strong passes the ball intelligently and is not afraid to strike at goal.
We can buy at the end of the season for 2 Million is my understanding. He needs to put the work rate in every game and at the end of the season be judged over the next 13 games or so.
Fingers crossed he will do just that!!
Went to see the trophy and have pictures taken with it. They wouldn’t let us touch it! Only the Gold and Black ribbons could we hold.
Also, met Peter Knowles today by Marks and Spencer’s. Helping my Nan get the shopping and he helped with the trolley. Very friendly.
Yeah Louie, he works in Marks and Spencer’s these days
I know she said if we’re lucky it might be him. Should have asked him about when he kicked the ball out the ground after a goal
Yes Louie,
Or the time he skinned three players and sat on the ball waiting for them to have anoher go!
An immense talent who would have graced he international scene if that knock on his door hadnt happened.
Two debuts I remember… a Derek Dougan hatrick against Hull..and Neil Emblem , just signed from Millwall, trod on teh bal and almost gifted Leicester a goal
My old man was quick to remind me about the Doog. Best debut ever, he said!
I think Emblen’s was against Reading at home in a 1-0 win, first game of the season? Not 100 per cent sure on that though. It was lovely to hear the fans singing his name, as they could sense he was petrified out there.
What made it so special was his third goal. Doog was on the nearpost with a defender up his arse and when the cross came in, shin high at pace, the Doog flicked it over his head, span round the derender and volleyed it into the top corner. And all in front of a mental North Bank.
Tried to find it on You Tube but no joy. Pity ‘cos it woud be worth a look not least for the crowd celebrations.
Thise were the days indeed – no Moxey!!!
I`m old enough to remember Ken Hibbit`s debut at Chelsea, looked a good player in our reserves, and was superb for our first team. I was there on Doog`s debut, God bless him. If we stay up I wonder whose debut we can look forward to?!/
We have never replaced the like of Dougan, Bailey, Knowles . McCalliog and Woodfield… not because we can’t find them, but those players lived and breathed Wolves, and apart from Bully, I can;t think of anyone that comes close.Players who would die for your club are sadly replaced by mere mercenaries these days
Bloody hell – you’re as old as Clive From Houston!!!! And Mark Davies!!!
yea go on Guedioura u r the Algerian top star in the whole englang god bless u
what an amazing player i saw him play vs man u. The man u lads were more frusturated than ever. absolute solid player.
I want to make my first blog, do you think that drupal cms is good ?
Your website is very interesting. May i write article for you, could you publish it here ? Please mail me
Ciekawy post, bede wpadal na twoja wwww czesciej zapewne
Ciekawy post, bede wpadal na twoja wwww czesciej zapewne
I see a lot of good content here, what template do you use ?