Recently, many fans have claimed to be disenfranchised about the goings on at Molineux. This got me thinking, “Why do we suddenly feel alienated from our club?” and so here, after many hours of pondering, perusing and pontificating, are my own reasons.
Didn’t he used to play for us?
The answer, probably, is “yes”. But the answer is actually more likely to be “yes, barely”.
Mark Davies, Elliot Bennett, and Andrew Surman are just three players who will be in the Premier League without us next season. But is this a new phenomena?
You will watch Reading play (most likely) in the Premier League next season and two of their players (Adam Federici and Jason Roberts) spent time at Wolves in the late nineties and early noughties, and Mr Roberts went on to play (so far) 9 seasons in the Premier League while we (mostly) lingered in the Championship. “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure”.
Cup Game A and Cup Game B
Remember them? Some of you may not. Next year will be my 18th season ticket and when I first had my season ticket at the tender age of 7, we got the first two cup games of the season free. Not only that, we got a 10% discount, as season ticket holders, in the club shop; it wasn’t much, but it was something, a small token of appreciation from our club.
Gradually, it was just Cup Game A, then just league games. Hang on?! Where’s my 10% discount gone?!! Oh, I see…I get 10% of my purchase (a £40 shirt) credited to my “My Molineux” account…but if I don’t use in 28 days I lose the credit balance. I was brought up well…so I suppose I should say thank you.
This is all made worse when I look up the road to West Bromwich Albion, by all accounts a very similar club. Their season ticket holders get a 10% discount in the club shop…seems fair…their season ticket holders get a £10 voucher for the club shop each Christmas…that’s a nice gesture. Their season tickets are cheaper too?!! To quote Peter Griffin “that really grinds my gears”.
Is he any better than who we’ve already got, though?
The answer, I’m afraid, is probably “No, he’s not and I think he might be slightly worse”. To go with our chronic inability to develop promising young players, we also fail yo buy player that actually improve the squad. Is Roger Johnson better than Richard Stearman? Well, having watched him for a season, no he is not and has a terrible effect on the team. Was Greg Halford better than Foley? No, he was worse and lazy. Was Maierhofer better than ANYONE?!! No, he wasn’t, and will be remembered in the same breath as Tomasz Frankowski, Cedric Roussel and Robert Taylor.
There has been the odd signing that has improved the team in the Premiership, Doyle and Fletcher spring to mind, but generally we watch a team of Championship players who did well to get us where we are and a team of Championship standard playing who have been added since. Yet I still switched on Sky Sports every day in both transfer windows hoping to see that we had made a signing.
I would like to quote Ben here, “We are not fickle. We just want to be reunited with our club – be it at Bramall Lane or White Hart Lane”. Well, the former setting looks more likely but the sentiment remains. It is, in my opinion, not a sudden reaction of our fans to say “I feel alienated by my club” and it’s not because we’re likely to be back in the Championship next season.
It is a build up of things which have taken place over nearly two decades which have severely weakened the bond between the club and the people in the stands. I hope, and I fear it is in vain, that Steve Morgan will come and address the fans after the Wigan game; I also hope, probably equally in vain, that should this happen the fans will let him have his say and not just drown him out with boos.
I would like to finish with a fond farewell to A Load of Bull. Publications like that made websites like this possible.
* Thomas: A massive thanks to Dom (Tettenhall Wolf) for sending in this guest blog. I’ve been inundated with submissions in recent weeks, but have just been too busy to go through them all. I will respond to everyone and if at all possible, post everything up on the site. Apologies to all for the delay.
