When golden shirts shimmered in the hazy autumn sun, nobody could have predicted where we’d end up come February 12.
Heads down and shoulders slumped come 4pm was pretty incomprehensible, but rocking up outside the Hawthorns at the first light of dawn was nigh on impossible.
Like a couple of lost fish swimming way too close to the shore, Thomas and I were wondering around the Hawthorns in a daze at 8am, trying to find a way into the s**thole to meet a load of Albion fans!
Barely believable to us two, let alone our dear wives, who usually can’t shift us out of our pits on a Sunday morning with a stick of dynamite and a spatula.
We were there in aid of lifelong WBA and Wolves fans Kieran Caldwell and Ian Marrey, who had organised a 10 mile ‘March to Molineux’ to raise money for Acorns Hospice, which is playing an invaluable role in looking after their children.
We met Cyrille Regis and Bobby Gould in the Hawthorns car park, exchanged pleasantries with some amazingly eloquent Baggies fans, high fived some similarly dazed Wolves ones, and took a walk towards our path of righteousness.
With rivalries used as a topic of endearment, we dissected each other’s teams, remembered the good old days and chose which player we’d like from either side.
Fletcher was their near unanimous choice, while one Albion fan said he liked the look of ‘that lad called Guedioura’ who he thought was the man-of-the-match in last season’s corresponding fixture.
Cue non-stop laughter from Coseley McDonald’s all the way to Parkfields School when I mumbled where the Algerian was now residing!
Within hours of us marching through Tipton, along the Birmingham New Road and into the city we call home, we were thumped 5-1, Mick McCarthy was sacked and a tortuous two weeks ensued.
With the managerial merry-go-round twirling ever since, I didn’t think a blog about a walk was a priority to write about – until I remembered how the experience made me feel.
When materialism and cynicism rears its head with the monotony of a West Bromwich Albion attack, the Beautiful Game doesn’t always appear so scrumptious nowadays.
But when a chorus of ‘The Lord’s my Shepherd’ thawed the freezing Molineux air, you can tell how much I’m back in love with it that I wanted to sing along.
Thanks again Kieran, Ian and everyone involved with the March to Molineux.
Great post mate.
Well done to everyone at Wolves Blog who helped us raise close to £200. I think somewhere in the region of £10K was generated overall, so it was a fantastic achievement.
I really enjoyed the walk. It’s amazing how quickly 10 miles can pass when you’re talking about football for the entire journey.
My particular highlight was peppering David Instone with questions for a 5-mile stretch before he somehow broke free from our clutches.
what were the nature of said questions / responses?
Oh mate, everything.
Steve Morgan, Mick McCarthy, the stadium, the playing staff, former managers.
One of the things David was quite unhappy about, which I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me saying, is the lack of opportunities for some of our better academy players.
Mark Little was one he mentioned as an example, who did get 25+ starts in a Wolves shirt under McCarthy, but then disappeared in his second season.
He went as far as to say he was disappointed with the signing of Kevin Foley at the time because he knew it was bad news for Little’s prospects. And so it proved.
Difficult to disagree with the point that Mick, for all his positives, ignored the kids after his first season, save for Hennessey and the two he plucked himself from Ireland.
Interestingly I’ve also heard noises youth development was something Morgan was big on throughout the interview process.
Interesting stuff… and the killer question… does he read Wolves Blog?
Don’t think he does.
Funny that I rarely come across people who openly admit to reading us, yet we get 20,000+ supporters through the site on a consistent basis.
Someone is lying. Ha!
I don’t just openly admit to it, I’m pretty evangelical about the whole thing. All Wolves fans should be reading this site!
He also had a hunch that O’Neill would have taken the job if we’d have approached him early in the season.
I did work experience with David – he’s the most reasoned, considered and knowledgable bloke I’ve had the pleasure of walking with (and working with for that week at Queen Street!)
Wish I was a bit more like him. He saw the pros and cons in every topic and listened intently – probably because me and Tom wouldn’t let him get away – poor bloke!!
How many of the present players in the top 7 PL clubs were discovered and nurtured by these clubs and, have then gone on to become established members of these teams ??
I do not have the stats for this type of study but I would suspect that very few academy players actually remain with their original clubs and are in time sold or loaned out to other clubs. Clubs are a business after all and development costs must be justified and recouped where and when necessary. I also feel that the time scale to develop and blood youngsters works against the desire of a manager to achieve success and consequently young players rarely become established in their club and are used as a commodity to be sold generally to clubs of a lower level.
That’s a fair point mate.
However, some other clubs do at least give their youngsters a chance before farming them out on loan or getting rid.
Or, at the very least, they loan them out, get them back and then give them a chance to see if they’ve learned something.
Wellbeck and Cleverly at Man Utd and Wilshere at Arsenal are notable examples of this.
McCarthy by contrast loaned out Elliott Bennett on 3 separate occasions, never awarded him a single competitive appearance in a Wolves shirt and then sold him. Even if he’d come on from the bench once or twice, done nothing and then been moved on, I could understand it. But no chance at all for a player who obviously has something does perplex me.
Mark Davies, Scott Malone, Danny Batth and David Davis all went out, did well but never got a sniff of the first team squad.
Granted, Mick has been battling to establish us in the Prem, which is never an ideal situation for blooding youngsters, but I do feel he should have done a little better than he did in this respect.
I believe Steve Morgan feels the same too.
If they are good enough, they are old enough, and should all be given a first team chance.
What is the point of an academy otherwise?
If a young ‘un is blooded, with 10 other experienced players, it can only do him good.
Plus, if a young ‘un shows real promise, it should keep the more established players on their toes, for fear of losing their place to the new kids.
We should reinstate the reserve team league, so the stiffs, youngsters and recuperating ones get to play regularly, and thereby get to show their stuff a lot more often, and competitively, not just on the training ground.
FOWB
Don’t get me started on Mark Davies. Not Mick’s fault, whereas Gleeson, Bennett, Little, Malone, Jones maybe should have had more of a chance.
Dont close the till yet. I owe you a tenner remember.
Bloody good effort from both of you.
This won’t be the last such event, I’m sure! It’s a brilliant concept and I’m glad that this one was a success! If I could have got there I would have!
It’s also nice that it was before and not after the 5-1 thrashing! 😛
Whisper words of wisdom
McGarry
Docherty
Graham T
Graham T
Mark McGeee
Colin Lee
Terry C
and the clincher to prove
its a universal managerial anthem…
Sammy Chung!
Frank Buckley
Mad Mick-ee
Spouting utter bullshit
Jez Moxey!
Jez Moxey one brilliant
You forgot Ronnie………….Allen. Signed the Doog, our first hero.
And, on the moxey theme……Bhatti !!!
And Ritchie……………………….Barker.
And Jobey…………………..manager 1923/24
Was his team good to watch Clive?
Yes, we won the Third Division North, and we beat such famous clubs as Ashington, Durham City and New Brighton.
We beat Charlton in the cup in a 2nd round replay at The Mol, my old mate Stan Fazackerley scored the only goal as I remember.
Our manager, Geoff Jobey, had the unenviable nickname of “Hand”
Ah, them was the days, when we all wore flat caps, before the South Bank had a roof, when the cowshed was a cowshed, and the Wolves strip had a “V” on the front…don’t ask me why.
Yes we was good to watch.
FOWB
Oh, I forgot.
Martin….bollocks !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Knew you’d like that one Clive. And for an old’un, your memory’s still really quite good.
Oh, by the way, the likes are fom me.
What about Stanley C?
Bobby D? (caretaker) Right I am struggling now and need to get back to work!!
BTW Sleach…I bet that is the only time Bobby Downs and Stan Cullis are mentioned in the same reply!