The old saying that lightning never strikes in the same place twice is actually a myth that a poor old man called Roy Sullivan can disprove, having been walloped on the head on seven separate occasions.
If Roy isn’t a lifelong Wolves fan, then he should be.
Not so much fingers burnt, but every throbbing limb charred to the bone during this horrific season, which has to go down as the most painful in recent history irrespective of the final three results of the season.
With lightning smashing us all on the noggin with Peter Odemwingie-like precision, relegation or otherwise would be virtually irrelevant were it not for the millions of pounds – and Kevin Doyle – which we’d lose.
And the lightning – which strikes in the shape of a 4-4-2 formation one week, the idle treatment of Adam Hammill the next, the refusal to play a left back for another year and the incessant bullshit from our patronising hierarchy thereafter – renders a defibrillator useless.
When we settle down for an afternoon of Gillette Soccer Saturday with more animation, hope and expectation than we do our own team, then you know things are sad.
We hang on Jeff Stelling’s words with more anticipation than our 2.30pm walks along Waterloo Road.
We watch the Brummie Road End boing behind Chris Kamara for the 15th time of the season from our ‘lucky seat’ in the local, numb to the concept of jealousy anymore, just shouting at Kamara to bugger off so we can get back to the teams we can relate to.
We cheer for Leighton Baines and Pablo Zabaleta as if they meant to do us a personal favour. As if they were wearing the old gold and black.
We reach for conspiracy theories when we hear Baines didn’t take the penalty Arteta missed. Come on Moyes, think about it.
We forge artificial, temporary allegiances with dozens of clubs, as if they really gave a shit when they inadvertently helped our pathetic cause.
We even wish Arsenal all the best against Manchester United in a top 4 game, as a Gunners win might somehow mean that United will have to try harder in their last game against one of our hopeless rivals.
We compromise our chances of Fantasy Football success by drafting in players from the likes of Blackpool and West Ham, in the hope that we might be jinxing their best names in a selfless attempt to reverse our own fortunes.
Stoke City – the club whose fans laughed at our survival chances the other night – will be feeling our love in a twist of irony soon, as we implore them to forget the FA Cup and think of our sorry plight when they play Wigan on the final day.
Maybe the Albion will get a telegram at some point. After all, we do like Roy Hodgson deep down don’t we? He’s a good honest man and he’ll do us a favour because Albion are safe now and they don’t need to bother against irrelevant fodder like us. Hooray!
And all the time, Mick McCarthy will ‘wipe his gob’ after the umpteenth no show of the season and take a positive from a brain dead team selection and subsequent defeat.
As if paying £600 to fret and worry about Wolves is bad enough, we can’t even fret and worry correctly anymore, having channelled the emotions towards just about every other Premiership team to compensate for our own.
Stoke and Blues heading for Europe, Albion looking at the top 10, and all the time we can’t even be resentful.
In the pseudo-world of Wolves, we aren’t allowed. We actually wish them all the best and pat them on the back because anything else might impinge upon our pathetic attempts to live in their shadows.
So forgive me for not cheering too loudly if we survive, or cry too miserably if we don’t.
Neither for me. I will shuffle off back to the desolate car park from where I shuffled from and dream of supporting my beloved club like I was born to – instead of everybody else’s.
Shit me Ben I want to cry.
Nice piece mate and so very true. Out of darkness cometh light….?
Lets hope so mate. The main point I am trying to make is that whatever the outcome this season, it was never meant to be like this was it?
I keep hearing Noel Gallagher’s dreamy voice in my head.
“You can take my soul don’t take my pride,’ (Cast no Shadow?!)
Both have been wrenched off me this season, when I see fans with 50 years of support reduced to cheering on the likes of Yaya Toure on £200k a week on a plasma TV screen. A player who represents the very antithesis of a working class Wolves fan and we cheer him like he’s doing us the favour. Its as if emotion for our own club has been dulled due to one imbecilic decision after the other.
Yep – stay up or get relegated – the seasons already been irrevocably tainted. Still, at least Kasabian are playing Wolves next month!
I agree with every word.
I can now see, why Roy Keane left Ireland.
He saw that McCarthy is so arrogant, that his ego is bigger than club or country.
Supported Wolves since 1960, not Mick McCarthy, whose blind egotistical stupidity will take us down.
For instance, I feel sorry for Milijas, that he hasn’t been given the training or trust, to show his ability for Wolves.
Next season he will play for Birmingham or Stoke and will be a very good midfielder.
Good article.
Perhaps we still have hope Ben. Cataclysmic electric storm engulfs Molyneux at excactly 11.55am Sunday. McUp and TC take shelter from torrential downpour, two wallies with the brollies!, act of God does the rest and the game is, of course, postponed. Shocking(oh dear), obviously, but just in time for big Sam to take temporary charge and guide us to safety.
I think you are over-reacting a tad.
I think it’s just some fans have different expectations. You are more accepting with being bottom of the league which is fair enough. After all football is meant to be fun. However after we went for it in terms of investment, to be where we are is more than frustrating. The fact the spin coming out of the club is poorly masking what has been a very poor season.
The reason I have low expectations is because we were promoted very recently, so we should surely be expecting a relegation fight? For those who had the ‘pleasure’ to watch us in the nineties I don’t understand why expectations are quite so high.
If you don’t expect or want our team to win every week, why on earth bother to watch and support them????
Reminds me of the old joke about the Wolves fan with the dog on the terraces.
When the team came out for the pre match warm up, the dog went wild, jumping, barking and turning sumersaults.
A fan standing close by was impressed.
The game kicked off and after 5 minutes the Wolves got a corner.
Dog went ballistic, jumped on the railing, turned sumersaults, barking, howling like crazy.
The fan said to the owner ” I’m really impressed with your dog, a true Wolves fan. Tell me, he goes crazy like that when we get a corner, what does he do when we score?”
Owner says ” Haven’t got a clue, I’ve only had him for six months!!!”
Woof woof Louie.
FOMM
Oh. My. God.
This sentence: “If you don’t expect or want our team to win every week, why on earth bother to watch and support them????”
This coming from the old man who secretly wants us to lose to West Brom, even get thrashed just like he did before.
Yep, proper Wolves fan.
You don’t get it, do you, whippersnapper?
I agree with the blog further down, you really know it all when you are a teenie bopper, don’t you?
Grow up, get some experience of life in general, then you will realize that you sound so pathetic, trying to have a go at us oldies.
And don’t get yer ma involved……..we leave ours out of it, so should you, unless she is still changing yer nappies!!!
Have a nice day, little Louie, all is in jest!!
FOMM
Dear old Clive, for as long as you patronise me about my age I will say something back about yours. Stop, and I will stop.
Have a nice day, you really have to cherish everyone one of them when you are your age 😉
Thank you, dearie, I will bring you a bag of sweeties next time we meet.
Have you got teeth yet?
FOMM
Love it.
i’ll wait at the top of the stairs and see how long it takes you to get there.
P.S. is this the longest our dear old clive has gone without talking about his favourite player?
Clive is correct. There is no evidence we will win another game. But you don’t expect to win ! You are happy if we go down. Come on mate as Clive says, grow up! Why support a club and expect it to lose?
Louie are u Mick McCarthy’s son?
Robin, what the hell are you on about?
You’ve just said there is no evidence we will another game, and then had a go at me for apparently saying I don’t expect to win (which is untrue). That makes absolutely no sense at all!
I thought I was the positive one?
It’s good that when people are losing their argment, they start talking about age. When they do that, I jsut go into silly mode because I can’t be arsed.
Top blog. No-one does pathos quite like you Ben.
Yep, it’s out of our hands now. From this point on, only Blackpool, Wigan and West Ham all contriving to somehow play even worse than we are can save us. I am not too hopeful.
BTW, I’ve had Charlie Adam in my fantasy team all season. He’s been the top points scorer! Penalties, assists from corners, scorchers from open play. You name it, he occasionally obliges. No compromises there. Maybe I should have subbed Karl Henry before now though …
Cheers Kowloon. I looked up pathos in the dictionary and it said ‘work of art arousing feeling of pity.’ That’s some compliment for a miserable bastard like me!
My FF team is a disgrace, but I did try to curse Odemiwingie by selecting him. The only player who is immune from the curse it seems. Typical!
Cheer up we’re going to beat the Albion on Sunday. I’m sure of it.
Btw think I saw you in the Clarendon after the Fulham game looking sorry for yourself.
Might see you there this weekend with a big grin on your face!!!!!
You should have said hello mate. Anything to get me away from the impossibly happy clapping mates I was screaming at.
You probably did right in fairness after reading this eh?!
I hope I am in there grinning, singing and dancing like we were when we beat them 1-0 through Bothroyd (remember the atmosphere in there that day?!)
I bloody love the club and always will, which is why I get so peeved when the very emotions I want to convey are on a par with Fulham’s away game with Sunderland…
I agree, Ben – I’ll neither be jubilant nor suicidal if we stay up or drop back into the Championship, which is a sad state of affairs. When Hoddle was in charge, an air of apathy cast a gloomy shadow over Molineux as a bunch of no-hopers ambled to mid-table security in English football’s second tier. And I fully expect a return to those dark days if (when, more likely) we go down with McCarthy still at the helm come August.
From an Albion fan’s perspective, the script couldn’t be better – head to your bitterest rivals safe in the knowledge that you’ll be watching Premier League football next season while knowing an away victory will likely consign the opposition to relegation. Perhaps being 3,000 miles away is a big factor, but I can’t sum up the energy to fret over such an outcome.
I’m resigned to relegation after a season of abject football, baffling team selections and awful defending. Once back in the Championship, fans will most likely be ‘treated’ to more of the same under ‘Super Mick’, while Albion, Blues and Villa battle for West Midlands supremacy in the Premier League. Anything less than five wins in our opening 10 Championship games will see Molineux once again engulfed in a mist of apathy.
But hey ho, at least we have a stadium redevelopment to look forward to, so every cloud…
Rob, you’re better off in Dubai mate! I am actually feeling more positive today and think we will beat WBA on Sunday. There. I’ve said it.
The premise of the blog still remains though, irrespective.
I.E. Too much preoccupation with other teams, bordering on the obsessing, as we all cling to whatever straw we can, even if the player was someone like Danny Murphy!
36 years I’ve followed the Wolves and I’ve seen some shit and I’ve been disappointed more than a few times throughout that time. Nothing compares to the feelings I have at the moment.
This season has been thrown away purely from the inadequacies of the management and coaching staff. At the end of last season we were on a high, albeit a false one as we were f**king useless last season as well if we’re hones. But last season was acceptable as we were bedding into a new league.
There are no excuses this time round. One of the largest pre-season spends in the clubs history only to see all those players frozen out.
People will look back and remember us beating Man Ure, Chelski, Citeh etc and yes they were great days. What we should be remembering is the sorry defeats against Wigan, Blackpool, West Ham, Stoke, Everton, Newcastle, Fulham, Bolton – all teams we should be competing with, all teams we laid down like a dead dog for.
I don’t blame the players, it’s not their fault. I blame McIdiot for his stupid naive selections / tactics and his loyalty to truly awful players.
We will be relegated this season, we deserve to be, in fact I will be embarrassed if we don’t get relegated!
I can’t cope with another abject season like this one and I can’t cope with knowing Stephen Ward will be playing every game next season.
If Wolves go down, I will not get to see them play (ln Canada there ain’t much interest in Championship football), I’m thinking that’s a blessing in disguise. No more depressive weekends, no more will the wife and kids avoid me on Saturdays, I may even get chance to follow different sports or try something new – even if its a Saturday afternoon at the mall it will be better that what I’ve suffered over the last year, and that my friends is very sad indeed!
I totally agree. We’ve had loads of worse teams in my time but never have we had a manager who has made so little of so much oppurtunity. And never has a manager consistently picked a player so obviously inadequate as Ward when he had ample time and money to rectify the problem yonks ago. It just beggars belief.
And yet he’s still our best manager for 30 years! Weird all the expectations we have..
Not as weird as your expertise on things even long before you were born. They do say if you want to know something ask a teenager while they still know everything. Who was our best manager in the past 30 years is actually a matter of opinion but, unlike you, I actually witnessed all of them. None of them had the advantages McCarthy’s had in the last two seasons. Some were good imo ( John Barnwell, Graham Turner, Dave Jones for example) and some not so good, but none of them wasted such a golden oppurtunity.
You talk about wasted opportunities, and then go on to talk about Dave Jones as a good manager. Old people eh? Must be their memories.
I happen to be of the opinion Louie, that if Dave Jones had enjoyed as much investment as a certain McMuppet then we would have stayed in the league in 2003 and would probably still be in charge of us today.
You state McCarthy is the most successful manager we have had in the past 30 years but I can guarantee you he is not the best one. Success and ability are 2 very different things young man.
Oakes (1m)
Muscat
Lescott
Butler (1m minimum)
Naylor
Newton (800k)
Rae (1m)
Cameron (1.2m)
Kennedy (2m)
Miller (3m)
Ndah (1m)
——————
Hennessey
Foley (600k)
Stearman (1m)
Mancienne (loan)
Ward (100k)
Kightly (25k)
Henry (50k)
Jones (1m)
Jarvis (700k)
Ebanks-Blake (1.5m)
Iwelumo (500k)
The top one is worth ten million, the below one is worth around half. Tell me which team threw away a ten point lead to City AND our most hated rivals, and which team stayed top all season and went up champions?
Jones was never given money in the Premier League because he shitted it all on crap old players looking for one more pay cheque (hardly worked either), while Mick went out and got players who were going to improve and genuinely cared about the club.
Of course it’s all about opinions, old man.
They were not crap old players Louie! That was a great midfield, throw in Paul Ince too. Shame we haven’t a few of them knocking around now.
In my opinion, Mick’s great in the Championship, but once he gets up, he’s no idea what to do. He’s too loyal sometimes and baffles me with his tactics and changes (see dropping Berra for Mancienne, throwing in Kightly rather than Hammill, leaving out Guedioura and Milijas…) He’s damn stubborn.
I’ve been one of Mick’s staunchest supporters and have not yet jumped on the Mick out bandwaggon, though I’m growing more and more disenchanted by the week. He’s blown money, and had quality on the bench Sunday that could’ve beat Blues. If we go down, we’re back to where we started, and what next? Time for a fresh start perhaps..
I don’t subscribe to the ‘let’s start a Mick out campaign’ calls in the last two games. How stupid. Like the manager or not, we need to back the team to keep us in the league
Ince, Cameron, rae all in their thirties? Only Rae did that well in the Premier league really. Newton wasn’t great either. My problem with Jones, was that there was no back up plan at all. He spent £15 million getting us up and it tooks us ages to recover. With mick’s team, we can realistically look at bouncing back if the dreaded happens.
I agree that Mick makes odd decisions, and not always the right ones but hes doing what he thinks is best and if he started listening to the fans I’d be worried.
“I don’t subscribe to the ‘let’s start a Mick out campaign’ calls in the last two games. How stupid. Like the manager or not, we need to back the team to keep us in the league”
Spot on. Ridiculous, and stupid.
Louie, good point re 03, but don’t you think that passage of our history says a bit about moxey too? Here’s a man that heralded the strategy of buying old seasoned pros to get us up and keep us up, then rams the ‘young and hungry’ policy down our throats whwn Mick did it far, far cheaper. He must think we are so stupid. Therein lies the rub I guess…mick undoubtedly worked bloody wonders and Jez Moxey owes him more than he’ll ever let on.
But Mick is testing our resolve (and possibly Jez’?) by making so many inexplicable decisions.
So bad are they that you wonder if he could ruin a legacy more if he tried.
And the worst bit of all is that he’d done the hard part! He got us here, kept us here, got Jez his bonuses, earned our love…
…but now these decisions. I actually think that the Merlin who walked into Compton 5yrs ago wouldn’t do what he is doing now. His decisiveness gone, his senses scrambled.
It’s painful for us. It must be torture for him.
Also, you have missed out Elokobi 500k, shackell £1m, D Ward £700K, S Elliott £1.5m, Vokes £500K, Dave Edwards £500K, C Berra £2.3m
They both achieved promotion with big budgets.
you have missed out loads of McCarthy’s signings, Berra cost 2.3m. Shackell a million, Ward, Elliott, Elokobi – he spent shit loads getting wolves up! You have picked the cheapest 11 to support your argument!
No I didn’t, I picked what was our best eleven that year.
I thought he actually said the best manager Jed, but you know what my memory’s like.
Best, as in ability? Picky.
Surely success comes with ability anyway? To pick and choose the right players, motivate them and to get us promoted and be the first in over two decades to keep us there?
Louie every team needs to evolve, otherwise they get left behind. Yes McCarthy did a wonderful job getting promotion but I’ll argue all day long that he has been shit in the top flight. We were awful last year and you know it. We stayed in that league because of how utterly shite the teams in the bottom half were and not because of our ability. This year we are worse. We are worse because we spent more money than any team in the bottom half and we are still shit. That my friend lies on the head of your favourite manager. For me its unacceptable. McCarthy built the club up from nothing and deserves the plaudits for that, but sometimes you need to take a step away and let somebody else take it further.
When you are old enough to stand up to take a piss you may just get it.
I’ll ignore the bit where you were rude to me for absolutely no reason.
i agree, that teams need to evolve, however I disagree that that times is now. If we are sitting mid table in the championship next season I will happily admit that I am wrong and that we need a change of manager.
If we stay up, Mick stays.
If we go down, come back up. Then what? do what Albion did, quite possibly. Sack Mick at the right time, and hire a proven Premier League manager is certainly an option.
Howeverr, if we stay up then mick has again proved we he can keep us up.
Nice to see you trying to pick on someone other than me, for a change.
Strange how us old farts, with a brazillion year’s worth of experience watching and probably playing football, don’t quite have your young, fresh insight to McDickhead’s “brain”.
Must be fuckin’ great to be perfect.
Sorry for having a different opinion to you.
If just staying in the league by the skin of our teeth is acceptable for you Louie then I agree McMuppet is your man. If my opinion is that I want to see the team I love and have loved for a very long time actually challenge for something in the league, then excuse me if I call for the head of the person who can only just about keep our team in the league. Sorry if my outlook is different than yours.
“And never has a manager consistently picked a player so obviously inadequate as Ward”
Two words for you… “Steve Corica”! ha,ha,ha!
On a serious note though – I know exactly what you mean – we have players capable of keeping us in this league (except a centre half and a left back), but Muppet Mick has been unable to pick the team required or sign the players we need (even with an £18m budget).
Nice one Stourbridge but do you really think Corica was worse than Ward? I wouldn’t put him in that class and i think he scored a few goals as well didn’t he?
It’s a tough one Martin – both totally useless, both continually played by managers totally blind to there inadequacies.
I feel a little sorry for Ward at times as it’s not his fault he keeps being played in every position under the sun!
When I was a lad, several centuries ago, we used to relish playing the shit.
More importantly, the players had the same relish, and were as up for the games as the fans. Players were mostly British, had been with the club for some time, and when they ran on to the pitch, they had passion and pride in the old gold and black shirts they wore, and they played with passion and pride.
Form went out of the window, and sometimes we won and sometimes we lost, but we never played without heart and 100% commitment.
Today’s players don’t give a shit, and are only there for the paycheck.
We are a laughing stock, and although it goes against everything I hold dear, part of me secretly hopes we get stuffed royally on Sunday, because if we win, it will only delay the inevitable, and if we lose, it might just be the final nail in that useless manager’s career coffin.
McCarthy has no clue how we feel, he is totally out of touch with reality, and as I have stated several times before, he has been taking the piss all season long.
There needs to be a huge McCarthy Out campaign during the last 2 homes games.
FOmm
I’m with red clive and the houston popular front. What we need right now is an utterly pointless (as in, will have absolutely no effect) demo against the manager. That should help the already visibly struggling players to focus on the job in hand.
oi you! leave clive alone! i thought i was the master baiter
I’m with blue clive. It’s those bloody foreigners who are to blame.
I love this blog and am starting to enjoy reading it more than watching the Wolves. Sad but true!
We Wolves fans have really got a lot to look forward to next season. If by some miracle we manage to defy the odds and stay in the premiership, who will be our manager – MM.
If as probably will happen, we get relegated, which will be an absolute disgrace and disaster, who will be our manager – MM.
If we get relegated MM should resign, admitting his failure. If we stay up, he should be sacked for failing to move the club one inch forward in the last 2 years. Apart from Doyle, Zubar, Fletcher and Guidiera, Hammill and Mijas, all his other signings have been a disaster.
The continued playing of Ward, hapless and hopelessly out of his depth, the weekly changes in formation and personnel, the massive squad all are pointers of a manager who has totally lost the plot, whether he had one in the first place is a question the board should be asking. The board should be demanding he keeps our club in the premiership, not siting on their hands in silence while the disaster of relegation unfolds. Where is the passion, care and fire in the belly in the club, there is sadly none or very little on the pitch.
Is it only the long suffering supporters who care about Wolverhampton Wanderers?
For however many kumquats that I eat
I’m not sure if it’s flesh or rind that’s sweet,
and being a man of doubt at life’s mid-way
I’d offer Keats some kumquats and I’d say:
You’ll find that one part’s sweet and one part’s tart:
say where the sweetness or the sourness start.
I find I can’t, as if one couldn’t say
exactly where the night became the day,
which makes for me the kumquat taken whole
best fruit, and metaphor, to fit the soul
This is an extract from a poem by Tony Harrison called A kumquat for John Keats and I quote it because for me it illustrates why I enjoy supporting Wolves. You can’t have hope without despair, pleasure without pain, sweet without sour, beauty without ugliness, joy without misery. Shankly was wrong when he said football was more important than life and death as was clearly shown when Dean Richards’ family appeared on the pitch before the Tottenham game. A writer could not have set up a more thrilling end to the season, having to beat the old enemy to have a chance of staying in the premiership. Bring it on.
Brilliant Danny. We Wolves really are the best!
Nice and appropriate quote for all Wolves fans.
Good Poet Tony Harrison.
If you want to hear our beloved manager talking about desserts, take a listen to “Gift Champions League May Live” at the following link
http://www.todayfm.com/Shows/Weekdays/Ian-Dempsey-Breakfast-Show/Gift-Grub.aspx
MM makes an appearance at around 3:28, but the part before with Jose Mourinho, Ancelotti, John Terry/Frank Lampard etc is quite funny too.
Look down Jed, no space left there.
Not many teams instantly become a top half team as soon as they get promoted. We have a young team, who are learning. We have spent a lot of money, on some good and some bad. If we do stay up (and right now I think everyone would accept doing it by the skin of our teeth) then next year we have to push on and start to become a midtable team. The signs are there, we are only a few players short of doing it. A left back, centre back and centre mid would have to be high on Mick’s priority list.
Louie I agree in many ways, and I truly love your optimism, the trouble is I think it’s flawed. You are entitled to your opinion and I respect your opinion.
I quote your words “The signs are there, we are only a few players short of doing it. A left back, centre back……..” No I ask you the question, when did YOU not Muppet but you realise we needed to strengthen those positions? I had an inkling in our promotion season as we leaked goals for fun, we were just able to score plenty as well. If as I believe you also share that opinion then how can an old fart like me see it, a young whipper like you see it, 30,000 numpties see it, yet the one man who has control to something about it, completely fail to strengthen in those areas?
So imagine we had strengthened those areas with experienced players – do you think we would now be where we are? Maybe but probably not. Coupled with the fact that our manager now has experience in this league and is far more qualified than any of us to identify weaknesses in our squad. Bearing that in mind is it truly unreasonable for fans seeing issues going unaddressed for so long to call for the managers head, when clearly the thing holding us back is the manager himself?
The thing is, I do think he has tried to strengthen in a couple of those areas.
I think most people were delighted that we snapped up a left back in van damme straight after the season ended. That obviously didn’t work out, and maybe Mick could have done better there but clearly he has identified it. You have to wonder why he didn’t go for one in the January transfer window though. at centre back, we definitely should have gone for an experienced head, as well as Mouyokolo (another one who so far just hasn’t worked out YET)
I agree, we should have and with a bit of experience we could be higher up the table. However, I just don’t think he is an idiot, a muppet because he has done a fantastic job for Wolves.
and the best thing about supporting the Wolves – they have a wonderful ability of splitting opinion every season – perfect for blog writers the world over! McCarthy is still an idiot though 😉
he got wolves promoted after 3 attempts spending millions on building a team Foley, Stearman, Berra, Ward, Shackell, Elokobi, Jarvis, Henry, Jones, Kightly, Ebanks, Elliott, Stearman, Iwelumo, – his first season he did well with peanuts but since then he has spent big. Compared to teh jobs done by all other promoted managers, in recent years – Warnock, Lambert, Holloway, Di Matteo, McCarthy has spent an absolute fortune. So tiresome hearing what a fantastic job McCarthy has done.
Since then he has spent £33million and the team against Stoke was dire. He is out of his depth at this level – team selections, wrong formations and poor signings.
Again, ran out of space :p
Ben, I think Moxey has done a lot of good work at the club. The way he dealt with Camara, got money back for Eastwood and getting £3m for seyi George Olofinjana. I think he’s seen that there was no back up plan with buying experience players, and almost trying to make up for it.
Concerning Mick, I think he has panicked. At the worst possible time. With Doyle getting injured, he panicked after twenty minutes of the Newcastle game. At the time I thought it was quite perfectly set up for Fletcher to prove his worth. he’s made some more odd decisions which makes me think his time could be coming to an end unless he turns it around.
Fair play with the comments Louie. My point was more that Jez Moxey spouted a lot of guff about how we were buying Newton, Kennedy etc to get us up and keep us up (yeah right) while coming out with the complete opposite under McCarthy, because we had no money – whoops – we only deal in young and hungry currency.
He thinks he is some sort of revolutonary when only a few years ago his mantra couldn’t have been further from the one he rejoices over so smugly today.
Mick got Moxey a whopping great bonus and Premier League footy for getting us up. (I would imagine)
Mick deserves eternal respect for that from us and Jez.
Maybe Jez is as loyal to Mick as Mick is to players like Ward because of all this.
Oh bugger….I don’t know!
I think he’s realised which one is right, learning from a previous mistake. Only thing is he hasn’t come out and saidm, I was wrong before (which i doubt we will erver see him say).
Latest from the official sanitized site.
Words of infinite wisdom from our glorious leader on Sunday’s game:
“This result will not be defining, unless we win, then it will be defining.”
Brilliant, absolutely fuckin’ brilliant.
Words to write down and cherish. A speech of earth shattering simplicity, yet so meaningful and uplifting!!!
What a fucking tosser!
And, to cap it all, we have arranged for two pre season friendlies, to really test our strengths, and we’ll probably get thrashed, at those famous, glory ridden homes of golden memories…………….Crewe and Walsall.
Great to see our sights set so high!!!
FOMM
Oh, good morning Louie, how was your rusk this morning?!!!!
Lovely to see Stephen Ward get a mention by Mick McCarthy again today ‘Berra urged to take leaf out of Ward’s book.’
Seriously, this isn’t even healthy anymore.
WBA fans must laugh their arses off when they keep reading about McCarthy’s obsession with Ward from us lot, and then he comes out with the 32nd mention of him in the last two weeks. Jesus!
So that’s Ward starting up front on Sunday then. The only striker in the Premier League slower than Jonas Olsson.
You took the words right out of my mouth Ben – in every f*cking interview the Muppet delivers Ward now seems to get a mention. When we do finally sack this clown and he gets his next managerial job I hope he comes in and makes a mega bucks offer to take his love child away from us.
Oh and he can have Keogh for the £2m he valued him at in the summer too.
If by some miracle Doyle is fit for Sunday I’m sure Ward will be moved to left back anyway.
There’s only one way Ward’s gonna leave this club and that’s on a free transfer. It’s just a matter of when.
Hopefully in 3 games time
Whatever you all think about Mick, one thing he is the tops at is getting the name of Stephen Ward in every conversation. Three examples I have found on the ‘net lately are:
1. Q: Hello Mick, what do you think of the USA finally getting bin Laden?
A: Well, I think it is great but have I mentioned how great Stephen Ward
is – he can pay in any position you know.
2. Q: Hi Mick, what’s your favourite food? A: I like steaks and curries but I
could gobble up that Stephen Ward – he’s so great.
3. Q: Mick, what do you do in your spare time? A: I Like to play golf and
listen to music but my favourite occupation is reading my Stephen Ward
scrapbook which I’ve been keeping for years. It’s full of my quotes as
well.
Quality! Or better still Nemo:
1: Mick, it has just been revealed that Stephen Ward is actually Osama Bin Laden and responsible for some of the most attrocious terrorists attrocities ever committed. Sorry to break it to you but the Americans shot him dead this morning.
Mick: Yes, okay, but how bad are his injuries? He’ll run through brick walls for me so he’s starting Sunday, whatever happens.
Oh, Marcus…F**k off back to Seattle.
If Berra takes a leaf out of Ward’s book, then he will be worse player than he is now.
If Ward and Henry didn’t play on Sunday we might have a chance!
Louie, are you reading all this?
I haven’t mentioned the manager’s love child once, but everyone else has.
Strange how we all have the same opinion of him…………except MM, TC and you.
Are you all related??????
See you at the bap shop by the players entrance on Sunday, I’ll be the one in the Houston Dynamo shirt.
FOMM
Clive you should know better, its 7:30 in the UK and way past his bedtime!
Oops, you’re right, he’s probably tucked up in his Rupert pyjamas, with his Teddy under one arm and a signed picture of McCarthy hugging Ward in the other, with a blissfully ignorant smile on his face!!!
Oh the innocence of youth!!
FOMM
Or I have some better things to do than try and gang up on someone several times younger than me.
How sad, but I’m glad yopu get some joy from it.
And you do not all have the same opinion as me, there are a lot of people who do not just come on the internet to slate Ward off.
Whiever said that ‘it’s a blog, where we slag off Ward’ is right. I’m glad it’s kept in here to be honest.
I typed that so badly.
Meant to say, I’m not the only one who doesn’t think Ward is crap. There are plenty who don’t go on the internet just to slag off Ward
What have you been drinking, Louie???
You are normally so precise and grammatically correct, boy, you’ve been on the hooch tonight!!!
Sweet dreams, kiddo, keep the faith and ye shall be reWARDed!!!!!
FOMM
But Ward really is crap
But there is no evidence whatsoever that Ward is anything but crap!
You may not think he is crap, but obviously your standards are not very high. There is something simplistic in your arguments.
Earlier you said about Van Damme ‘not working out’.
You mean he discovered what a muppet manager we had and left, or was there something else?
It is bad management to buy a player for 2.5m and find out he won’t play for you.
Ward is not a good player in relation to what a ‘good’ premiership class footballer is, in any position.
You probably think there are little spacemen at the bottom of the garden.
It’s as likely as Ward ‘being a good player.’
Louie – I dont just go on the internet to slag off Ward – I do use it to look at porn too!
Either way you are dealing with c***s!
robin, we have different opinions. That does not mean I think there are little spacemen at the bottom of the garden.
The funniest thing is that you can have a go at Ward, someone who trieshis best everytime, cares about the club yet when we have a little shit like Freddy eastwood at our club you adore him and say Mick isn’t playing him enough. I’d put money on him that is the case with a lot of you guys.
I think Ward is an OK player who is a useful to have in the squad, not the first team but on the bench because he can play in a few positions (cue someone saying he plays them all crap etc).
When we start to establish ourselves, he will have to move on but until then I’m happy to have him in the squad.
on your side Louie, so are many other, this site has become quite embarrassing. twisted and negative support – always the loudest. shame as this artivle was actually an excellent blog.
Thanks El Plim. Always excellent articles too by Ben and Thomas.
I’m sure everyone on here will be congratulating Ward on his ireland call up too 😉
To borrow a stat told to me by Thomas – only one team that has been promoted to the Premier Leeague since its inception has stayed up and then got more points in their second season than in their first (Stoke, for those of you who are interested).
To stay up this season we need to become the second.
While I agree that the shite defending and numerous missed opportunities have been beyond frustrating at times this season, I think people don’t realise that simply staying is up is a hell of an achievement.
I’ll be royally pissed off it we go down because I think we have a better squad than several teams in the Prem. But having supported Wolves since early-90s, Mick’s already the best thing to happen to the club in my life time. He’s built a squad, got us up, and kept us up. If he does it again I hope he gets a bit of credit for it
I understand completely what you say SKD, staying up is an achievement. For me though, as much as I hope we do stay up, I don’t think McCarthy should be praised for it. This season has been a shambolic disaster of poor management, terrible tactics and obscene loyalty to some players at the expense of others, and some bad luck.
We should not be in the position we are now, we are a better team than 19th place suggests, even renowned managers such as Sir Purple Nose and Uncle ‘arry have said how bemused they are at our position in the league.
So who takes the blame? It lies with only one man. Yes McCarthy has enjoyed some success at the club and yes he deserves recognition for that, however does anybody else really want to witness another shambolic season like this one?
At the start of the season I was full of hope, we’d spent a load of cash, we’d beaten Stoke comfortably, things were looking good. I eve bought the crappy Burrda Wolves shirt (which I have to say is as shit as the team but that’s another story).
Our downfall is as result of a manager out of his depth, unfortunately he’s to stubborn to see it, the board are too scared of him to acknowledge it and so its left to us the fans to voice it.
So in tribute to Clive, thankyou for the past 5 years but FOMM and let someone who has a clue take us that step further!
Didn’t Birmingham go up the same year as us?
Surely they will get more points this year?
What about Newcastle too?
Birmingham got 50 points last season. They can’t achieve the same feat again this year (39 with 3 games to go).
This is Newcastle’s first season back so next season will be the decisive one.
But to be fair, I’m only quoting a statistic relayed to me by someone else.
If we keep this crap going today, we might get over the 100 comments on one thread!!!
FOMM
Did you see the Royal wedding Clive? Apparently Wardy was drafted in as a body double for the “ring on the finger” bit.
Also… In an ObL related incident, Osama Bin Laden has just broadcast a public message on Al Jazira TV to prove he is still alive… He says “Stephen Ward played shite on Sunday”. However, intelligence sources have dismissed it saying he could have recorded it anytime in the last 5 years.
Tadar!!
I make that 76 posts.
They got a new drink out called the bin laden.
Two shots and a splash of water!!!
They reckon Ward is to be the new Wolves coach.
Gonna stick seats in his nose.
FOMM
TATD, nice one.
Just been reading about MM on Wikipedia and it says this about his term as Irish manager. ‘Criticism of McCarthy became increasingly intense after a poor start to the Euro 2004 campaign. In particular, his persistance with severaal players and tactics perceived to be inadequate.’ Sounds familiar.
It’s always good to learn from your mistakes, oh wait a minute……..
Hey, Louie, you are a fan of statistics, so here are some about a certain Mr. Ward.
His official football history, as shown on the Wolves sanitized site, says he is a striker.
Good.
So he is supposed to score goals, right?
In 9 seasons of “playing” football, both for Bohemians and Wolves, he has scored 16 goals.
16.
16.
It bears repeating. That is an average of 1.77 per SEASON.
For a striker.
A reasonable striker would average that every two games.
And then Numptie hater says today that Berra should take a leaf out of Ward’s book in how to get back in the side after being dropped.
The only chapter in Ward’s book about that is the one entitled “Brown Nosing the Boss” …….and let’s face it he has a lot of nose to brown!!!
FOMM
Propaply still better statistics than £2million rated Keogh! ha,ha,ha!
This thread is actually far more interesting than anything that the Wolves have done this season – Thanks Ben I feel fully cheered up. Ward is still crap though
Come on fellas, you included, Louie, only 11 more comments and we reach the 100, and Ben wins a cuddly toy and a conveyor belt
FOMM
Yeah, how about a nice big cuddly Ward.
Ward was on central news last night at the charity golf event.
I would prefer he spent thagt time practicing his defending (or attacking – depending on where the muppet intends to play him this weekend).
McCarty out.
Hi Ben,
Great blog and I’ve had to google poor old Roy Sullivan. He’s been a fundemental part in the blog and I thought he deserved a bit of a mention.
Our friends at Wiki give us some great detail about his misfortunes. The really sad thing is that, I quote, ” He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 71 over an unrequited love.”
You go through life dodgin lightening bolts and then shoot yourself over a broad. Poor bloke.
Apparently, Stephen Ward had the first 5 shots at him and missed.
Oh this is getting silly.
McCarthy is apparently safe whatever happens after the next 3 games, so all this posturing is pretty much academic.
If we stay up (and I suspect we will) then we all know what we need to be doing in the transfer market, and we have to cross our fingers that someone comes in with big money for Ward – £3.50 is too good an offer to turn down.
I have been a staunch supporter of MM throughout his tenure, and although I do worry about his team selections and tactics, I do not see the point of pissing and moaning about him – it’s counter productive.
“I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”
– John Wayne following the 1960 election of JFK
FOWB
Yes, but after 4 years you can get rid of the President. We can’t get rid of Mick at all.
I was n`t going to blog today, but heres one to get near the 100 so Ben gets to pass go and collect £200.
Working in Chesterfield I have been to the new B2net stadium, both on business and to see Chesterfield play several times this year. They have a left back on a season loan from Peterborough who is ten times better defender than Ward or Big George would be in a month of Sundays. The Spirites will pobably win the 3rd division tiltle on Saturday and deservedly so. Craig Davies who had a short spell at Molyneux is their top scorer with 26 goals. As a striker he is light years ahead of Ward.
In fact I don`t think Ward is good enough to get into the current Chesterfield side, in what is the old fourth division. As for paying £3.50 for him, I do`nt think there will be any higher offers.
My issue is not with Ward, he doesn`t pick the team. However if MM really thinks Ward is fit for championship football, as he clearly wasn`t, let alone the premiership, it brings into serious question his ability to assess players ability and suitability to play at the level we are competing – poorly at right now. Given the evidence of our league position and results its hardly a surprise that most supporters have reached that conclusion by now.
98
Pork bap van at 11.15 Sunday Big Man?
99
Played golf at Sandwell Park on Monday. Full of sh*t fans delighting in telling me how Mulumbu cost £150 and Odinwengi £2500 so what happened to the £34m Micks got through???
100!!!
Congrats Ben. Think all bloggers should club together to buy you a new phone! I’ll start the ball rolling by matching the £3.50 from summer sale of Ward.
for anyone with a bit of time on their hands, can i direct you towards the new and updated official website of adlene guedioura, at
http://www.adleneguedioura.com
iv never seen anything like it. it’s baffling.
Good morning scooped.
If you and every other wolves fan had a choice of a succulent pork bap with stuffing, apple sauce and crackling, mmm sounds delicious – for £3.50 at 11.45am on Sunday, or buying Ward for the same amount, most or if not all fans would go for the pork bap.
It would probably defend better and get more shots in than that inept t**t did last Sunday. FOMM.
No contest – pork bap for me every time!
Thats a date then and its my treat!
Cant stop now – got to drag myself off to the bloody golf course again. Lifes a bitch!!!
Scooped, you put that in writing, now there are hundreds of witnesses to your promise……………Scooped is gonna put his hand in his pocket!!!
Mark and Ben, take a camera with you, this will be a rarer sight than a Ward goal!!
FOMM
104……..Ben wins Bruce Forsyth and Andrea Redfern!!!
I meant Anthea Redfern, Andrea is her mom!!!