Articulating how it feels to be a Wolves fan right now was supposed to be the hardest blog to write of all, until a political editor of a Sunday broadsheet unwittingly did it for me.
Her article about ‘How Cameron is out of touch with struggling middle classes’ wasn’t meant to talk directly to a Wolves fan, but more an ‘empty aspirational generation.’
She wrote: “Middle class families are not rich enough to be the Government’s friends, nor poor enough to merit their pity.”
I make no apologies for hijacking this sentence and applying it 100 per cent to how I currently feel as a desperately sad Wolves fan.
I don’t spit out my pie at Mick from the South Bank, nor do I shake a prawn sandwich from an executive box.
I sit next to Dad, alongside Tel, and behind the old boys in row P and we shake hands before each game and pipe up for an unashamedly tuneless version of silver lining.
We take it in turns to get the half time coffees in. We encourage, we cajole and we berate every referee as if they actually have an agenda against our beloved side. We quietly mutter exasperation at one or two players too, if truth be told.
To quote Kirsty Buchanan’s piece in the Sunday Express: “We are not hustlers, nimbies or home hoarders, just law abiding hard workers looking for a level playing field.”
The first game my Dad took me to was at home to Simod Cup holders Reading on September 3rd 1988.
My last one, on Saturday, reduced my little boy to tears as he hated Daddy’s ‘wuulfs’ losing 2-0.
Yet the club holds me in contempt and I’m treated like a pariah.
Our manager tells me to f**k off, our captain calls me fickle and our chief executive tells me to cough up or forget a stadium rebuild.
West Brom fans just prefer to call me a loser. Again.
There is no middle ground supporting Wolves right now, only a stigma that I’m responsible for that fabled ‘Molineux Factor’ for daring to question what the hell is going on.
Despite ploughing thousands of money I’ve never had into the club I’m hopelessly in love with and only ever been guilty of encouraging the lads, I have never been more despised.
If I passed Mick in the street wearing my signed Bully Nutmeg shirt, Mick would cross the road.
If I met Jez Moxey in Penn Bowling Club, he’d tell me to get the hell out and support the team properly.
And if I got a tweet from Roger Johnson or Jamie O’Hara, it would feature a boo-boy hashtag.
Maybe I should just embrace the brush I’m being tarred with.
Or maybe the club should read Kirsty Buchanan’s article and take a bloody long look in the mirror instead of telling me to.
After all, ‘creating a fairer society is not just about pursuing the feckless. It is also about supporting the army of the ordinary.’
Whether you want to back or bet against Wolves, you can do so with these free bets and risk the bookmaker’s money rather than your own!
Following on the political theme my mate made a good analogy regarding The Wolves.
Whenever we are struggling people always say “Don’t you remember how it was under Hoddle?” Yeah I do but that was 6 years ago.
Do you think people will give the Tories the benefit of the doubt if they are still blaming Labour and Gordon Brown in 2015?
Not a chance! Just because things were bad it doesn’t mean we have to be eternally grateful!
Extremely well put. I think you’ve summed it up for the comparatively “silent” well at least quietish majority who sit in the middle of a storm clearly not of their own making.
I for one really don’t believe anyone of the faithful make the (often long) journey just to take an opportunity to have a snipe at MM or any single player.
All around me are constant fans through thick and thin who come to see a good game of football with hopefully the right result. Last season there wasn’t this negativity or vocalisation why?
1. The team put in a real shift week in week out.
2. Almost all players showed commitment if not always skill
3. The team showed a positive outlook without resorting to attacking the fan base
4. The management showed at least some small level of appearing to care about the fan base
5. McCarthy was funny and engaging and responded in some small measure to poor performance/comments
Contrast that to this season where far too many players look like they are out for a kick around, the business end of Wolves looks like it doesn’t give a stuff about the ordinary fan and the words we hear form all and sundry are appalling on all levels. However, the worst bit is I really am worried that the SB were right and MM doesn’t know what he is doing and that really is a worrying development over previous seasons- I truly hope I am wrong.
Great article Ben. I was also shouting at the commentators on Sky during the game with them lambasting the fans for the jeers and general feeling of doom. I can’t imagine what any other set of fans would do after 5 losses on the bounce and with performances that jsut don’t inspire confident, especially as you have said that no matter what we will poor money, passion and soul into our club.
Yes, ok, some of the fans take it a little to far and some of the chanting is unneccessary but when you are a few people sitting out in the cold with nothing else but your horse vocal cords to use and adrenaline corsing through you what other option do fans have to voice their displeasure. No its not well presented or organised but the general theme and feeling is conveyed!
What I’m hoping is that both mick and especially roger are doing is the human thing, hurting and angry they are unfortunately lashing out at those they are closest to. Hurting the ones they intended to protect in a whip lash type response to a feeling of guilt and humiliation. I’m sure they will feel a little sheepish and come back with their head slightly lowered and grumble an apology and then prove they know what they did wrong but doing better and not making the same mistake again.
All in all we as fans are suffering because of our own over self belief in the club. I do truely see us staying put in the premier leaue for another season but its never quiet good enough when we thing there should be a year on year improvement.
So by the end of the season this should hopefully be seen as a little blip in the relationship, things were said in the heat of the moment and they can’t be taken back. But it can make us stronger and by the end we will be rolling around embracing in unbridled passion laughing at the silly spat and happy that things are back on track.
Fingers crossed!
Couldn’t agree more about super Donny Goodman and the aptly named ‘Hawthorne’ commentator. According to them , it was fans that were making the players play like twats. Unbelievable!
exactly. the way he was talking it made it sound like every bad pass / shot / tackle that was made was the fans fault. and he was saying this from the kick off!
it doesn’t help that i shout at the tv at the best of times but he was making me rage!
Can’t ever see McCarthy grumble an apology, the man doesn’t know what apology means!
HE is the biggest problem. HIS ideas, tactics or whatever are always the ones Wolves go with, no matter who else with the necessary attributes may offer him advice.
I must point out that it is a fact that watching the match from a position higher up in the stands than from the dugout gives everyone a far greater vision of what goes on on the pitch, so fans can understand what is going wrong and where it could be put right. This is where Mac THe Mouth comes in.
‘No one knows better than me what to do, so shut it’ is a retort we can aptly apply to the big man and you can almost sense it coming!
What is going on and will continue to go on can be sorted by
Steve Morgan. Whether he does it openly or behind closed doors, it does not matter but he must do something before matters get out of hand and players feign injuries or simply refuse to play. The problem cannot be allowed to continue or the club could well self-destruct!
Top blog, Ben. Top, top blog. Listening to the club (management and players) in the last few days, I have somehow been reminded of those feckless spokesmen for Arab dictators who feign disbelief and incredulity when questioned about why the lowly population have started demonstrating.
It will all end in tears. But, let’s just hope it ends relatively painlessly, and soon.
Before I reply to this post, can I just say how desperately sad I was to hear this:
http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/wolverhampton-wanderers-fc/2011/10/24/wolves-fan-in-collapse-at-molineux/
I walked right by the paramedics attempting to resuscitate this poor bloke at full-time and had been hoping to hear positive news.
Certainly put things sharply into perspective as I walked away from a disappointing match.
Has anyone at the club been in contact with this poor guy’s family, to offer any type of help or support?
My condolences to his family and friends.
I’ve just about had enough of Roger Johnson. I don’t care if he’s our so called captain I don’t want to read another interview with him until he starts performing on the pitch. I never think new signings should be made captain straight away. They should have to earn it. ‘Blame the players, not the manager’. He said. Right, then I expect the manager to drop the failing players such as he. Can I think of a better replacement? Probably not. And that’s the manager’s fault.
Exactly. 2-0 down by half time for the third time in a row – disgraceful. But, we did take Johnson from a side that was relegated and he must have been partly to blame so what can we expect. Making him captain so quickly was just plain stupid
Ben, good article and I think I’m very much in your mould when it comes to supporting the Wolves (although my season ticket is in the South Bank). I however have not been offended by McCarthy and Johnson’s criticism of Wolves fans (out of interest, when did McCarthy tell us to f*** off? All I’ve heard is people on this blog saying that he said it. Also, has O’Hara said something? Cos I’ve missed that too).
I think you’re wrong to say ‘our manager tells me to f*** off, our captain calls me fickle’. It is not you who is being criticised, it’s the moron in front of me who was stood up for most of the second half on Saturday (huge grin on his face) shouting abuse at Johnson, Stearman, Berra and anyone else, it’s the idiots around me who were singing ‘there’s only one Jody Craddock’ after RJ made a mistake, it’s the numbskulls booing the substitution of Jarvis, despite him yet again being utterly ineffective.
I’m not for a second saying that people who pay far too much to watch the crap we’ve seen over the last few weeks shouldn’t be critical, but no fan should WANT to abuse their own team and manager during a game. It was clear on Saturday and it’s often clear on this blog that alot of Wolves fans do.
Excellent reposte to a very good blog.
Sadly the guys in the middle ground feel the abuse is aimed at them and are begining to side with this hostile minority.
did anyone hear MM say FO? the replays showed MM saying ‘oh shut up’.
So hostile & abusive behaviour is obviously not the answer then.
I disagree strongly that ‘a lot’ of Wolves fans on this blog WANT to abuse their team and manager or that a lot of them on here even do.
I do agree that a lot on here, including myself, are critical of the quality of the football produced by Mick’s team and that’s a matter of opinion.
What most fans WANT is a team that wins it’s fair share and sends you bouncing(Newcastle, QPR etc) or even , dare i sday, boing(you know who) for joy. What we dont want is to be pissed off week after week.
we can forgive a team a loss if they show passion and endeavour but if it looks like sunday league football week after week, that is why people become disgruntled!
Let’s put this into context.
Blackburn fans marching and protesting; sitting in; some pretty clear banners about what they want and why (29 games, 6 wins).
Everton marching in force wanting the owner out.
Man Utd. wearing green and yellow shirts, again wanting the owner out.
The most the Wolves’s fans have done is show disapproval at a couple of substitutions in the last couple of games and the fact we couldn’t get the ball back off Swansea (until they stuck it in our net the second time). It’s only really been the QPR and Swansea games where ‘we didn’t get behind our team’ and for good reason in each game (note: the booing of Joey Barton was wonderfully misinterpreted by all and sundry as us turning on our team, which it wasn’t); against Newcastle we were up for it, despite being behind again early.
So in summary – players and manager over-reacting to relatively mild dissension due to poor tactical choices and some poor play.
Personally, I think McCarthy is angry with himself and his luck as much as anything and he doesn’t wear it well.
If he really can’t see this and wants to blame the fans then doesn’t that say it all?
I can’t recall him ever blaming the fans for our poor run of form
Fair point regarding the run of form, I do remember hearing that the fans were blamed for the second goal that Swansea scored.
Given the speed with which a good number of fans on this blog supported that reprehensible creature Joey Barton over our former club captain following the QPR game, I think it’s fair to say that alot of our own support do want to see certain individuals at the club fail.
The only reason I can think for this is that supporters who have frequently and scathingly written off Ward, McCarthy and Henry (to name 3 obvious examples) in the past cannot stand being proven wrong, and take a perverse pleasure in being vindicated.
What a great blog Ben, 100% agree with every word
Question ? If a fan (A paying customer) had been caught on camera shouting what Mr McCarthy shouted, on camera, would he have been singled out and banned from attending the ground again ?
If a manager of mine had sworn at my customers like that, he would have been reprimanded or even sacked for gross misconduct.
You know Ben, after we survived our first season in the Prem I decided to stop going to the Mol after 30 years or so as there were too many uncertainties as far as I was concerned with McCarthy.
He just doesn’t have it does he? Negative, almost arrogant for what he’s achieved – scraping to keep us in the Prem for the past couple of years and for how much it hurts me not to go, I am actually a better person for it.
Sadly, sometimes just as in love you just have to walk away… It hurts like hell not to go, not to feel involved with the club you love but that’s the price I feel is worth paying.
Live long and Prosper!
Sorry. I disagree. A true supporter supports the team rain or shine. Abusing is not supporting.
A true supporter needs something to support. This is a two way thing Yong – you reap what you sow – Manager calls us Numpties we say You Don’t Know What You’re Doing.
Ying Yang Yong 😉
‘A true supporter needs something to support’….how about a title-winning season followed by three consecutive seasons in the top flight for the first time in God knows how long? Throw into that wins over City, Man Utd, Chelsea and West B***.
The results and successes aside, how about a group of players that, though clearly limited at times, work their socks off every game for one another?
If that isn’t enough to gain your ‘true support’, I’d love to know what is.
How far back do you want to go SKD why not mention lifting the cup in 1980 or talk about the 50’s etc – the past is irrelevant. The future is now – we’ll see this week if we can beat Citeh, and soon enough ManUre and Chelski. We already know we’ve been beaten by the sh*t. So are we moving forwards backwards or staying the same? If we fail to beat those three, then we are 9 points worse off than last season and where does that leave us Mr True Supporter?
I wasn’t arguing that we are having a successful season. Quite clearly, it’s turned into a bit of a disaster of late. I also wasn’t arguing that becuase Wolves were successful decades ago they deserve our support. You are making up arguments and then shooting them down.
My point was that this manager and squad of players have done more for the club than anyone else in my lifetime, and for that reason I’m going get behind them and hope like hell we pick up some wins. Turning on the team and manager, as happened last Saturday, is a completely counter-productive way to show displeasure with the performance.
Okay so how do we voice displeasure at the way the team / club is being managed? If we can’t voice our displeasure at the woeful performances on match day then how do we do it? Mad Mick states he never reads the forums and I’m pretty sure he’s not available for a chat so how do we do it, or should we let the team bimble along believing the happy clappy crowd thing they are doing really well even though they are shit. Provide me with a way to vent my spleen that won’t upset the team / manager / media circus / happy clappers and i’ll give it a shot – over to you!
Too true, Ben! Moreover, Wolves are in danger of getting marginalised in the Premier League.
http://scheidtcast.com/2011/10/24/just-exactly-how-boring-are-wolves/?
that wasn’t a very good article to be honest… we know what his point is but it’s not very well put!
And the writer is an accountant – and he has the audacity to call us boring LMAO!
Poor article based on conjecture not fact and, I suspect, designed to get a reaction.
By Premier League standards, we put on a wonderful show last season with enthusiastic attacking football – it was rarely, if ever, boring at Molineux last season (exception possibly being Liverpool).
Most people I speak to have a respect for Wolves, recognising our heritage and ambition to be a seasoned Premier League club.
Wonderful blog Ben.
Perfectly sums up how it feels to be a Wolves fan right now.
The reaction from the players has been unbelievable.
I don’t understand why anyone is making such a big issues of our supporters’ conduct when every set of fans is exactly the same.
Any team on a run like ours would be under pressure from sections of their own fans. Wigan have now lost six on the bounce. Are their fans happy? Of course they’re bloody not.
Evidence:
http://boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tno=558&fid=516&sty=2&act=1&mid=2116077648
Some want the manager out, some accuse the chairman of not being interested, some just want to get on with it.
Sound familiar?
The only difference between us and them is that we’ve got more supporters so the protests are that much louder.
What about Blackburn? Mick should count himself lucky if the protests there are anything to go by.
Wolves fans aren’t anymore or less fickle than anyone else.
The only way to turn the tide in every sense is to win games. Speaking out publicly won’t do any good at all.
To be honest, I’m surprised a spin-juggernaut like Jez Moxey has allowed it to happen at all.
Moxey is quiet because the heat is now directed away from him as usual. A lot of the mess is his fault yet he gets away with it time after time. I’ve said before on this very blog that there is a cancer in this club, but fortunately it’s curable and only requires a P45 headed twds Moxey.
Tom do you remember Arsenal being booed by the fans at the Emirates when they drew a game in that Emirates Cup preseason thingy?
Booing a draw in preseason!!! Not when facing a 6th straight loss! Molineux Factor indeed!
Thomas – can’t Wigan relax in the knowledge that they are due at Molineux in coming weeks where they will once again mug 3 points off us?
And if anyone should be labelled fickle, it’s them. Martinez turned down the Villa job to stay there! God knows why. Most Wigan fans are probably just happy to be in the PL.
McCarthy never said f*** off to my knowledge he was angry at the fans and maybe he has a right to be angry. Also as super kev pointwed out it wasn’t aimed at you personally and our fans saying he’ll be sacked in the morning what do you expect also Ben don’t use the express for political analysis I wouldn’t trust that newspaper if it said the pope was catholic
McCarthy DID say it, plain as day on TV and supporters in Family Enclosure heard it.
AND it was the SWANSEA fans doing the singing !!
What DID McCarthy say to the fans? I don’t know what it was, but unless there’s evidence that he did I don’t think he said f**k off… he said something, but I’m guessing that that’s nothing but a rumour…
Still, this gap between the manager and fans is horrible and needs to be bridged as soon as possible – and calling fans ‘fickle’ isn’t helping things at all!
Theres a huge discrepancy between 3M’s and the supporters. I just want Wolves to compete at the highest level-I’m not expecting to go back to the glory days-but lets have a bit of ambition-thats not too much to ask is it?
Johnson should shut up and give the armband up-he should concentrate on his game and get much much better. When we said goodbye to Big Frank and the lads from that team came out on the Molineaux turf I had tears in my eyes to think what could be-How I wanted to turn the clock back and see them playing again.
I think Mick is a good man and could probably have a pint with him-but he’s digging a hole one I don’t think he can get out of. He is limited in a number of ways then so is Moxey and dare I say it Morgan-is the Chairman really in it for Wolves or does he find himself compromised by the building of his Empire.
Meanwhile we get lambasted for saying this is not good enough. I live in Norwich now but am Black Country born and bred-I love my team-been through nearly 50 years with Wolves and we are in a shambles. Travelling to the game last Sat-I had a terrible feeling that nothing was going to change-at this stage of the season theres still time-wait till after Christmas and it will be too late and the North Bank-my spiritual home will be another John Ireland stand. Sort it for Gods sake.
and as with any break up it takes two to tango also louis where’s the evidence if he did it would be all over the press right now and if he did well it says a lot about fans who think they can abuse managers and players but when they snap back suddenly it’s outrageous, unacceptable behaviour
I was sitting in the Steve Bull upper on Saturday and I was astounded by the reaction of the people around me to our first goal. I jumped up and roared as Doyle stuck it in the net and I swear I was the only bugger around me that did so. Most people didn’t even get to their feet or even cheer politely! That had to be the least celebrated Wolves goal I can ever remember at Molineux. I got the distinct impression at 2-0 and especially after the subs were made that the majority of folk would have rathered us go on to lose 4 or 5-0 than actually come back and get a point or even 3 that could ultimately keep us up! I’m not the world’s biggest MM fan and I’m having a bit of an ongoing debate with myself as to whether he should stay or go at the moment but if we’re going to the game, support the team, simple. That sort of negativity has to transmit itself to the players on the pitch. And before somebody cites how much they earn and therefore should be able to rise above it, that really doesn’t come into it. It’s simple psychology and human nature.
If that sort of negativity did transmit itself to the players Carl it worked wonders, cause they scored another one about a minute later!
I refer to the general negativity about the place at the moment. A very amusing and well made point though!
I wasn’t at the mol on Saturday, but had I been I’m sure my reaction would have been as muted as it was in my pub in Brighton. When the second went in I was jubilant, but the first goal just made me think “and what?”. I was so despondent after watching the previous 84 minutes of ‘football’ that even a bevy of beautiful skantily clad women promising sexual favours couldn’t have raised a smile on my lips at that moment.
That astounds me. Is it just me whose automatic reaction when we score is to get up and roar like a lunatic? I’ve done it in random pubs in random places many times and the circumstances of the match really don’t have any bearing on this!
don’t get me wrong, I’ve been on the bus and checked the scores on my phone, and celebrated loudly even there, I love the Wolves and am usually jubilant when we score.
Just before the Doyle goal I’d been trying to remember when I last felt so low as a Wolves fan, and realised it was the year the a****n nicked promotion off us.
Seriously mate, I was in a foul mood at that point, and as I said, the goal wasn’t sufficient to erase the memory of the previous 84 minutes, or the previous 450, from my memory. We were abysmal, and a scrappy goal bundled in from half a yard after some terrible defending from the opposition rather than our attacking endeavor still wasn’t enough to make me smile
When the 2nd went in I was bouncing around like tigger on speed though, don’t worry about that!
What’s the name of that pub???!!!
The Engineer in Brighton – home to Brighton Wolves!
The 3M’s should be grateful that the fans still care – the vitriol in the crowd shows that the supporters care and have passion. If this run continues it will turn eventually to apathy and then you’ll have a half empty stadium of people who couldn’t give a f**k if the team wins loses or draws.
The fans are the lifeblood of any club, without them there is no club. They are the most precious asset so treat them with respect and in return they will stand by you through thick and thin. Treat them badly and they will round on you and your stint with the club will so be over.
Be very careful Messrs Morgan, Moxey, McCarthy and Johnson.
Absolutely right. Well said.
There’s always Sky TV television rights…how do you think Wigan survive in the Prem with a small fan base and half-empty stadium!
Jon, I totally understand the frustration of MM – but surely to turn round toward the kids and use language that I have never used in front of children is out of order, I have NO problem with him ranting and raving or swearing at the players in the dressing room, for the dross they were serving up, watch the game back on TV, there is NO doubt what was said.
I truly hope he can turn it round, but he seems intent on pressing the self destruct, we all saw and heard how well Doherty had played at Liverpool, he hasn’t been seen since ??
UTW
…and all along my son berates me for making him grow up with Wolves..Wolves…wolves….sorry Tom.
louis evidence so far we have your word there’s been no word in the press about this I saw the game in the pub heard nothing there so maybe a link will help
I think that the relationship between fans and management at wolves has always been fickle, but the muted roar after the Doyle goal was shameful, a long with the “fans” who left long before the final whistle. No matter how bad the performance was before that we were back in it and should have roared the house down to keep the lads going.
I really don’t want to return to the bad old days at Molineux where teams used to enjoy coming there because they knew all you had to do was hold possession for a bit until the natives got restless and that the home team would be so nervous it was unbelievable. There was a time where wolves preferred to play away from home because the supporters were more forgiving.
We need to have a Stoke mentality at home where the fans become as big a part of the game as the team. Even though a fair amount of them still dislike Pulis and for his attitude and long ball tactics they still create an atmosphere where away teams fear to tread. Feel free to vent your frustration after the game is done, boo, protest in the car park, whatever, but whilst there is still a chance of a point or three support the bloody lads, for god sake they need it.
Yes McCarthy hasn’t covered himself in glory this season, Johnson is a publicists nightmare and the club raising the ticket prices is shocking but If we want to continue to play in this league we need points fast, and like it or not the home fans turning on the players has never won a team any points.
So in short, the management need to work harder, the players need to improve and the fans need to bloody foster some confidence at home quick! I for one wouldn’t be surprised if wolves turned in a decent performance against City as the pressure is off and the fans are less likely to turn on them if it goes wrong.
Also think for a second what any prospective replacement manager is going to think about coming to wolves if they have seen the treatment that the most successful manager in our recent history has got after a run of poor results. Same goes for any transfer targets in the January window.
Lets hope last weekend was a turning point. One way or another this is going to be resolved lets hope we don’t regret the way it turns out.
All football fans are fickle – look at the manure fans at the weekend, virtually empty stadium b4 the final whistle and some even calling for SAF’s head!
The situation at Wolves is not the fans issue, they only respond to what they see. If the team performs, the fans get behind them, regardless of whether they win lose or draw.
The current ‘issue’ is not because we are getting beat it’s the manner of those defeats and the decisions made at manager level. Couple that with the arrogance shown by the manager and certain players and is it any wonder the fans have turned!
I think you miss my point, I agree their are fundamental flaws with the team and management at the moment (Berra and Johnson’s ever more convincing impressions of goalposts included) but those faults aren’t going to be helped by the wolves fans effectively supporting the away team for 75 minutes. Wolves fans need to put aside their differences for 90 minutes get behind the team and if its poor demonstrate their disapproval after the game or at half time. We might find it also puts more attention on to the management as they don’t have the excuse of fickle fans!
As for Utd fans I don’t think that’s a good example as a fair few of them will probably be wearing sky blue by the end of the season!
I agree completely that we should be supporting the team during the 90 mins and desist with the shananigans, it’s just very difficult to do that, in fact dare I say impossible at the moment. Something will have to give, and I can’t see that happening, especially if McCarthy and the senior professionals keep taking a swipe. Perhaps some humility would be beneficial rather than defiance and stone throwing.
As for the Utd fans apparently there is now a new reversible Manchester strip, Utd one side Citeh the other, only on sale in shops outside Manchester, you get to chose which side you wear dependant on who occupies the No:1 spot.
Unfortunately, your probably right. We need a performance to get the fans, players and management singing off the same sheet. Hopefully it will come against an over confident citeh but I’m not holding my breath.
Your right some humilty on both sides wouldn’t go a miss, a jesture by the club (free coach travel to citeh or lowering the ticket prices for the Wigan game perhaps?) or an apology for the over reaction by Mick and key players might win a temporary reprieve with the fans. But most of all we need a win.
I don’t buy the Mick’s lost it argument, I think he and the players are as frustrated as the fans right now and thats boiling over in the post match comments. But a run of decent results would change that hopefully that last five minutes against Swansea will be a turning point and the defiance shown by the management and players can be put into action in the right place, on the pitch. If not I think his season is going to be a long hard depressing slog.
An apology isn’t going to change the face of our season.
What we need is players who are prepared to work to keep their place in the team – you know the ones, guys like Steven Fletcher and Stephen Ward, who give 100% every time they put on the shirt and turn in a performance.
We also need Mick to recognise when things aren’t working and try something a little different.
Is it unreasonable to expect this?
I completely agree there’s a lot of problems out there at the moment but they’re made worse by the rift between the fans and management. The players and fans need lifting out of the slump and maybe a jesture off the field that gets the fans behind the team again will lift the team on the field. Its worth a bloody a try!
Also if your bringing up tactics Craddock isn’t the answer even less pace than Berra. Backline of Ward, Johnson, Stearman, Docherty would be worth a shot though. I just want someone in the centre slot who can turn without having to take a route round the stand and carpark is that too much to ask?
Comparing us with Stoke?
They had a half empty stadium in the championship. They are vocally supported because they are good!!!
Pulis has had one more season than McCarthy in the top flight and they will finish about 7th-8th comfortably this season. Not a hope in hell will we finish above 15th this season or next with McCarthy.
Stoke might have had a half empty stadium for some games in the championship but I’ve been to Molineux on a damp weeknight to watch us play Plymouth and felt lonely as a Wolves fan! The championship is the championship the premiership is what matters.
The point I was making is having lived in Stoke for a couple of years and been forced to go to a few games by mates, no matter what the previous run of form is (and they had a couple of bad runs without a win), for the 90 they are behind the team. That’s despite the fact that a fair few fans hate Pulis and his style of football even though its successful.
Like I said protest at half time or after the game has finished, just while it matters get behind the lads. Its one of the reasons newly promoted clubs do so well is the fact that for at least the first season the fans will back the team rain or shine, good or bad. The fact is for 75mins against Swansea it may as well have been played in Wales. The fans did nothing to unsettle Swansea and did everything to undermine players who were already low on confidence and having a mare. For god sake even when it started to turn and Wolves scored the crowd acted like away fans with muted applause, that’s just shameful.
Spot on Ben.
As soon as the team was announced I was worried, I could envisage another QPR, which it was until the last 5 minutes. Aside from the obvious problems created by playing 442, why was Karl Henry the only player pressing in the first half? It’s a pretty fundamental footballing truth that you can’t have one player pressing in a team, it needs to be collectively done, or not at all. It was like watching a game of piggy in the middle at times.
I don’t take too kindly to our manager and captain basically calling the majority of our fans idiots. If McCarthy and Johnson want to start a war with the fans, there will be only one winner.
One of the problems with being a wolves fan is the reputation for fickleness as sheffield says we need to be behind them we need to be the twelth man swansea was a prime example of this going to pieces as soon as things went bad it was that it’s we’re doomed
Great blog. One further thought. Talking about the fans as a reason why wolves have one point out of eighteen is a total non-starter for me, and probably a welcome distraction for MM. A distraction from his tactics and the lack of progress in a season that was meant to bring progression. A distraction from the fact Richard Stearman and Karl Henry look at passing the ball forwards like they are trying to decide whether to cut the red wire or the green wire on a bomb. And above all, a distraction from the fact that wolves made a swansea team that got turned over 3-1 at Norwich last week look like barcelona for 80 minutes.
Can anyone indicate which set of fans in world football wolves are being unfavourably compared with? And which set of ultras would be cheering on the filth served up saturday lunchtime? As others have said, wolves fans’ reactions so far have been tame rather than extreme.
Absolutely top class blog Ben and weren’t you a little cutie? I’d have given my right arm to be a mascot but they hadn’t invented them in my day unfortunately.
It’s incredible that after a run of one (very lucky) point in six games, the big talking point in the press and with TV commentators is the fickle Wolves fans.
Thomas, i think the reason the spin-juggernaught is silent is because he’s VERY good at his job.
the five run loss has been covered before the swansea game
Ben a very poignant blog if I may say so.
I wonder if Johnson has been asked to speak to the press? –
Why else pass the blame for our poor form onto the fans?
I’d like to ask all those who still ‘apologise’ for MM, if they think he has the support of is players?
The evidence on all fronts, points to a set up in utter chaos.
We need a new management set up fast.
A breath of fresh air in the dressing room, to invigorate some obviously very disillusioned players.
We will not be worse off than the set up and shambles that exists at the moment .
Whether McCarthy said ‘F….Off’ or ‘shut up’ is completely irrelevant, either phrase, he has lost the plot!
What we need is the Chairman to don his hard hat and tell the fans that either McCarthy is staying put or that his tenure is based on resuts going forward.
The current air of uncertainty is no good for anybody especially the fans!
Mick lost the plot along time ago.How do people still stick up for him? His premier record speaks for itself.Johnson needs 2 concentrate on his own game and the players need to start playing as a team.Mark Hughes for wolves manager!
Great blog mate. Think you summed it up nicely there. I won’t claim to be an expert, or indeed a regular down the Molineux, but the minute the manager starts offering fans out for a fight (quote taken from Monday’s copy of The Sun) if they want a scrap, that’s surely gone too far. Imagine if you or I were to be pretty miffed about something at work but, rather than try to sort it out, we just went “You asking for a fight then, because I’ll fight you.”
JEZ MOXEY (Mar 2011):
“We are kidding ourselves if we think we can usurp Manchester United, but we think we can get to just below that level – in the top three, four or five clubs where we can be competing in Europe.”
MICK McCARTHY (May 2011):
“Every year I’ve been here, we’ve improved. If we survive, then I won’t be looking for that experience again – I’ll be looking for the experience of trying to finish in the top ten rather than out of the bottom three.”
MAY 2011: WOLVES REVEAL £40m STADIUM REDEVELOPMENT WITH PLANS DRAFTED TO EXTEND THE CAPACITY TO 50,000.
STEVE MORGAN (Oct 2011):
“Since Wolves have been in the Premier League we are the fifth biggest net spenders.”
And yet, when the club goes on it’s worst run of defeats in a quarter of a century…
TIM NASH, E&S (Oct 2011)
“A growing section of the Molineux masses [are] frustated at the perceived stagnation of a season not keeping pace with their own ambitions.”
It’s the fans’ ambitions you see.
Now where could those pesky “numpties” have got their silly delusions of grandeur from?
Would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad.
Pathetic from all 3 Ms talk the talk until they get found out and then retract, retract, retract.
Thanks for all the lovely comments. I knew I wasn’t on my own. Best response ever – and Martin thinks I was a cute kid! It’s the presumption that we are all moronic fickle fans that grates. Didn’t WBA fans sarcastically cheer Scott Carson last season? Never a mention. so never as heinous as wolves fans doing likewise to Henry.
Adam B has gone and trumped it all with his research. It’s a wonder jez didn’t get Google to remove those quotes! Bravo.
To be fair though Ben, the picture’s a little grainy and my eyes aren’t what they used to be.(Spike Milligan………’they used to be my ears’)
Eh hang on. No comment from the maestro himself, Lord Clive of Houston?!
Lord Clive from Houston is currently on vacation in Holmes Beach, Florida, with Mark G Davies, also ofWolves blog fame, with our respective wives, currently celebrating my 60th birthday, today, the 25th.
Alas, no Steve Bull, but lots of mojitos and margeritas.
My answer/comment to Ben’s blog, and weren’t his little legs cute back then, is simple.
They talk the talk but do they walk the walk ?
( line stolen from Full Metal Jacket)
Until performances improve, there is going to be criticism. Human nature. Always been the same since Adam was a lad.
If the management cannot understand that, it’s time to get rid.
We will be around forever.
Who remembers Chorley?
All of us.
We may have stopped going to the matches, but non of us stopped supporting the Wolves. If you cut us in half, don’t we all bleed gold and black?
Same thing now. And them at the top need to understand this. You aint gonna stop it until YOU improve. None of us want to scream abuse at you, but when we do, you have to realize why, and do something other than what you’ve done.
We want to be able to take the piss out of the opposition as we annihilate them on the pitch, not the reverse.
You are set up on pedestals and reverred when succesful, and you accept it, you have to accept the abuse when your pedestals start to topple a bit.
Suck it up, take it on the chin and any other stupid expression you want, but grow up and get it sorted.
Anyway, this week, bollocks to the lot of you as we soak up the sun, play splishy spashy in the pool and on the sun kissed pristine sugar like sand, and get totally wasted….several times……in The Sunshine State!!!!!
A Hearty FOMM to you all!!!!
Isn’t Califnornia the Sunshine State? 🙂
I thought Florida was named after it’s Oranges?
Florida is the Sunshine State.
California is the Golden State.
Happy birthday Clive, hope Dad was a nice surprise!
I think the general wave of anger and negativity stems from the fact that there seems to be little desire shown by any of the players. In my opinion, on its day, this team can perform and win points against any other team (see the results from last season) but that belief, desire and nous is only useful when the correct, or most appropriate, tactics are employed.
I don’t think MM and TC have enough about them tactically to produce anything other than a season in which we scrape by. MM has taken us as far as he can, but surely after three years we should be seeing more progress being made? I would rather Mr. Morgan plough the stadium redevelopment funds into the team. Success breeds success. After all, a shiny new stadium is somewhat of a luxury in my mind. If this team performs like this continually (and continues to suffer the level of bad luck which has hovered over the Mol. like a black cloud for years), then will we end up with a large stadium with no more fans to fill it – ala Coventry.
Like many I applaud MM for the work he has done in bringing us to the PL and keeping us there (albeit through Pompey disintegrating and us having to rely on other teams), but we need somebody who has more PL experience at the helm. Look at WBA with Roy Hodgeson – why can’t we follow that?
For me the game at Blackburn last season, 0-3 at half-time was the point at which I began seriously contemplating a new manager. I and most of the Wolves fans (I believe) are sick of the malaise and ‘bumbling’ play we seem to continually *see yearly* produce.
In conclusion, we need a more tactically minded/ PL experienced manager and to remove/replace players (if they truly cannot perform with a new manager at the helm). I would give MM and TC until Christmas. I shudder to imagine the results against Man City but I live in hope.
As a bit of fun I’d like to suggest Hughes or O’Neil? UTW.
Sven sacked at leicester! Wonder what their fans make of that. If they are happy,then they’re fickle by definition aren’t they? Almost as fickle as Jeremy Peace, who sacked Megson and Mowbray.
Some good posts ben,I hope we take the same steps as Leicester and don’t
wait until christmas and do it NOW befor its to late.PS and the coaching staff
as well.
With regard to briningin in Hughes and O’neil I think it’s unlikely they’ll come to Wolves we’ll probably end up with someone like Gordon Strachan or Steve McClaren. As for the fickleness Ben as I said earlier it’s not without cause
Or Brian Laws, Ian Dowie, Phil Brown, Tony Adams or Gareth Southgate. We should be bloody careful what we wish for.
Barry Glendenning of the Guardian said: “What’s the worst that can happen to Wolves? Relegation? So what.”
Maybe there are clubs who are happy to live like that but I enjoy that Wolves fans demand more.
Maybe we aren’t a “family club”. Maybe we’re a one club city that places huge demands on its players and staff.
UTW.
Guess where wolves fans ended up on FourFourTwo’s heroes and villains list?
http://fourfourtwo.com/blogs/fourfourtwoview/archive/2011/10/24/heroes-amp-villains-balotelli-booing-and-other-less-popular-things.aspx
Two names to consider-Paul Lambert and Gus Poyet.
well Alf I actually doubt that Lambert is going to leave Norwich he’s got it made there same with Poyet as well
We might be getting ahead of ourselves a bit here, but anyway, look at Owen Coyle’s move to notlob. He “had it made” at Burnley. Fat lot of good it’s done both sides though, thinking about it now!
Ben – I wasn’t sure whether I was with you on this one, until reaching the last line. McCarthy in particular is guilty of not doing this – always feeling as though he’s on the edge unveiling of a conspiracy against him. It’s a paranoia that drives his stubborness – and as a result lots of mini-fracas over the years are leading to what seems like an irretrievable position.
Shame. Because when this manager and this fanbase have been together previously, we’ve been formidable.
Great blog there.
Sick of reading how I am not allowed to vent my frustration at an inept Saturday performance for 80 mins.
As for stubborn mccarthy always picking his favourites. Don’t get me started
Vent at half time and at full time. Don’t vent when all its doing is increasing the confidence of the opposition and making things worse. Swansea may as well of played at home for 75mins on Saturday. But far worse was the reaction to wolves getting back into it at 2-1 yes the performance was poor up to that point, awful even, but somehow we had a chance to get something out of the game and the fans respond with indifference. Shameful.
Sheffield Wolf:
Not as shameful as the indifferent performance put on by the team, at the behest of an arrogant manager.
Dictating to the paying customer when and how to ‘cheer’ and ‘boo’ is bewildering.
You seem to insinuate that if we ‘cheered’ in the right fashion, all will be well with the team and manager.
It is absurd to say we would be a ‘better’ team if fans “Vent (their anger) at half time and at full time.”
Actually playing football with passion instilled by the manager, would lead to no need for dissatisfaction.
The supporters would be cheering.
Get real man!
If you read my earlier comments I agree the performance was awful and their are currently fundamental flaws at the club. But none of these are going to be helped by fans laying into their own team.
Players thrive on confidence, they’re showmen they can’t ignore 20,000 fans baying for their blood anymore than you or I could. That’s the fundamental reason why teams generally have better home records than away. However, wolves have a track record of making their own team uncomfortable at home, to the point in the past that we have often won more away from home than at home. I can remember Dave Jones making comment on it when he first arrived. Away teams know that the best way to get a result at Molineux is to keep the ball as this will frustrate the fans and turn them on the home team. Once they’ve done that it will result in more nerves and worse performances by the players and result in stupid errors like that for the second goal.
So yes I agree with you the performances have been terrible but that is no excuse to actively help the opposition like happened on saturday.
Also why would any good manager or player want to come to wolves after how the crowd have treated the most successful manager and team in its recent history. Save your protest and bile for when it can’t make things worse, otherwise we just might end up with the team and manager we deserve. Ian Dowie anyone?
Sheffield wolf, you are arguing ‘after the fact’.
You obviously don’t think too much of Wolves to assume the only manager we could get as a replacement is Ian Dowie.
People can protest as they like not as they are dictated too.
Your moral high ground is dictatorial.
I note the E&S are not publishing anti-mick responses to their ‘blogs’.
If you think this team has ‘the most successful manager and team in recent history’ your definition of success and mine are completely different.
Who’s recent (last 20 years) record as a Wolves manager compares? Promotion as champions and three consecutive years in the top flight?
I’m arguing that after seeing our treatment of McCarthy the only man stupid enough to come would be Ian Dowie.
Sheffield is the voice of reason in this little discussion mate. He’s not happy clapping, he’s not an MM apologist. He’s making the point that it’s hard to perform well when people are berating you. No matter how much they’re paid or how much training they do.
And I am intrigued to know who has been a better manager for the Wolves than McCarthy in recent history (last 30 years)? Graham Turner is the only one who comes close.
Discussing who has been the best manager is all rather pointless. I am grateful for what MM has achieved but we, as a club, have to progress. Fighting relegation season on season is not progression. Oh to be a mid-table side. Before we can do this we need somebody with more tactical experience at this level. Moyes at Everton has even less money than we do but look how established they are. There were jeers at Pardew becoming Newc. manager but look at what he has achieved. This is the type and caliber of manager we need, it may not be the most popular choice and given the Geordies are up there with us in the fickle fan stakes, I still believe we need a new lease of life. Curbishley achieved at Charlton – I wouldn’t mind him even though he isn’t the most exciting candidate at least he’s a realistic target. UTW.
Disagree 100%
What good is venting after the game?
Everyone has 20/20 hindsight vision, and ” we were as good as them all match, except in both boxes” comments are hard to take, after the game. Its vision DURING the game that is required, and if we can all see the problems as a match unfolds, why can’t the manager?
It’s also bollocks to say get behind the team, don’t be indifferent.
We pay to be entertained, just like any other sport or show biz event, and when we don’t get value for money, we protest. It is no good protesting after the event, the principles leave the stage thinking they’ve been good value, drive away in their luxury vehicles, and don’t bother, or can’t, read the reviews/reports later.
The old saying “if it aint broke don’t fix it, is great, but if you don’t know it’s broke, how can you fix it, also applies.
And on a side note.
You all know my love affair with Stephen Ward.
This bloke in my opinion will never be premiership quality, BUT he has improved this season, and one can only infer that he took a good hard look at his form, and has done something to improve it.
I would suggest that the rest of the team take a long hard look at Mr Ward, and apply some of his graft to their own game.
Good for you, Wardy.
FOMM
Sorry to disagree with you Clive (it seems like I always do!) but I think the club would soon take notice if the team were booed off the park and a few thousand stayed after the game to protest outside the stadium.
I agree with you on Wardy but I think his improvement has much more to do with hard graft from a player with heart and drive than listening to the boo boys who would have sold him at the first opportunity.
We can’t let Molineux slip back into the bad old days when teams used to love coming there because they knew that wolves would get more stick than they do. Plus it doesn’t help that the fans can be bloody wrong some of the time i.e: Swansea’s second goal and the substitutions that changed the game.
I’m not defending the performances or some of the management decisions I’m just saying the wolves fans assisting the away team doesn’t help. If you don’t like it stay at home, the club would soon notice the drop in gates, and who knows the players might play with a little more freedom and confidence if they weren’t barracked for every mistake. Or buy a Wigan shirt and sit in the away end, I’ve heard they need some supporters!
I don’t think it’s any coicidence that Ward’s form has improved substantially after playing a few games under the stewardship of Trappatoni, a manager with an exceptional record at the highest level. He’s still not a left back though. I’d like to see him play left side midfield.
Maybe, but I think its probably got a lot to do with someone showing belief in him (Trapp and McCarthy) and a lot of work in training. He’s always been a player willing to run the extra mile for the club, now he’s demonstrating the ability to match. I still love telling opposition fans after a game that our new “class” left back is in fact a striker!
Oh hang on. Improved yes, but class left back you’ve got to be joking. Standing ten yards off, turning his back and hoping the ball hits him up the arse is not exactly classy.
Not sure I agree, but fair do’s mate that made me laugh out loud!
Trust me Sleachy. Next game you watch i guarrantee you’ll see that sophisticated defensive technique. If it does hit him up the arse it’ll be hilarious!
Trust me Sleachy, next time you watch a game you’ll see this sophisticated defensive technique. And if it does hit him up the arse, it’ll be hilarious!
This is not a McCarthy issue – supporters have turned on various Wolves managers down the years – McGarry, Greaves, Turner, Taylor, McGhee, Lee – the list is endless. Anyone remember the ALOB Turner IN/Turner OUT issue ?
For my part, I think our expectations as supporters are too high and we don’t see the big picture. Yes, we were once a major force in English and European football, but those days are never to return whilst English football is structured the way it is. Our goal can be no more than mid-table mediocrity with an occasional cup run. But to achieve even that will take time in a league gone mad with money. We’re tired, as fans, of trying to grind out draws playing 4-5-1, but lack the quality (finance again) to switch to 4-4-2 let alone 4-3-3. So, at the moment we don’t have success and we have little in the way of entertainment. But if we are going to stay in the ‘Greed League’ thats the way its going to be for some time to come. Or would we prefer to be entertained in the Championship ?
You say its not a McCarthy issue, then you balme our lack of quality on a lack of finance but Mick has spent approx £49m in the last three years. Only four clubs have spent more.
Why shouldn’t fans expect better than the kick and rush dross dished up week after week after that sort of expenditure?
We cant defend, we cant create and we cant score! No wonder when the tactics are defined from the kick-off when we pass the ball back to our keeper to launch it!
Compare that to every other team who treasure possession, have pace and mobility and composure on the ball.
I’m afraid whatever funds are made available to Mick, they’re wasted on him. His stubborn insistance on sticking with his old favourites allied to his complete tactical naivety means another scrap for survival is inevitable.
I think its unrealistic to look only at the last 3 years expenditure. Bear in mind that McCarthy inherited a squad bereft of any players, let alone quality players. In that sense he has been playing ‘catch-up’ with Premiership clubs which already had strong squads of players in place 3 years ago, and were earning even more big Premiership money whilst we were scrambling to get out of the Championship. I think these tables give a more realistic picture of where we are relative to the current competition;
http://www.transferleague.co.uk/
Finally, when you see individual players now moving for fees in excess of 35 million it puts our expenditure of 49 million in total in the last 3 years into context.
Can I look at the expenditure to get us out of the championship? In season two in came Morgans millions and with it a lot of players signed that is brushed under the carpet? Shackell, Berra, Elliott, Eastwood, Ebanks, Iwelumo, Foley, Stearman, Jones didn’t come for free! They cost millions. Everyone talks about him inheriting a depleted squad put he was given a big budget to do something about it.
Nobody’s brushing it under the carpet. Of the 9 players you mention, 4 are still part of the 1st team squad and Jones arguably would be if he had been prepared to stay. Yes, McCarthy was given a budget to do something about it and he got us promoted. That budget was, and remains, relatively small compared to the competition we are up against in the Premier League. Of the current Premiership clubs, between 2003 and 2011 only the newly-promoted ones have spent (regardless of income from selling players) less than us. Even Wigan have spent 20 million more than us. Quite simply, the longer you can stay in the Greed League the more you can afford to invest. We haven’t been in there long enough to be able to make a financial impact. And don’t get me started on the so called Champions (and assorted runners-up) League which then distorts the picture even further.
But you’re flipping in between arguments Wolfman. One comment you are using gross spend and the next, net spend.
Then you are lumping in his CCC spend and comparing it with current Premier League clubs.
EG: Has Wigan’s £20m spend included the £10m they got for N’Zogbia, the £15m they got for Palacios and the millions they got for Valencia too?
(I can’t open your link for some reason, sorry otherwise I’d probably know!)
And you say yourself that our spend will be lower as we haven’t been in the Premier League as long?!
When Morgan says on WM (Thursday before Albion game) that we are the fifth highest spenders in the league, and when you consider how much, for example, Lambert paid for Morison, Bennett and Pilkington, I can’t disagree more…It has to be a McCarthy issue.
Also, note how much Hodgson paid for McCauley and Jones. Zilch.
Mind you, I am a mindless idiot so I’m not supposed to comment on such matters.
They’ve all gone QUIET over there……
I wasn’t aware of Morgan’s comment (I’m not in the UK), but I’d like to know what period he bases his figures on. If he only looks at the short-term then he may be right, but I maintain that a proper perspective can only be got from looking at the longer term big picture. (I should point out that it was ‘Dan’s’ comment which introduced the CCC spend into the argument). As for cheap bargains, McCarthy picked up Kightly, Guedioura, Ward, Henry for peanuts.
I don’t think you are considered to be a ‘mindless idiot’ unless you were one of the ones singing ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ on Saturday.
It strikes me that if we beat Man City in the cup tomorrow night, everyone will be back behind the team again. Personally, I’d rather beat them in the league come saturday. Wouldn’t we all?
Either way, I think the fans will be roaring them on until the first goal goes in against us. And if we play well, we will continue to cheer our lads. The balls in their court. They play well, we applaud them OR they play like they did for 83 minutes against Swansea and they won’t be hearing much encouragement.
It’s also our human nature to show disappointment by either going quiet or having a rant. Therefore, it’s the players who initially need to show they are up for the Man City games. If it starts in the right way, we’ll cheer and our players will grow in confidence all over again.
I was thinking about this last night, what if Citeh play a second string, we get a performance from the lads (as we so often have under Mick when we’re REALLY in the shit), and we progress through the cup and get to Wembley. At the same time, our league form prevails and we drop down the table like shit from a pigeon’s arse. What price on Roger Johnson winning consecutive League Cups with consecutive relegations? If it didn’t make me want to cry I’d consider a 5er on that…
Scary thought, but a result tomorrow should bring a much-needed confidence boost even if we go on to lose on Saturday against Man City’s main side…
That’s hypothetical of course – I don’t see us having much chance in either game!
SORRY LEFT MY REPLY IN THE WRONG PLACE
I don’t see us winning against City either. Let’s face it, the thought of Dzeko and Aguero against Jittery Johnson and Bullshit Berra makes me soil my y-fronts.
But we just need a friggin performance, and the sooner the better. Like the Wolves we know, we do tend to play a stackload better when we’re up against it… and it needs to start with the captain. He’s been a bag of shite for weeks now.
Fully agreed with this! The problem is though is that there’s no good putting a brave performance against the better teams [I’d take a 2-1 loss against Man City Saturday if we make them work for it!- when we falter against the teams that we can beat… That was our problem last season, and it was a problem I thought we had ironed out at the start of this one…
Back when Johnson was actually defending well!
Please Mick drop Berra or Johnson I don’t mind which, I don’t care about midfield, I don’t care about attack, I just can’t keep watching our two centre halves being beaten by one ball through the middle to a slightly nippy striker. Just someone with pace in the middle could make all the difference, put SEB their and at least he would keep up!
Here’s hoping!
same here hamlet, take a 2-1 defeat no problems. I just wanna see us play quality football again.
That would just be our luck!
I don’t see us winning against City either. Let’s face it, the thought of Dzeko and Aguero against Jittery Johnson and Berra makes me soil my y-fronts.
But we just need a friggin performance, and the sooner the better. Like the Wolves we know, we do tend to play a stackload better when we’re up against it… and it needs to start with the captain. He’s been a bag of shite for weeks now.
According to MM we are all “mindless idiots”-Keep digging Mick. I am dumbfounded as to why Morgan and Moxey are silent-but interestingly they are not criticising or being supportive of MM. This is a clear position to me that says intervention will come if we don’t start getting results by end of Nov. Something has got to give-its all about results.
After reading the ‘Mindless Idiot’s’ report, I’m done. McCarthy must go NOW.
From the Guardian –
McCarthy singled himself out for praise and said it was his tactical switches that led to the comeback.
“I’m taking the credit, getting Jamie O’Hara further up the pitch, the players that went on and the attitude they had,” he said. “We’ve a great spirit amongst us but I always worry in saying that, in giving them [the fans] some sort of back-handed compliment that they have generated a good team spirit and a siege mentality. They haven’t. All they do is destroy it. It is destructive and no good to me or anyone else.”
The guy is a JOKE!
Also Jed, remember when O’Hara first arrived and he said his best position is in a 4-5-1 as it allows him to push further up the field? As soon as he said it Mick barely played him in that system. Well done Mick, you got there in the end. Give that man an England role.
I am a mindless idiot who remembers O’Hara’s quote and that 1-0 win at Villa.
I am also a mindless idiot that remembers WBA fans carrying a coffin (yes, a COFFIN) around Shrewsbury in a sick, twisted attempt to get Bobby Gould sacked.
I also remember WBA fans staging a ‘sit-in’ protest to get rid of Brian Talbot.
Yet a few in the South Bank vent their spleen in one of the mildest shows of disgruntlement (in comparison to those holy WBA fans) and we’re all mindless idiots.
I commented similarly on the E& S website and guess what…They blocked the comment.
If ever an agenda was whipped up to kick us loyal, hard suffering fans in the goolies – whose only crime is to support the lads in the ground and come on this blog afterwards – then this was it.
John Lalley, Tim Spiers, Express & Star, Jez Moxey, Mick McCarthy, Roger Johnson…thanks for completely alienating me with a club I’ve loved and supported for 23 years.
I’ve had enough mate.
The press(E&S) curbing freedom of speech now and McCarthy’s had nothing but support from fans,how surprising. The criticism is just from mindless idiots.
The good news is, bless him, he’s over it now and he’s got his toys back inside the pram. He can carry on having a lovely time at work, earning lots and lots of money even though his success rate over the last 6 league games is errr, 5.5% recurring. And it will be recurring again on Saturday.
I’ve had enough of all this. It won’t make any difference, the amount of times i get there anyway, but i’ll never go to another Wolves game until he’s gone.
Apparently Wolves fans are not allowed to criticise, they are allowed not to go though. Vote with your feet i say.
I agree wholeheartedly Ben.
Made three ‘blocked’ comments on E&S.
Their ‘censorship’ verges on ‘propaganda.
McCarthy blaming the fans is classic paranoia syndrome.
He displays all the symptoms of a man unable to take responsibility, for what he has created…
He is attempting to turn the discussion onto the behaviour of the fans, rather than the performance on the pitch.
Twisting the truth Mr McCarthy, in the name of Wolves, is hypocrisy.
What a nob.
I’ve defended McCarthy for years, still hugely appreciate the job he’s done at the Wolves, but for fuck’s sake stop slating the fans! It’s only gonna make things worse at Molineux!
Surely even a child could understand why coming out and saying stuff like that is only gonna wind things up even further. If he’s taking credit for the 2 lucky late goals, why is he not also admitting culpability for the preceding 534 minutes of dross? Or is that our fault too?
When you’re in a hole, stop digging. Someone take the keys to the JCB off him, please.
This pantomime is killing us and it’s gonna relegate us. I’m gutted, absolutely gutted by this whole situation.
Exactly right. 10 minutes of good football. Well fuckin done. What about the previous 80 or 5 games before where we apparently played well? If he’s taking credit for that then he can accept the flak for the 5 games before. Was a must win in my book anyway!
He’s referring to the people who booed the players during game, not all the fans and (hopefully) not the ones who criticised him afterwards… still, not a very wise comment really – it’s not helping manager/fan relationships!
http://www.wolves.co.uk/page/News/0,,10307~2493751,00.html
Full interview including the ‘mindless idiots’ quote…
Reading the full transcript its not that bad, not great but not that bad. Looks to me like the rest of the media circus has cherry picked the best bits and took them out of context to deliberately create trouble.
Probably due to Steve Kean being off the sack menu now that the Venky’s are offering him a new contract. When you read it in full its more of an apology for his outburst than a swipe at the fans. I especially love this quote.
“My frustration has gone and all my toys are back in the pram – my rattle, my dummy, and I’m alright”
Quite apt really
To me it sounds like the plea of a despairing man. His reference’s to having the players confidence, do not sound as assuring as I am sure he would like them too.
Well, ‘crack on’ Mick, it’s the fans fault!
Off topic;-
HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY TO CLIVE FROM STEVEN WARD AND MICK MCCARTHY!
CFH’s age and waist size are now in complete harmony!
Happy birthday Clive!
In that case….
HBCFH
Good vintage 51
If McCarthy didn’t treat the fans with undisguised contempt maybe we would cut him some slack but he doesn’t so we won’t.
Ben sorry to prick you ego but if you think McCarthy was singling you out personally then your the one needing the reality check also check what other football fans say about us on WSC http://www.wsc.co.uk/component/option,com_kunena/Itemid,73/func,view/catid,27/id,586028/ it ain’t pretty but they have a point
I havent got the ego pal, im just a fan mick holds in contempt like 20000 others. A fan who is now inextricably ‘fickle’ in the eyes of any pundit, work contact or complete stranger who i ever come across from now on. Mud sticks. that might not bother you, but it does me. But you probably have thicker skin
He’s thicker full stop! An utter moron who shares Mad Micks opinion about us ‘fickle’ fans. As we’re so loathsome why dont him and Mick just fuck off and then the press will hear some cheers!
What do they know,they don’t have to sit through the shite what we have to endure,its you who needs the reality check.
Ben, you take every one of these quotes waaay too personally.
Do you honestly think Mick is calling you a mindless idiot. No, he’s calling the people who boo, jeer and sarcasticly cheer that because that is what they are, mindless idiots.
I agree with what Mick said, but I don’t think he should have said it.
You think every Wolves fan, and there were a lot of them,who spontaneously cheered when Henry was subbed is a mindless idiot? That’s a lot of Wolves fans you’re insulting there mate. Criticising the present manager and players(who are employees who come and go) is one thing, insulting Wolves fans is something else.
But Louie, as a Wolves fan, doesn’t it hurt you to see our reputation dragged through the mud and by the manager to boot?
Honestly, how do neutrals or fans of other clubs react to you? Dont you feel stigmatised sometimes and how does that make you feel?
And what have you or me or countless thousands of die-hard Wolves nuts done to deserve that?
I get where your coming from, but wouldn’t you say that our reputation was ‘dragged through the mud’ the moment the fans started booing the players on Saturday?
Still, MM shouldn’t be adding fuel to the fire
Like I said on another post, booing platers or managers is not my style but I accept its what some football fans do, as even MM said, “the world over”.
Watch any televised home defeat and you’ll see/hear the same reaction and often at half time too so why are we singled out for daring to do the same?
But I’ve never heard a manager refer to his own fans as ‘mindless idiots ‘ before.
Some of the worst, most hateful and vitriolic outbutsts I’ve ever known have come from thst lot down the road (as Ben pointed out earlier) and yet they see themselves as paragons of supporter virtue!
Its a joke but having to defend myself and the reputartion of my ‘family’ (the thousands I share the faith with) to the likes of them and the army of armchair Man U/ Man C supporters where I live is just lousy.
And the most hurtful thing of all is that its my own club who are stoking the fire of this media feeding frenzy. Micks insane outbutsts amplofied by the deadening silence of Morgan and Moxey.
Pissed off with it!
It hurts me to see us on a bad run. It hurts me to see us playing rubbish.It hurts me to see that I support the same team as the fans booing, leaving early and chanting ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’.
It does not hurt me when Mick calls a few people mindless idiots, when they should be supporting our team. Say what you like after the match, even boo at the final whistle but how does it help during? It doesn’t, and it’s been a contributing factor (not a huge one) to our nervousness and shite performances. The second goal proved that.
Exactly whilst he shouldn’t have said it what he meant was those who booed and jeered shouldn’t take any credit maybe shock horror the manager and the players should who’s have thought it hey?
Then the manager and players can also be man enough to stand up and say “we weren’t good enough for the first 84 minutes, we shouldn’t give away 2 soft goals for 6 games in a row before we start playing, and we’re gonna try and put it right”.
Credit where it’s due, but blame where it’s due too. Roger Johnson produced one of the most inept defensive plays I’ve ever seen BEFORE the crowd got jittery. Some might even say that it was the reason they got angry.
Who’d have thought THAT hey? Certainly no one at the club from the drivel they’ve all spouted since
I like, Jon, that you ‘know’ what McCarthy ‘meant’!
Also it’s a little patronising to say to fans ‘he didn’t mean you’, he meant this section, or that section of ‘supporters’.
You are, like McCarthy, trying to deflect blame from the inept performances of the team, that has led to the fans being dissatisfied.
robin I do believe that our performance was inept things haven’t gone well but what has the booing and jeering accomplished? what has this blog accomplished?
Its proved you’re a shit stirring trouble maker!
10-0 to Ben. He completely wiped the floor with you! Loser! Boo! Boo! Boo!
Also Ben could you please explain to me why you based this blog post on an artcile on the sunday express the sister paper of the daily express which does not have a reputation for being truthful or honest http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.com/search/label/express and http://tabloid-watch.blogspot.com/search/label/sunday%20express
Jon:
The booing and jeering enables, like this blog, people to vent their dissatisfaction with ‘inept’, rudderless, performances.
In the pre digital era McCarthy would have gone by now, as fans ‘dissatisfaction with the manager ” would have been much more centred on the actual ‘game’ and ‘crowd’ which are, now, secondary to TV…
Your ‘concentration’ of the problem being the ‘crowd’, rather than ‘team’ or ‘management’ is ‘appeasement’ of failure and chaos, to me.
I hope we win tonight and on Saturday, however if we do not, it will be the fault of the players and manager, not the fans.
Your argument parallels today’s political ‘logic’.
It is not the fault of the govt or bankers, (management and players), but the fault of the ‘poor'(fans).
This kind of logic leads to blaming a section of humanity such as the 1930’s when ‘economic chaos’ was caused by the ‘Jews’ not the ‘management’.
Your ‘logic’, not without precedent, is very dangerous.
The fault or blame lies with the ‘top’ of the pyramid, not the other way round.
robin comparing the current problems wolves fans are going through with the Jews in 1930s is crass and insenstive beyond belief, how dare you use genuine suffering to further you point. Also I do believe the players and mangerment are at fault Mick has made mistakes and things have not gone right. Fine but for god’s boo at the end or half time not during the match as it doesn’t work
U mis read the post…
I suggest you re read it.
There are huge comparisons and parallels to the thought processes of the 1930’s and those of today’s political elite, which are reflected in all walks of life. It is not crass and insensitive to be truthful.
On another note, I am sure we both agree that a win tonight will do wonders for all Wolves fans, whatever class, colour or creed!
Well Robin I have re read your post I have never said that it is the sole fault of the fans what I have said is that booing and jeering have not helped or worked and in fact made the situation worse not better also in you post after going on about the Jews you then say fault of the managment
Yes that will help.
sleachy the fans where on them the moment the game kicked off
Yes, because the team haven’t turned up for the first hour in the previous 5 games, and given 2 goals away in each of them.
I don’t condone berating our team in open play, but I do sympathise with other people who want to see us do better than we have been.
jon your wasting your time, some fans want blood and moreover they can smell it.
Nice to see the E&S being fuckwits, I am not impressed with the PR of the players nor the manager, but I might be the first to say that I actually think theyre allowed their opinions too. That said, theyre being arrogant to think that they can change the opinions of the fans off the pitch. In the history of football that’s prob never happened. I understand that some fans are resigned that the current players or staff just can’t make the improvements nec and they are trying to bring about radical change by being vocal. However its coming across hostile, COUNTER_PRODUCTIVE, I hope that both sides have just over reacted to all this. Like many have said our team, these players, other clubs as well, have gone through similar and worse runs of form. It remains my opinion that some fans would rather satisfy their own blood thirst and jeopardise the fragility of the club’s position than support the club, and its encumbant players/staff, thru this malaise. I share the fans frustration, but you must still see the managers determination? there are more important things in life so FFS lets get on cheering on our club.
3 points up for grabs saturday and a 1/4 final place tomorrow, shit seems like ages ago when that happened (a 1/4 final not the 3 points). Based on the oppo and our chances, i think I’d take the 1/4 final if it was offered. Anybody agree?
thank you El Plim I seem to think that some fans just want to complain and seem to think that what Mick said applies to all Wolves fans indeed he thanked fans who had supported him he attacked the dissenting voices Now in that clip on the BBC website he did not say “all wolves fans are fickle”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15451747.stm watch the interview
The people citing hoddle, blues, or any other reason why we should be grateful for MM I can guarantee don’t watch us week in week out and appreciate the baffling team selection and tactics. Latest outburst merely deflecting from his own inadequacy. As a reasonably well educated man who travels from London to games my message is clear, I want this wanker out of my club.
Up to a point, I completely agree with your analysis. I’m one of thousands of fans who turn up week in week out and get behind the lads from start to finish. I’ve never ever jeered or booed a player or manager, before, during or after a match.
Where I differ though is in feeling so utterly alienated by the club I’ve loved all my life. To be slandered by the manager is the final straw. The contempt with which I’m regarded as a wolves fan by anyone who follows the game is such a travesty.
Sir Jack had some ups and downs at Wolves but he never failed to praise the loyal support of the Mol faithful and when he left, he said goodbye to “the best fans in the world”.
What a difference to the present regimes declaration of war! Totally pissed off with it!
Sorry, my computer’s playing up.
Interesting choice of word to describe us fans, McDickshitwad, ….fickle.
The word means changing one’s loyalty on a whim, or often.
Now I am aware that some of you happy claps on here, mentioning no names but you know who you are, have not been supporting the club very long because of your age.
You still have time to be fickle.
But the likes of Myself, Mark Davies and Scooped to name but a few have been supporters, through very thick and thin for over 50 years.
We have NEVER been swayed or persuaded to follow somebody else, FUCKIN’ NEVER!!
Fickle???
You are a prize piee of work, McCarthy, showing your low life roots, like a scrawny rat backed into a corner, hitting out at anything that comes near to upsetting your precious applecart/gravy train, freeloading lifestyle.
Do us all a favor and fuck off now, I for one will never forgive you, even if we win the league,cup and champions league under you.
that last sentence kind of makes Mick’s point perfectly
Clive you are absolutely correct.
Supported Wolves since 1961, never once considered another team.
El Plim, as Clive and others know, we will win nothing under McDickhead.
His last sentence is sarcastic.
McCarthy is fickle about everything, other than his rather over inflated ego.
He is past his sell by date…..
ok robin who should replace him then? McCarthy is fickle about everything, other than his rather over inflated ego.
Sorry I thought one of the complaints about McCarthy was that he was too stubborn.
compare and contrast
http://boards.footymad.net/forum.php?tno=572&fid=263&sty=2&act=1&mid=2116068502
Oh,sorry,Mick, take el plim with you, he’s obviously fickle too!!
I thought “fickle” was Roger Johnson’s word, and that MM had weighed in with other phrases, such as “mindless idiots”. However, with so many of the club’s hierarchy liberally criticizing the fans, it’s easy for me to get it all mixed up.
Oh please, so because you are a gazillion years older than us it means you are a better supporter. I’d like to see Ben’s view on this, because he hates it when people go on about being a better fan or supporter. But he might not like to hurt Clive’s feelings.
My support will never, ever waver so you can stop with that rubbish.
Louie, I deleted the rest of my comment that ranted at Clive about being ageist as well. I didn’t want to make him over excited given he’s obviously losing his marbles already.
Is this blog whipping up the storm rather than giving both sides a fair chance to put across their thoughts? Its become a shouting match, I SUPPORT THE WOLVES THE MOST LOOK AT HOW ANGRY IT MAKES ME THAT MAKES ME CLEARLY KNOW BEST, rounding up against the ‘happy clappers’, the apologists, the younger supporters – anybody that doesnt share this hostility towards anything remotely supporting. Hmmm becoming a bit biased me thinks. Perhaps its just because im still immature enough to have some optimism still left in me.
I can feel a rant about how old people are to blame for me not being able to buy a house.
Scooped Wolves fans are disliked by others for a number of reasons
What reasons Jon. Go on pal, slag us off some more, please! You’re better at that than mick. Honest question-do you think WBA fans are better than ours? (they carried a coffin of a manager they wanted out BTW, bless)
the belief that we are a big club, thus with an over inflated attidude
the constant going on about a divine right to be in the premier league during the 90s
the negative attidude towards players managers expressed to quote David Agnew from OTF I’ve never heard a set on fans vocally turn on their team because they’re not meeting the overestimated expectations the fanbase have put on them – like that’s going to make them want to raise their game and BTW he’s an Ipswich Town fan
With regard to Albion fans I actually think there are a number of them who are dickheads. But here’s the thing Ben fans are not a homogenous group
Jon, a football fan worries about his team, not the behaviour of his fellow fans.
McCarthy is the only one with an over inflated attitude.
You seem to think that to keep a man losing the plot as your manager is the best for Wolves!
I support this club and we can do better if we get anyone other than McCarthy.
Surely you can see this –
If you think McCarthy can carry on and save us this season you will be severely disappointed, like the rest of us are already!
as I have said time and time again who? who are we going to get ot replace him and suppose that doesn’t work out then what?
Who? Well, at this moment Jon, with the manager (having slept on it!) publicly calling a section of the club’s fans ‘mindless idiots’, practically anyone else looks a better bet.
ok fine let’s get Peter Reid he’s anyone else he isn’t great hasn’t done well since Sunderland but let’s try him
Jon, it doesn’t matter who replaces him because we have a history of turning on our managers for not delivering quickly enough. I was at Barnsley a week before Taylor was dismissed and at Gillingham the week before Dave Jones was dismissed and the vitriol at both venues was astounding to see/hear. Granted the performances were lamentable and had been for some time, but not long after people were complaining that we didn’t give Taylor enough time and even now people are calling for Jones to return. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad.
Exactly wolfman one of the problems that a number of wolves fans (not all) is a tendancy to have high expectations
Curbs. Look at his record – eclipses MM in the Prem. at any rate.
a good suggestion however he is unlikely to return to mangement since he is built and probably prefers a career in punditry
You didn’t answer the question Jon. And I know fans aren’t a homogeneous group. If they were I wouldn’t write a blog would I. You quote a random Ipswich fan, I’ll quote Paul Ince who said we are better fans than Liverpools, Utds and Inters’. I bet you hate reading that don’t you? Doesn’t conform to your turncoat agenda. Mind you, your Ipswich mate knows more about football than a mindlesd idiot like Ince. What’s he ever won?
I don’t think any set of fans are better and I will say this again READ THE FULL INTERVIEW and listen to what he’s said okay
There’s no way back from this I’m afraid.
It doesn’t matter if we win five on the bounce (which we won’t) … the wheels are in motion. Next time things get tough the “mindless idiots” will turn on McCarthy – he has contempt for them and they have contempt for him.
Seriously, how does the man think this is a battle he can win? His chairman is redeveloping the stadium; the chief executive is already fretting about how we are going to fill it… and the manager is simultaneously alienating 5,000+ of the hardcore support!
You might think he had no choice but to answer back? You’re wrong. He could have said what Kevin Doyle said: “We understand the fans’ frustrations” blah blah blah… defuse the situation and try to move on.
But that’s not McCarthy’s style. And that’s why this won’t end well.
I think its Steve Morgan who thinks we’re a big club. He must do I sippose or else he wouldnt have embarked on rebuilding a stadium less tham 20 tears old.
And you quote David Agnew as if that adds credibility to your lame accusations. Who the hell is David Agnew???? I dont need any tractor boy telling me about a bunch of fans I’ve shared a lifetime with.
How loud did he cheer when Norwich beat them at Portman Road? Suppose all the boos that day were Wolves fans on a day out???
I too have supported this club through thick and thin for well over 50 years
also ,have seen managers come and go but i have never ever felt so angry
towards any other manager than i do for this cretin.like i said he must be
demented having a go at the FANS like he has whats the point just goes to
show who’s the numpty.Its about time FAT MOXEY & MUTED MORGAN take a
look at the real picture get rid of him now before its to late to turn it around.
FOMM,Thats what most of the real wolves fans want NOW…PS as for the happy-clappers you will turn.
This whole incident better be nothing more than a horrible nightmare in a month’s time…
I hope your right Hamlet,Only if McIdiot has gone because he’s had it now
for the majority of wolves fans for the comments he’s foolishly aired.
After reading / watching McCarthys press conference, has anyone given a thought to his comment about HIM ALONE taking the credit for the way the team came back to earn a draw on Saturday ?
If he really does have tactical nous, why did it take so long to see what was wrong ??
I thought it was more to do with Rogers taking his best 2 players off and the rest of the Swans switching off !!
UTW
So who are these “mindless idiots”-from where I was-BW-boos came from all around the ground when he took off Mammill-So thats most of us then-Its not just the South Bank.
Don’t really have much to add but OCD is making me get the comments up to 200…. 198 and counting.
Step up Mr. Curbishley. Better record than MM in the Prem. at any rate. He is the calibre we can attract. Look at what he did for Charlton/ West Ham. If it wern’t for the ever crooked/interfering west ham board he’d still be there.