A lush new pitch, a heart full of optimism and a good old waft of Deep Heat can mean only one thing.
It’s pre-season time again! The players might hate it, but I positively love it, and can’t wait to get through the turnstiles again to see our beloved team once more.
It’s time to skip along to the ground, sniff that pure, unfiltered Wolverhampton air and breath a big sigh of relief that those mundane Saturday afternoons are over.
We could finish 12th.’ ‘Better still, we could break into the top 10.’ ‘Sod it, we could make the Champions League!’ Anything is possible in my mind as my perennial sense of optimism goes haywire. Realism can bugger off for now.
And isn’t it great to cast a beady eye around the place to see if anything has changed since we’ve been away? It always takes me a good 10 minutes to acclimatize again before I can even think about a Balti pie.
Like the sight and stature of the new signings, the shade of the new kit from afar, a new advertisement hoarding or two, and the size of George Elokobi.
In the time since we beat Sunderland, I’ve made a few improvements to the house, hung up a pair of quite glorious hanging baskets in the garden, nurtured a fuchsia plant through a near death experience with my wife and become a member of the Matalan club. (They even sent me a birthday card the other day!)
I’d have swapped the lot for a glimpse of Doyle’s tinted barnet, or Matty Jarvis’ strapped ankles.
Quite frankly, this time of the year is more exciting than any other, and I bloody can’t wait to see the lads again. It feels like an eternity since Guedioura bagged the winner back in May doesn’t it?
And as exhilarating as this time might be, it is vitally important too, and will surely play a huge part in shaping our season – and our expectations.
Just look at the evidence. In 2003 after winning the play-offs we got spanked by Morecambe 6-1 just weeks before our Premier League bow. We also lost 2-1 at Yeovil shortly after, and were revoltingly underprepared for our shot at the big time. Didn’t Blackburn tonk us 5-1 on the opening day, followed by a Charlton Athletic masterclass at Molineux?
By contrast in 2008, we had a wonderful pre-season campaign (Wrexham away aside), culminating in a 4-2 drubbing of Blackburn in our final curtain call at home. Kightly and Jarvis flying and a sense that we couldn’t be more prepared for the big kick-off. We duly went about 8 games without losing, including a seven match winning streak which ultimately ensured our promotion.
And last season, when we went down to Port Vale, Bristol City, MK Dons and Real Valladolid, you sensed that we were badly undercooked once more. One win in the first five games tells its own story.
Forget all the well worn platitudes about ‘getting a run-out’ and ‘games under the belt.’ Winning is all that matters from now on, and nobody knows this more than Big Mick.
nice post.
really looking forward to the bilbao game – one of my favourite teams.. absolutely incredible how they compete in la liga with their basque only policy.
i’m guessing we won’t get a glimpse of llorente & martinez and their world cup winners medals but will still be good test.
It is exciting, and I can’t wait to see the new faces playing for us. With the 4 for £4 (£1.50 booking fee, which makes it 10) me and my family can make a visit to the Mol. I haven’t seen a match there for a while now!
A couple of days before that too, we can meet all the players in the photoshoot. A picture with Doyle!
I’m never sure what friendlies mean, but it seems that with Wolves it can tell what kind of start we will have.
Nice blog.
yeah Louie, 4 for £10 is actually a good offer but billing it as 4 for £4 makes me laugh – £1.50 booking fee per ticket applies whether you pay by debit or credit card… and it is an online only offer… so it is literally impossible to pay the £4 stated for the tickets. should be illegal really.
my mate is Basque and a big Bilbao fan, he lives in Southampton but is makin the trip up for the friendly, especially as my birthday is the 10th, I can’t wait!
Friendlies don’t always reveal too much though, remember bashin someone like Bournemouth 5-1 under hoddle, anderton slotted in a lovely free kick and I was sure glenda would take us up….
That said, it would take lots more than some iffy pre-season form to subdue my optimism for next season.
We’ll spank the Irish, stroll past Reading, find harder opposition from Athletic, but if they’re restin 2 key players, plus ours are all scrappin for a shirt v Stoke, and with the fans chompin at the bit we could edge it.
UTW
Cheers for the comments guys.
Some of my fondest memories have been from pre-season games. I remember us beating Southampton 2-0 in one game years ago (Mutchy brace I recall). They had Matt le Tissier and Tim Flowers in their team and had beaten Liverpool the season before. I deduced that we were better than Liverpool because we beat them and would rule the world. Hah!
The Blackburn 4-2 win was so joyful for me personally, as we took my little boy to the game and he was only 12 weeks old. That warm feeling still lives with me, and seemed to embody that season as a whole.
Adam, good point re: ticket prices. It should be illegal you’re right. They were flogging them outside Asda today so the wife says. I told her to get four adults and one junior, so I’ll be interested to find out what the damage was.
I definitely think there’s something in the argument that a good pre-season aids a good start in the league.
Winning really is a habit so a few good ones before the Stoke game will do me fine please.
That Blackburn game holds good memories for me too Ben, as I watched it with my mate whose a Blackburn fan. Needless to say, he wasn’t best pleased.
Another good one was Man Utd back in 94, when Bully lobbed Schmeichal to give us the lead. Lost eventually, but still a pleasant memory.
Don’t know what the law sez over there, but here if something is priced for $ 4.00, then that’s what you pay. If they try and charge you more, you ask for the person in charge, and if still no satisfaction, then you sue in the small claims court and you will win.
The reasoning goes that if they mis priced, or mis represented a price, then tough shit, what you see is what you pay. I have had personal experience of this in the past, and they change the signs pretty damned quick!!!
Would be interesting to see what would happen if a complaint went all the way to Morgan, didn’t get resolved, and the club was sued.
FOWB
that’s not my memory of the States, Clive.. I spent 3 months there but being a thicky kept forgetting about the tax they add to stated prices – had some shopkeeper chasing me down the street cos I’d paid $5 for something that said $5 rather than the $5.29 I should have. I also got sick of those McDonalds adverts that showed a guy walking in with a dollar bill and getting a burger when if you went in it actually cost $1.07.
Not sure why I’ve become a tight-arse consumer rights vigilante on a Wolves messageboard but there you go..
What pisses me off is seeing gas station prices at $2.49.99 per gallon.
Never have worked out how you can have .01 of a penny change.
Still, at least we aint paying 8 or 9 dollars per gallon like you do over there.
And what that has to do with the Wolves is beyond me as well!!
FOWB
Ever heard of TicketMaster, Clive?
Pre -season means absolutely nothing. What worries me is that our record on the opening day is appalling. When was the last time we won a season opener? Always seem to be playing catch up from the word go, and this year , after all this euphoria , signings from relegated clubs, and blind optimism …. won’t be any different after the Stoke game.
Bloody hell Dazza. I know you’re a miserable git but that is up there with your best! And pre season must mean something…You were positively loving the trip to Oz this time last year!!
Pre-season is meaningless. It is important, but equally, results etc are not important, and we as the public will never be privy to the important data coming out of it. Signings and potential signings are much more fun to follow
You can take both positives and negatives from pre-season. If Doyle gets a lot of goals, or Fletcher and Doyle seem to team well, that is good, of course.
But just the same, Mick will be trying different player combinations and giving all players a chance to show what they have so you cannot judge it as if it were a ‘real’ game.
Look for individual performances and people stepping up to the challenge.
Hey Ben… I live in Oz matey..was the trip to Perth I was loving.Mainly for the trip to Little Creatures brewery !! I am working on the fact that our opening day record is abysmal at best!
I know mate, thought I’d throw it in for the sake of a retort! You make a good point about the opening day results. Got to be a blog in that surely. I remember three games where we won on the opening day and no others.
1. Robbie Keane brace away at Norwich 2-0 99?
2. Bully hattrick away at Grimsby 4-1? 96
3. Reading home, Froggatt 1-0 95?
Although, some of the best seasons I can remember featured a beating or draw on the opening day.
We lost at Bury 3-1 in the season we pissed div 3 if memory serves.
Another opening day win for you: 3-1 at home vs. Bristol City in 1993. Bully got two. Can’t remember who got the third (Geoff Thomas? Or am I remembering him because that his debut game for us??). Anyhow, that was the last game I saw before I relocated to Hong Kong. I remember being utterly CONVINCED we’d get promoted too …. 😐
Ben, I think you will find we have one of the worst opening day records , but, we have a pretty good last day record
Personally, I just have Gary Glitter records…
That could open up a huge can of worms for you!!!
I went to see an Oz connection last week, Colin Hay, of Men at Work fame.
Excellent singing and comedy routine.
Check him out if you get the chance……………but he don’t live in Oz no more, so could be a problem.
FOWB
I agree pre season is meaningless. I’m sure we’ll lose to Port Vale or Walsall, but it doesn’t matter until the real thing starts. Still be nice to win though. I don’t think i could go to a friendly game either as it doesn’t mean anything. I’d rather save for the Carling Cup.
I remember us beating Man City on the opening day, i think that was 99 or 00. That may have been the last time
I see the bookies still have us as 3rd faves to go dwon, and, having spent more money than anyone else so far (except for Man Shitty).. I think thats a bit of surprise
I reckon B’ham (who finished with a whimper last season) and Stoke (ugly, ugly, ugly) are good bets at 11/2 and 5/1 respectively (William Hill’s odds) … I’ll have a tenner on each, methinks.
That would be a great result – stoke, blues and west brom relegated would be football heaven!
I don’t think 3rd favourite is fair. But we appear to be an under the radar type club. “Oh well, Newcastle won’t go down, who has a small reputation? Wolves. Must be them. It’s not like they’ll attract new players.”
Little do they know that when the revolution (against debt) comes, we’ll be in the Vanguard.
Surely we must be stronger than the Albion, Blackpool and Newcastle? Not to mention the two teams we finished above last season that were not relegated?
I remember reading a prediction this time last year that SEB would make the England squad for the world cup – most of the journo’s writing this crap have never travelled past Watford gap!
Stourbridge, I agree, thus it is unfair that we get labelled 3rd favourite to go down.
I think our gritty 4-5-1 football last season was perceived by some neutrals as a bit dour (to put it mildly). So, my theory is that I think that there’s an element of “wishful thinking” on the part of the bookies here. They’ve put our odds lower than they objectively deserve to be, just because they don’t like our style.
If we’d somehow got exactly the same number of points last year but by using a 4-3-3 with attacking midfielders who could play pretty triangles all week and score glorious goals from long range, I bet (groan…) that we’d have better odds of survival now.
I don’t even know if we’re considered dour or not even considered… not sky four, just come up and all that.
Fulham may struggle too withour Mr H
I can’t see that happening Daz, however with a small squad a few key injuries might have them in trouble. Kind of like a classier Wolves.
Jol has agreed terms with them, good appointment
On another note – if D Jones doesn’t sign a new contract, do we sell to cash in or keep him for a year and risk losing him on a free.
I’d go the latter, as he’s the type of player who can make a real difference and might be the difference between staying up or going down.
Sell him, put the money towards Mancienne
No, send the money to me, so I can come over more often, and annoy you lot in person…………..with my vuvuzela!!
Wonder how many will turn up at the Mol, and how quickly they will banned, confiscated or shoved up someone’s arse??!!
FOWB
I think he’ll sign a new deal anyway, but if not I’d sell him in the blink of an eye!
Played well last season but wouldn’t want to lose him on a free.
finish 15th.. spend 15m and now we’re rated as 18th.. mccarthy is also 5th favourite for sack..
i guess it’s sobering talk given all the excitement among wolves fans. bookies aren’t wrong often but it does seem harsh. why are newcastle 9th favourites for the league?? they havent bought anyone??
But they won the Championship at a canter. I think they’ll be fine. At the end of last season, i had us as third favourites to go down, but i’m more confident with the signings we’ve made.
It’s difficult to think who’ll finish below us though, maybe Wigan, Blues?
Need Wigan to lose a couple of their decent players. N’Zogbia, Rodallega and Figueroa have all been linked with moves away – that would do nicely! Without those three they would be fooooked.
I wouldn;t say no to any of those SW
With Burnley , Hull and Pompey gone … West Brom and Newcastle now give us 4 harder games to get points from. We took 6 points from Burnley last year, we won’t take 6 points from West Brom or Newcastle, so we have to find them from somewhere else
This season is going to be far tougher than last, and I’m still concerned with niggling injuries, that we still have a paper thin squad and, very little quality where needed…. central defence, midfield, left back. Don;t expect Van Damme to be any sort of Messiah, our track record with johnny Foreigners is appaling…. Jesus Sanjuan, Jens Dowe, Silas anyone?
Lets remember we shipped 6 points to Pompey last season though.
Ever the pessimist, eh Gazza?
There are loads of points to be picked up to compensate for Burnley:
We’ll take at least four more points off Blackpool than we did off Portsmouth.
B’ham will surely not do anywhere near as well this season, and we’ll do better against them than last year. Possibly an extra 3 points there.
We’ll beat Liverpool at home. Oh yes. May even get a draw away …
I wouldn’t be so sure as you about the quality of WBA either …
Have I got to six yet? 😉
‘Gazza’? Oops. Dazza. My apologies – I need more coffee this morning.
Do you reckon Dazza is Gazza in hiding and in disguise? Frankly I don’t but would be awesome if it was.
Does he have a fishing rod and a dressing gown to hand to a mass murderer?
We got 6 points off Spurs remember, I somehow doubt that’ll happen again this season…
I’d take four points this year!
And for the record, Berra, Zubar, Guediora, Foley etc are “Johnny Foreign”
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/
Anyone want to create a ‘Wolves Blog’ league for us all to join. I’m useless at this sort of stuff, or I would do it. I think you create you won league, within the main league, and it will give us a code for us all to join
What you think?
I’ve already got a team but am also useless at this stuff. Despite a ridiculous run in the world cup where I got every goalscorer for about 4 days in a row.
Daz, give me the key and I’m in.
I’m up for that too!
Is Dazza JIWAL? Pretty sure he is.
I’m even more sure he isn’t !!
I have us down as 4th worst, above Wigan, Blackpool and Albion.
What’s the new nickname for Fizzy Pop league now it’s changed to NPower Championship?
Leccy League or Pylon Premier I think we agreed Hallam!
I think we’ll be setting up a Fantasy Football Wolves blog too, so watch this space!
Clive – you’ll be pleased to read the Express and Star website today as Ward is declaring himself 100% shit, I mean fit!
This is my prediction for what the Premier league table will look like at the end of the season.Wolves comfortably safe in 12th position! Maybe my heart ruling my head?
1.CHELSEA
2.MAN U
3.MAN CITY
4.LIVERPOOL
5.ARSENAL
6.SPURS
7.EVERTON
8.VILLA
9.BLUES
10.W.HAM
11.FULHAM
12.WONDERFUL WOLVES
13.BOLTON
14.WIGAN
15.BLACKBURN
16.STOKE
17.NEWCASTLE
18.W.B.A.(SHAME)
19.SUNDERLAND
20.BLACKPOOL
Anyone know better?
.
Me.
Liverpool won’t finish top 4
Why Wigan so high up?
I’m mostly intrigued about Sunderland though…
LIVERPOOL- I really rate Roy Hodgson.Think they were seriously under peforming under that boring Rafa chap.Thank God no more of his post match interviews!Think we might see the real Liverpool again.
WIGAN- Yeah imight have them a bit high but i just don’t fancy any of the ones i put below them.Also,they’ve signed an Argentinian CF who might be top notch, Roberto Martinez is learning fast and Dave Whelan is a shrewd chairman.
SUNDERLAND-Second half of last seaon they played relegation stuff and i don’t think they’ve signed any one.Their 9 mil goalie’s broken his arm already and their manager doesn’t inspire me.Likes the sound of his own voice too much for me.
All a bit of punt really but i did back Wolves at 14 to 1 to win the championship.Happy days.
Sunderland relegated? Nice one!
That would make you happy yeah?Probably get quite good odds on it methinks.
First pre-season game, three nil. Craddock, Fletcher and Mujangi Bia. Apparently Fletcher and Doyle played well together too.
Good for Fletcher to score. Zubar’s crocked apparently
We could do without Zubar being crocked rich. Your one post has made me realise what you all have politely observed a day or two ago-that my blog was missing the point. Namely, no injuries please! Like u say,great for fletcher. I’m off to walsall Tue so will knock up a report. Imagine if fletcher got crocked too? That would kill my optimism in one fell swoop. Sorry, being morbid again! Also, what can we read into Keith getting 90mins today? Anything?
That’s typical of us, 3-0 win but a key player gets injured. Done his ankle apparently, hopefully not too bad though.
Maybe Keogh was in the shop window, and with Kightly and Hunt out it’s someone to put in there for now. Who do we expect to see there against Stoke? Foley again? Maybe Guedioura or Edwards?
Pictures of Zubar on Sky limping off in a temporary cast – hope its not too serious.
Good finish from Fletchers left foot too, right into the top corner from around 15 yards out!
When Zubar got injured it was Stearman who came in at right back. Then when Stearman moved to centre back Halford went right back! Foley played centre mid. I hope this doesn’t mean Foley is fourth choice right back. I think he’s easily good enough for the PL
I meant keogh not Keith! Predictive text! Whoops