I’ve been blithering on about poor refereeing for the last month, so accept my sincere apologies if you think I’m overreacting, but this was another category A blunder.
Two weeks ago, Chris Wood nearly takes Matt Doherty’s head off at Burnley and it’s completely overlooked to deny us any chance of finishing in the top four.
Today in a nip and tuck encounter, Marcos Alsono throws himself to the ground from zero contact with Neto actively pulling his boot away and the foul is given.
It’s a lovely free-kick from Mount and credit to him for gobbling up the opportunity.
Wolves couldn’t steady the ship and keep the contest alive.
The second goal was awful, with defenders drawn to the ball and Coady somehow failing to clear before Giroud snuck in to score.
But the critical moment was Stuart Atwell getting conned by Alonso because it changed the course of the game.
Our feeble attempts to do anything in the second half mustn’t go overlooked though.
Nuno’s changes made us worse, not better and I’ll never comprehend the logic in pushing Traore to wingback. I haven’t seen that strategy pay dividend once when we’re chasing the game.
The big man can count himself unfortunate not to have started given Jota’s terrible form.
One wonderfully taken goal against Everton aside, he hasn’t turned up since the restart and unless we’re playing two up top, he should be behind Traore, Neto and Podence in the pecking order for Olympiakos.
Nothing came off for him today, albeit in a team performance that never really got going again after Chelsea went ahead.
Whenever things do go wrong, we’re always lamenting the lack of a Plan B and Nuno needs to have something different up his sleeve on the rare occasions we’re well and truly up against it.
I cannot criticise the man or his players too much though, as they have been excellent all season.
Seventh feels disappointing compared to the ecstasy of last season’s identical finishing position, which in itself indicates progress.
If we can maintain the group and add one or two, we’ll be up there fighting again next season I have no doubt.
There’s a last hurrah to come before that and I just hope if we do go down in Europe we go down with a bit more fight and a little less injustice.
Now the Premier League has finished, if you’d like to place a wager on how far Wolves will progress in the Europa League make sure you check out OlyBet for the latest odds and offers.
What a disappointing way to end the season.
Reasonably competitive for the first 45 minutes, cheated out of the first goal, sloppy for the second – Rui should have cleaned Giroud and the ball out but seemed to bottle it – and then abject in the second half.
Raul looked knackered with dark bags under his eyes. Obviously being a daddy hasn’t helped his sleeping pattern.
The rest were off the pace and as soon as that first goal went in, it was plain to see that we were not going to get anything out of the game.
To be fair to Chelsea, apart from some theatrical diving and screams of pain every time we put a tackle in, they outplayed and out fought us for most of the game.
Nuno will NOT be a happy bunny over how we capitulated after conceding those goals.
A sad end to a successful season.
We got what we deserved, NOTHING. Jota should be nowhere near the first team, shocking performance by all, including the Manager, he only made things worse with his subs. Happy to see the season over. Hopefully time to regroup and try to get our game back before Germany.
Chelsea deserved to win but it saddens me that such a good side needed to rely on theatrical diving to break the deadlock. I hope the player concerned feels very pleased with himself.
Since the restart we have been papering over the cracks. 1. Squad is to small to compete for top six in the Premier League and stay run a Europa campaign at the same time.
We had Champions League spot in our grasp we blew it. We had even more Europa League spot in our grasp and blew it.
Yeah and some of you will say well we have played 50 odd games this season…..well just proves my point squad is not big enough.
I’ve been a supporter for 45 years and never, never have I been as much frustrated and disappoint as I feel now. How many times in those 45 years have Wolves been in with a chance of being in Europe never mind the Top competing NEVER.
To those who want to look back and rember the Grimsbys and Rotherham’s your living in the past and that’s only going to hold you back from moving on in the future.
We have come a long long way BUT we could and should have taken a giant step forward this season a monumental step forward and we could have with a little bit more bravery and belief.
The BC will be laughing ther Bollocks of there daring Spurs have made it past the minnows Wolves old big head will be milking the attention.
If we want to compete seriously in the Premier League Nuno needs to realise you cannot do it with a small squad that to me is his biggest and costliest mistake.
Nothing wrong with remembering where you came from. Helps put it in perspective. Nuno mantra ‘stay humble’.
The free kick was just Chelsea conning the Ref. He swallowed it. Being as we have been conned so many times this season. It was probably just a routine free kick which was another piece of injustice that adds to our collective grief. That said it seemed to knock the stuffing out of us. Up until then we gave as good as we got. Second half we were just awful. Glad it’s over. Was really fed up to see Mourinho wildly celebrating. They dont deserve anything. That VAR table this morning showed they dont. On to Europa. At least the f**king clowns at Stockley Park won’t be in charge. We may have a sniff if we get Manure.
OK I’m being wise after the event but I feared the worst after seeing the selection. Before I had visions of Traore and Podence running at their defence and drawing fouls and setting up dead balls from which goals could be won. And we were toothless. And that allowed a very poor referee’s decision to give Chelsea the opportunity I had hoped Wolves would gain. They duly scored a cracking goal followed by Giroud’s opportunistic strike and it’s game over.
And worse yet we offered no fight. Chelsea wrapped the game up stifling everything Wolves tried and we lacked the creativity, and dare I say it, the will to take them on.
Disappointing but again we get up, dust ourselves down and go again in The Europa. Win that and the world goes gold again.
A fitting end to a season where we’ve been dogged by the football gods. By rights if karma is going to balance out the terrible refereeing we should win the Europa league by default.
The fact that we have managed to finish 7th despite the best efforts of Var and woeful refereeing is an outstanding achievement.
A poor final game performance from a side for whom this appeared to be one game too many. The team selection and tactics adopted seemed odd.
The free kick decision against us was just plain wrong. But there is no doubt that on the day Chelsea deserved the victory. No complaints from me.
But this game did not determine our failure to attain our European objectives. The inexplicably unimpressive performance against Arsenal, and the last minute concession against the Blades did the real damage. Then there was the dreadful penalty award against us at Burnley which robbed us of the two points which would today have made all the difference. We have every reason to feel very sore.
But we should not do so. We should not allow any of this to take away from our outstanding progress through this long season, during which we have been able to savor the many exquisite moments of sheer footballing class that our wonderful pack has provided. The pace and continuity of our progress under the tutelage of Nuno has been remarkable. In years to come, we can all look back on this season with huge pride.
But now is surely the time to look forward This is just the beginning. A few quality additions in key areas, and there is no reason why next season we cannot be challenging right at the top. For now, let us enjoy the fact that we have successfully established the base on which we can now build. After all the long yeas in the wilderness, we are now a football club which is the envy of all. What a great time to be real fan of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The best team won but, again, with the help of an incorrect decision. I thought VAR was supposed to stop and punish diving; apparently no longer. Maybe these awfully incompetent officials have the memory span of goldfish and have forgotten this aspect of their job.
I read that if wrong VAR decisions were not applied Wolves would be third in the league and City would be far closer to Liddypool. Some article in one of the broadsheets.
Again, can’t complain about the result ; some of our key players look completely shot unfortunately. Hope we can reenergise before the Europa game. OODCL…
Bad season for VAR. Without it this season we’d have done the double over Leicester, battered Southampton at home, had a point (at least) at Anfield and perhaps much more. Spurs and Man United meanwhile had a lot of ‘get out of jail free’ moments courtesy of VAR this year.
VAR has amplified rather than minimised the bias we’re used to in England. This is because of the fact that almost all football referring judgements – even those taken behind a screen at Stockley Park – are subjective.
Not a good day for sure .It certainly looked a game too far .
I am very doubtful about yet another qualifying campaign which is all we will have even if Chelsea win the Cup .That will require at least 3 ( if one off games are used as foreshadowed by UEFA ) or 6 qualifiers before the end of September .
Surely this is too much .
I would opt not to be in Europe next year on this basis unless we win the Europa which I think is a long shot .
Time for regrouping and trying to get a flying start in the PL without the distraction for me and try to get in to the top 6 and have a go at the domestic cups .
I agree wholly. Some of our better players seem out of sorts, totally leggy. They need a good break.
Can’t be having that, Nick, because if we do qualify for the Europa then the qualifiers will just replace friendlies as they did this season. Actually gives some purpose to the games.
It probably won’t be up for debate anyway as Arsenal will now go and win the FA cup.
We’ll just have to win the Europa cup this season.
We ought to be happy, proud of another strong finish, but some how is it me, or does it feel hollow? Yes Mr Attwell, once again got it wrong, but I do agree with Paulad67 that maybe have been papering over the cracks? Half time was screaming to take Jota off, who was out of the game completely.
We have been extremely lucky with injuries, but when Chelski beat Arsenhole in the cup we will be playing on for another year. If one or two pick up a knock, or run out of steam it could be our undoing. We are a skilful team, committed and I’ve said it before, on our day can beat anyone. Let’s regroup and get the Europa league done, hey.
Keep the Faith.
Brilliant season as far as l am concerned in the real world of football we finished third.
So proud of the boys.
Nuno Is King.
Atwell and Dean are a disgrace.
We took 16 points from 9 games after the restart. Almost 1.8 points per game. That was better than we did before the corona.
It just happens that Man U, Tottenham and, to a degree, Arsenal, found their legs for that final push.
Leicester fell apart. But, they were too far ahead of us. We needed MU or Chelsea to have that kind of dip.
Bummer
Good news is goodbye Watford as well as Cheatmouth
Bad news
No Goodbye to Villa or west haaam
More than surprised by starting 11
Immediately says we will try to scrape through first 45 mins then hope to
exploit tired bodies
Come on .. they are athletes
and it’s us who are tired
Podence and Traore need to be a starter combo in Europa Cup
Who can stop the dribbles without fouls?
Let’s get 2-0 up and coast second half
That said if Doc had cut back to Raúl early on
This could be different scenario
Brilliant PL season
Progress with experience and new signings and Traore
I expect Chelsea to win FA cup
so we are back in Europa Cip
Next few weeks could still be
Brilliant. And that
Would make my 20 pound bet last summer worth 270
COYW
Adios amigos
Lots of great comments and perspective on what has been another exceptional season. Small margins have conspired to deny us an even better finish but we have to build year on year. The refs cock up today opened us up to be beaten by a very good team, no disgrace in that but I believe we would have drawn if not for Attwells error. I hope that Fosun are able/willing to continue their investment in the ‘project’ because I fear that Nuno will look for another opportunity if the team starts to regress. I’m not convinced that most of this squad have the potential to continue improve their technique. If we lost Neves and Raul we would struggle.
We’ve looked a shadow of our true selves since the restart. The fact that we had probably the easiest run in of the top teams helped to mask the problems and also skewed the stats.
There have been some strange team selections recently to which I can only put down to Nuno seeing the players in training regularly which obviously the rest of us don’t.
We were overrun in midfield today and our game changing talisman was positioned in his least effective role.
We were indeed second best after the break but as long as lessons are learned we can still count this as another season of progress.
It’s our best season for around 40 years. Let’s not forget that.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist but the big VAR decisions do seem to go the way of the traditional big boys. I’d be glad to see the back of it and see it replaced by simple goal line technology that tells you if the bag of air has crossed the line or not.
Unless you’re playing villa in which case you can’t even trust the goal line tech. They survived as a result of the most bizarre refereeing and technology F***ups. How watford and Bournemouth aren’t sueing the FA for lost earnings is beyond me.
Ridiculous as that decision, or non-decision, was the incident happened in the first half. No-one knows how the game would have panned out afterwards if the goal had been given. Consequently, sueing would be a total waste of time.
Draws.
Not the type we wear, but the two points dropped kind.
That, together with var has been our Achilles heel this season.
If, being the biggest word in the English language and all that, we had won half of those we drew, and lost the rest, we would, I believe, be at least fourth, coz some of the teams we drew against would obviously have a few less points as well, Manure and Lester being two points in cases.
Plus the var situation has been debated, discussed and many a beer glass thrown in annoyance ad nauseum.
If every manager/owner feels strongly about the vagaries of var, can they all unite and get it sorted, to what it is supposed to do, which is funnily enough in it’s name, assist.
Not friggin’ take over.
Today saw the worst non var decision of the season for us, in that a free kick in an exceedingly ( Mr. Kipling) dangerous position, was not even reviewed, yet a long hard look was taken at an innocuous Raul elbow. Double standards, and more obvious and blatant, a conspiracy.
Spurms HAD to get into 6th place, and if Chelsea hadn’t been leading at the end, I am damned sure a Mike Deanesque penalty would have ensued from his bum boy atwell.
Totally farcical.
I am sure Mr. Coady got a right royal Dr. Nuno size 10 up his arse at half time, but we totally bottled it in the second half.
Instead of coming out guns blazing, taking no prisoners ( Lawrence) Nuno puts Adama at right back, sort of, and expects us to win!
Sorry, Mr. Messiah, but you got this one wrong.
I disagree with all the Jota naysayers, form is temporary, class is permanent, both he and Raul will come good again.
Talking of Raul, he needs a few weeks rest, both on and off the nest.
The future is bright, Nuno is nobody’s fool, and we will get over this loss, just as we did two years ago in Sunderland.
Unlike 95% of the rest of the footballing world, we are still in a major European competition.
As I’ve stated on here before, we need some squad additions to give our regulars a fight for their places, otherwise we will start going backwards.
Look how far Watford have progressed with Shrek, and Boredmouth with Heddy Ow.
Pity they couldn’t take Villa with them, but thank you, Jackie boy, for the easy six points next season.
And the shit.
And the elland road bottom feeders.
Plus, we were the only team to do the double over the reigning two time champions.
Life is good, especially after a few IPAs.
Never throw a beer glass at Nauseam.
He might chuck one back!
Performance wise, that was one of our worst this season. Like the reverse fixture at Molineux, our inability to react to the situation put before us was disappointing. So much of our play is about control. Yet that was pierced by none other than a poor refereeing decision. We lost our shape, were sloppy in possession and ultimately lost our composure. That’s not the Nuno way, and something we must learn from to progress further I think.
But that doesn’t mean we should forget about the decision that led to the first goal. The fact we have clawed back so many points from losing positions is miraculous, but momentum and especially the first goal are key to regularly winning games.
In the scenario where play continues and Alonso is rightly booked for diving, you cannot definitively predict the same performance as we saw. We could have played out any number of results. One of which could have been playing poorly, yet grinding out a draw that would have seen us take 6th. Or indeed still losing the game 2-0. We can all agree that something needs to be done about our slow starts to games. Having the majority of our productive football in the second half, makes the task of winning games much more difficult. So if we’re honest, we shouldn’t have been surprised by yesterday’s first half. What was surprising was being punished by a non free-kick, where in reality it should have been 0-0 at half time, possibly growing into the game second half. For that to have happened, I agree with many on here that a few personnel changes at half time would have been needed, as it was still a slow and poor performance. But it wasn’t meant to be.
Us as wolves fans wanting the team to be more consistent and challenge the top four is one thing. But what really gets me and most football fans, is the inconsistent VAR / ref decisions that plague the game, and affect the outcome. Teams like Liverpool, that score so many, and concede so few are protected from these decision anomalies, as they more likely don’t affect the result. Teams like ours, where the margins are tight, are not so lucky.
I think the footballing powers need to show a bit more backbone to rid the game of cheating and awful decisions, which are clear and obvious to all football fans.
Currently VAR will rule someone as being one hairs breadth offside or chalk off a goal if you touched the ball with your hand a week leading up to the goal. Yet a player diving outside the box with no contact, which leads to a goal, is not looked at as a clear and obvious error by the referee. It doesn’t make sense.
What shouldn’t be forgotten is that we have made progress. Same 7th placed finish yes, but more goals scored, less conceded and learning to be a part of a European tournament we still compete in this season, is impressive. Evolving our style of play and the next phase of recruitment is up to Nuno and Fosun, but none of us should doubt that there will be improvement next year. UTW.
Well said Dom.
Couldn’t agree more.
I really thought, before the game, that we would beat Chelsea today. I thought we were due a performance Nuno pulls out of the hat every now and then when the team just dazzles , like when we played some of the big boys in the past. The way we started I thought we were in it. Until the goal, in fact, I thought we were giving a reasonable account and that anything could happen.
But the two quick goals killed us today. There was no fight-back for club and glory like we did after going two-down to City in December. Truth is, that unlike then, when the team never gave up until the final whistle, and the further they fell behind, the more they fought, this time they threw in the towel at half-time. The team recently couldn’t be further away from the one in December. They just gave up and lost the complete plot. Nuno included.
Pity, cos a draw would have seen us take sixth! Which I think over the course of the season, we probably deserved. But not based on how we played the Arsenal, Sheffield and Chelsea today. So where next?
I don’t think we can look at Wolves without some perspective. We placed 7th, two years running, in the EPL. That is awesome. We have established that we belong in the top tier and that the first season was no fluke. We are where we belong, and here to stay. Anyone else needing some additional perspective just take a look at the bottom half of the Championship where you will find it littered with teams who not too long ago we feared as strong outfits in the EPL, but are now flailing without hope or prospects in a Championship Limbo.
We have committed and ambitious owners, an incredible and passionate manager (not infallible, but nobody is!), and a young and talented group of players who will keep improving, who placed 7th in the EPL twice running, qualified in the Europa league and might still again. We have to keep building. It takes time.
I know many keep saying we should have been 4th, etc. Honestly, I think we are about where we should be: 6th-7th is my honest assessment. I know many decisions went against us during the season, but I really don’t think we are Champions League ready yet, however good that may sound. Think about it, if we can’t put up a fight against Chelsea or Arsenal to get at least a draw, do you think we’re really going to compete in the Champions League? I’m intrigued how many talk about winning the Europa League but didn’t back Wolves to beat Chelsea. Does anyone think Inter Milan or Man Utd in a semi-final is going to be easier?
I don’t think we should be too hard on the team. It’s been a long season. Players are tired. They did well and placed a respectable 7th. Hopefully Nuno will continue to strengthen and we may be ready for the next step next year. Meantime, I’m going to enjoy our consolidated status of a respectable EPL finish, and look forward to the continuation of the Europa League shortly.
Come on Wanderers! Keep the course!
Go Wolves!
Excellent summary of yesterday mate and of the season as a whole.
So disappointing yesterday as they looked absolutely physically and mentally spent.
We are no where near Champions League standard at the moment despite our fantastic achievements under Fosun and Nuno.
Assuming that he stays, we need some back up for Raul, as a serious injury to him leaves us threadbare.
If we can afford them and in addition to Raul’s backup, we could do with a right wing back to challenge Doc, a top quality centre back, plus a quality number ten. A bit more flexibility from Nuno wouldn’t go amiss either, notwithstanding the amazing job that he has done for us.
Onwards and upwards.
COMBs!
Some very good write ups this morning, giving a far more unbiased view than I would have prior to reading them.
The lack of 2 points a game for so many games early on in the season due to Clive’s draws, poor refereeing and VAR decisions coupled with last 10 minute sloppiness in too many games undid our aspirations of CL.
If your in a scrap and some dirty fighter sticks a thumb in your eye, it should make you see the red mist and make you fight harder. Yesterday we were coasting into halftime matching them stride for stride until Alonso stuck a thumb in the eye, what was our players reaction? stick a thumb in the other eye and run around blind and let the bully get the upper hand.
Graham Souness summed it up brilliantly on the build up to the game, his opposite number on the panel said, ” Chelsea need to be careful, because Wolves are a Great side” Souness jumped in and replied, “Wolves are not a Great side, they’ve had a Great season”
IMO only, there lies the real truth.
Seasons over, 7th is “Great”, transfer window is open, so now lets push on and find players to make us a “Great” side and get us what we All want.
We are still progressing, the council obviously know our plans as today they announced a decision to build a new bridge crossing over the dual carriage way close by to the subway. They are now scrapping the previous plans to get rid of the subway which caused Anger and disappointment when they announced the decision some time back.
So, the small matter of the Europa league to finish off, Arsenal to win the cup, us to win the EL cup and stick a thumb in the eye of 4th place who are?
Don’t that sound like Karma!
Apparantly, Stu, the new crossing is to be a ‘toucan’ not a bridge as the latter would be much too expensive. Toucan is not a pelican crossing in disguise but a bastardisation of ‘two can’ and means two forms of transport (foot and bicycle) can cross at the same time.
Thanks for that, toucan eh.
Probably paid some company £100.000 to come up with that name.
Sponsored by Guinness, perhaps??
Given yesterday’s results there is no way that 4th place won’t qualify for the Champions league. The rules allow 5 English clubs if a club outside the top 4 wins either the Europa or Champions league. The only way that 4th place doesn’t qualify is when Enlish teams outside the top 4 win both European competitions because 6 teams from the same country are not allowed in the Champions league.
We’ve just missed 6th place on goal difference. We’ve recorded our highest ever points total in the PL. We’re still in Europe, and winning that would propel us into the CL and relegate Chelsea to the EL (sweet revenge). If we don’t win the EL we are still likely to be in it next season if Chelsea win the FA Cup. What’s not to like? We all know…
We missed the top 4 by a good 7 points, so we didn’t really come that close. We are not a top 4 team. We cannot ever be proper top 4 with a small squad. If Nuno is insistent on working with a small squad then we have to settle for top 6/7 at best. A small squad cannot cope with what top 4 entails in reality. The reality of top 4 is also that VAR decisions tend to favour the big teams. They are more skilled in deception and generally get the benefit of the doubt anyway. I’m all for foreign VAR officials. It would be simple to import the VAR ref or even to have Stockley Park feed transmitted to VAR centres in Germany or France for example; very easy in these high tech days.
Crying shame that we fluffed the big occasion yesterday. A point would have given us top 6. We matched Chelsea in the first half and I was looking forward to our usual upward tick in the second half. Alonso’s theatrical dive gave them an unjust free kick. Then, immediately, when Coady should have been marshalling us, a disorientated Wolves conceded again in almost comical fashion. It almost got worse when Rudiger fell like he was shot in an attempt to red card Jimenez. Cheating Chelsea. The remainder of the game was all Chelsea and I was surprised we didn’t concede again. In my view it was a major mistake to push Traore to wing back, but Nuno was out of quality options because we have exactly what he wants, A SMALL SQUAD…
The only consolation is that on yesterday’s performance we won’t be fending off huge bids for the likes of Traore, Jimenez and Neves. Likewise Nuno. Any top club with the usual large squad will not want a coach who wants to work with a small squad.
See my reply to Stu on Champions league qualification criteria, Dances.
Size of squad is important but I think that quality and nature of the squad is important. We have been crying out for a goalscoring midfielder for ages and until we acquire one of sufficient quality we will continue to suffer because of the extremely valid points made by Dom Saxon above. Unfortunately, Fernandez went to Man Utd so let’s hope that there’s someone else out there who we can get.
That should have read quality and nature of the squad is MORE important.
SP. I take your point about CL criteria. Thanks. I guess I can live with being one of five English teams in the CL next season!
I couldn’t agree more about the need for a goal-scoring midfielder. I don’t know if Nuno simply didn’t want to increase the size of the squad to sign one. The Bruno guy would have been fantastic for us. Competition for Coady is badly needed. We also need another quality striker. I reckon we could sign Callum Wilson cheaply. He’s suffered by a lack of service in a doomed team. He’s also an England international. I’d like to see him on the end of a few Traore crosses.
At the start of last season if you offered me finishing 7th for the next 2 years I would have bitten your hand off. We’ve come a long way from where we were.
BUT! I have to agree with Paul, as much as Nuno likes a small squad you need more depth to compete in the CL, right now we don’t have it. We can’t keep relying on Raul for goals.
So guess we wait and see what signings, if any, arrive over the short summer break.
I think everything has been said about the match yesterday. I was furious but it’s done so we move on. I do agree the lads need a proper break.
1/ Liverpool have shown us all the way it should be done.
they have played marvelous football and have some wonderful skilful players.
they have not been cheats and have benefitted from var no more than most normal teams unlike man utd.
Worthy champions indeed. 10/10
2/ Man city have wonderful players and do play fantastic football but as we all know they have bought their success and that doesn’t sit well in terms of respect. 7/10
3/ Man utd have somehow managed to finish third which with all respect they simply do not deserve. Without the huge bias of VAR decisions which have continuously gone their way they would be no where. There standard of play simply does not warrant them being where they have ended up. Very very lucky. 3/10
4/ Chelsea have had a good season and will get better it looks like lampard does know what he is doing after all . Team to watch next season. 8/10
5/ Leicester blew up when it mattered and i doubt brendan rogers is as clever as he thinks he is. They need to be careful next season they may just have had their day. 5/10
6/ Spurs are a mess and should not have finished above wolves. Mourinho will get the boot by christmas, Harry kane will bugger off somewhere else and they will have to chuck gerzillions at it to try and right the sinking ship. 3/10
7/Wolves get the “tried hard but not there yet” award . Still a way to go yet for nuno’s revolution. Consistency was not good after the restart and the spark seemed to have diminished somewhat from the first period. The small squad syndrome has to come to an end as unfortunately you do need quantity and quality in equal numbers to survive the huge amount of games played at this level. That costs big big money to attain and doesn’t happen overnight so i think we may be in for another similar season to this next year and that’s no mean feat for a newly promoted side .I would think nuno and fosun are reasonably happy with slightly bettering last term i know i am. 8/10
So that’s it but one last mention for the villa fans.
Wear your shirts all month if you have to but remember you only stayed up because someone else lost and greaseball wont be around next season to save you from almost certain relegation. I truly didn’t think there were three worse teams than you in the premier. Lets see if your billionaires throw another 130 mill down the drain … i doubt they will.
0/10
Interesting reading on the transfermarket.co.uk site. Shows an assessed market value for our squad of 266m and not surprisingly this is less than all the sides who finished above us in the table. Chelsea’s squad (even with their transfer embargo) is valued at approx three times the value of ours, so we shouldn’t be too surprised at the ultimate outcome yesterday. I thought Jorginho, Kovacic, and Pulisic looked good – and at half the value of our squad between them,they should.
Arsenal’s squad is assessed as twice the value of ours and Everton 100m more valuable than ours. Do these clubs now have the management in place to address this under performance – possibly.
Do I think Fosun will invest the 100m plus to compete with Leicester and Everton to enable us to financially compete for best of the rest outside the top six – probably not. Do I think we will compete in football terms – yes I absolutely do.
Nuno does not set the budget, he does know what the team needs and will I am sure welcome quality players in the right positions provided they meet the ‘No dickheads’ rule and improve the whole team.
In recent weeks Junk has been criticised for his selection (too much variety/too little variety) and substitutions (not enough/too many/too late).
If VAR and useless biased referees Nuno would have navigated a team through the longest playing season on record into a Champions League spot on a very modest FFP compliant budget. As far as I am concerned the man is above genius. He has made absolutely no mistakes, just some decisions better than others. The staff on the pitch and in the backroom are nothing less than wholehearted heroes.
Sorry just had to get it off my chest. I know without doubt every contributor on this site has WWFC running through their bones, we just see some of the minor points differently.
Well said that man.
Brilliant Jacko
transfer market.co.uk seem about as shite as the villa if Everton have such a ridiculously inflated value.
I have formed a focus group. It is looking at how best to secure Equality in the VAR bastion Stockley Park. Having researched widely by consulting with next door neighbours cat, a pigeon that has recently s**t on my garden and a couple of ear wigs I have determined the following solutions: 1. All persons in the VAR box to be wired up to electrodes that search out brain impulsions 2. Any brain impulsion displaying unconscious bias will immediately deliver an electric shock to the VAR official 3. The electrodes will concentrate on any game featuring the ‘big six’ including the ability to launch a projectile custard pie in to the face of a) Jose Mourinho b) ole gunnar solskjaer c) Frank Lampard or c) pep Guardiola in a case whereby they are seen complaining to any 4th official. 4. Any VAR official found guilty of unconscious bias will be forced to spend a week in West Bromwich 5. During the week they may have to encounter strange beings with lots of fingers, no teeth and a weird propensity to jump up and down going ‘boing boing’ 6. Stuart Atwell will attend mandatory training on how to see properly 7. Stockley Park will be subject to severe Covid 19 restrictions whereby the virus may actually be allowed to intervene in making a correct call 8. All Stockley Park officials will be forced to a test at Spec savers 9. The goal Sheffield Utd scored at Villa will be re instated and they will be thus relegated 10. Wolves will be given an extra 7 points and allowed in to CL. There is no right of appeal against any of these findings .
To have brain impulsions pre supposes they have a brain in the first place.
R that’s true ay it. There is just a vacuous chamber where Mike Dean’s brain should be!
what’s the point………….we’re all going to die
No one has found an alternative yet.
All we can do it utilise the time we have to the maximum.
Support the Wolves and loath the shadow dwellers.
I knew it……
OMG, why us.
It’s just not fair. ;-( 🙁 🙁
Smith the man in charge at Vile has ordered his players to go and get drunk after there prem survival imagine our man Nuno acting in such away that is the difference .
Thank god we have him and his backroom boys with us.
Last time I saw Vile play I could swear they were drunk.
New kit released don’t like black arms looks like Adidas have got us confused with Arse…..nal.
That design is not Wolves Gold shirt black shorts simple the best designs are.
Looks like the designer is a Arse hole fan only he couldn’t use red and white.
Love adidas gear the first two kits spot on but this even the detailing is like that horrible arse hole yellow kit.
Disappointed in you adidas………won’t be buying it…!
So you are not really thrilled with it, then??
As the Germans would say………..NEIN !
If by chance we win the EL there will be eight PL teams in Europe next season! Sort of levels things up if nearly half the bloody league will be moonlighting in Europe!
OK, the transfer window is open. Does anyone know if a new Wolves signing in the window can be included in this season’s EL ?
Queue the complaints that it ain’t old gold.
The back is………..the front looks like Arse…..nals away kit from 1989
Brings back memories of Don Goodman scoring at Leeds in the cup
It ain’t old gold though!
Mourinho jumping around like he won the league cos they got Europe!
I’m not too sure it’s a good thing this year with the late start to next season and having qualifying rounds to navigate.
The league will look upside down for the first couple of months which will only benefit other teams as it will build confidence
I think arsenal will win the fa cup anyway but if they don’t, we would face another massive season with barely a couple of weeks off!
Nah , I’m not too worried about Europa unless we win the thing which brings instant riches( 50 mill) I think just to qualify. You can buy a Fernandes for that
I do like the new kit though,looks good on Raúl, hopefully he’s still in it next season, if not , we will have around 70 mill to play with which isn’t to be sniffed at
Utw
Only just been able to comment on the game because I became depressed by the injustice of it all. There’s no way the second half would have been as it was if it weren’t for the events of the last few minutes of the first. With that, and the succession of disgraceful VAR decisions we have endured over the season, I sometimes wonder why I bother. But I do.
Still, c’est la vie and, with Olympiacos on the horizon, there’s no use dwelling on my disappointment.
Overall, it’s been another terrific season and most of us, I’m sure, would have taken 7th in the Prem’ and last 16 of the Europa when we kicked off a year ago. However, standing still is never an option and the upcoming window will be both vital and a useful indicator of our owners ambitions given the current,global situation.
For sure, Fosun will feel they need to grow our fanbase abroad, especially in the huge Chinese market, if they are to finance continued improvement in the squad. They have FFP to comply with so bringing in large numbers of the necessary quality may not be an option as yet. Quality costs big money and so it may be that we’ll see just a couple to augment what we have before we go again next year.
Whatever happens on that front, I thank my lucky stars that I’ve been around to enjoy this time and can only hope we can continue in the same vein in the upcoming seasons.
Wolfy ffp doesnt exist anymore ask manchester city you just get one of your companies to pay 200 million quid to put their name on the tea ladies trolley.
Its allowed we’ve seen it done ffp all gone yippee.
Now all we have to get rid of is VAR and bent refs.
Interesting, and true, what you say about Citeh and their methods Spikey. But I wonder if the same would apply to us.
Spikes right if the owner as a private person or his company wants to sponsor a corner flag or toilet door for £200 million there’s nothing stopping them even the shirt.
Fosun could sponsor the shirt only that would mean losing revenue from else where.
Football is the only business that does not allow wealth owners to invest would not happen in any other business and clubs like city have should call the bluff of the football authorise under fair trade rules.
City have proved it can be done the fair play rules are stifling the growth of those clubs will wealthy owners willing to invest the big clubs and the Premier League plus UEFA no it.
City challenged UEFA and won there’s no reason why other clubs cannot do the same Fosun have the financial clout to take them on and win ….IF they wanted to…?
BUT citeh were still fined 10 mill !!!!! for what ??? doing nothing wrong ?
So the answer is put as much money as you want into your club and simply pay the fine.
Well thats how its worked for them so why not the rest of us.
The precedent has been set and uefa have shot themselves in the foot big style
Bloody idiots .
I agree Spike. If I was FOSUN I’d challenge the fair play rules at the same body that city did cannot remember what’s it’s called before investing then would not get fined.
Fair Play rules need challenge and sooner or later a wealthy owner will because they restrict fair trade and the basic principle of business which is if you want to grow you need to invest.
Wolves might not get Fair play from referee’s or VAR, but they do benefit from FFP already by sponsoring their own training ground.
Renamed the, “Fosun” Jack Hayward Academy for that very reason.
By how much…….! There are ways round every rule it’s down to how far you want to go.
City went all the way……have Fosun…..?
Sorry to hear of the passing of Gerry Harris. His arrival on the pitch at Molineux more or less coincided with mine on the South Bank. The team in the second half of the fifties was in some ways similar to that of today – a number of very skilled and effective attackers who, however, would have achieved nothing without the strong and equally effective defence behind them. GH was for many years a key part of that defence, his pairing with Eddie Stuart was the equal of anything on show elsewhere. With first Bert WIlliams and later Malcolm Finlayson behind them in goal and in front of them a half back line where, for much of the time it was a question of picking any three from four England intenationals the norm was solidity and reliability.
GH always gave of his best and provided many thousands of regulars with much enjoyment over the years. My condolences and best wishes to his family.
Interesting that the only two teams to do the double over us, Liverpool and Chelsea, did so with the blatently poor, or crooked, use of var.
At Anfield we were robbed blind, first Van Dyke’s handball before they scored, not reviewed, and then Pedro Neto’s great goal ruled out for an offside toenail.
Then, on Sunday, the best dive of the season by Alonso, not even looked by var.
This for me proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that there is total referee collusion with the Prem authorities, for that read “top six” owners and eufa officials, so that the so called big names always get into Europe.
Going back to last season’s semi final, Watford’s penalty would have been given under any circumstances, as “they” could not risk us getting to the final and possibly beating City.
Kinda backfired on them, didn’t it?
Watch us get stitched up by var against Olympiacos, so we don’t progress and possibly get into the Champions League.
And I think all this talk of a super league made up of the few top sides from each country would be pretty boring, with no relegation or anything.
actually, the CL is pretty much that already, another reason they don’t want the “smaller” clubs competing.
This insidious, cheating system has to be totally revamped, or done away with completely, and referees start earning their pay by doing their jobs properly and fairly.
And when arsenal beat Chelsea this weekend, even after two of the so called top six have been rubbish this season, the teams to play in Europe next season are
Liverpool
Man city
Chelsea
Man U
Tottenham
Arsenal………and Leicester
How boring and utterly predictable
Utw
This is the good thing that VAR has done. One could say that a screw up by a ref was simply human error and perhaps he was unsighted. Now, with VAR, the evidence of blatant corruption is there for all to see and totally beyond argument.
That’s without it totally ruining those magic moments in the game.
You know what lads we can talk about these blatant miscarriages’ by refs and var till we are blue in the face but i listen to talk sport on a very regular basis and they dont even talk about it
the pretty obvious fact that us and sheffield were the two teams chasing down man utd and both of us were dealt unbelievable decisions in my opinion to keep us at bay is something we find incredulous others dont
we are on our own in this and the only way is to win games and force our way in knowing they will try their damndest to stop us but we just have to keep trying
Yes we’ve had a rough deal from VAR but ultimately it’s the rule makers who are to blame. There is no flexibility or common sense in the offside law so if VAR spots a toenail offside then it’s called offside.
Accidental handball anywhere on the pitch is tolerated but if it leads to a goal it’s penalised. There have been lots of incidents (Jimenez v ManU)(Boly v Leicester) to show that’s just stupid but it’s the law , not VAR, which is the problem.
Other issues with VAR need sorting out but for me, referees on the pitch need to be the decision makers and ex players need to be at Stockley Park.
There was a time, not long ago, when they said regarding offside that the benefit of any doubt would go to the attacking team. Not sure what happened to that.
I see what your saying BG the weapon was developed to be used to create fairness … so they said and i agree the rules are at fault to a certain degree.
What about if it was created for that purpose but all of a sudden the bent powers that be realised they could subliminally use it for effecting the outcome of games to their own advantage ?
Because to me thats exactly what they have done and i have to agree with clive the referees have got to be in on this ” protect the big six at all costs ” agenda.
Wolves and sheffield were usurper’s we were about to upset the applecart aided and abetted by the mancs ,arsenal and spurs being unexpectedly absolutely crap which they were.
That was never in the scenario so something had to be done about it and the easiest and obvious way was to bend the rules to obtain their objective hence crazy decisions against the chasing pack and obvious incidents which should have been looked at committed by the big six being overlooked at strategic times.
Now you could just turn your back on the conspiracy theories and wave it all away which it seems is whats happened outside of our own bubble but lets just see what next season brings as i believe we will be even stronger than this season and again be pushing for a top six place and if these mysterious rulings start happening again i really do think fosun will have to raise serious issues with the powers that be.
Its only a few weeks away so we will just have to wait and see with two raised eyebrow’s
I’m all for sending the Stockley Park feed down line to a selected VAR centre in Europe. This way the foreign VAR official will give the ruling. Likewise, foreign VAR feed can be sent to Stockley Park. This would be a simple and cost-effective method of every top flight match across Europe having an independent foreign VAR official. I’m sure this would in time smooth out different interpretations of the rules.
Why should any Europeans be punished?
I am firmly of the opinion you should not put down to conspiracy or malice what you can put down to incompetence or stupidity, and boy, are they incompetent and stupid!
There are clearly some rules that need to be addressed. The entire issue we are having concerning VAR is not just the way it is being used but the rules it is now enforcing.
It used to be that if your arms were hanging by your side and the ball hit one of them or a hand, it was OK. Now it seems to be a violation which could lead to a penalty if it occurred in the box. This is not the intention of the original rule which was to obviously prevent a non-goalie from batting the ball away from the net intentionally. (Other things as well, of course). That rule should change immediately.
Also, when jumping, people, including high jumpers, raise their arms while they are still in contact with the ground to raise their centre of gravity and then lower them at the peak of their jump. This is not some form of cheating and therefore there should be some leeway in determining if a ball coming in contact with arms that are away from the body in that situation was intentionally contacted. Also in the case of someone putting their hands to the ground to break their fall.
Another issue is what is the point in VAR? It is to make decisions on all of the close calls or is it to correct clear and obvious mistakes? According to FIFA, it is to correct clear and obvious mistakes. This negates the argument that if the guy was a toenail offside, then VAR was correct in calling the play back.
So the next question is – what is clear and obvious? Is it clear and obvious if 4K videos are watched frame by frame and lines are drawn across the screen assisted by some computer software points out that a toenail was offside or should the videos be watched in slow-motion without the aid of computer software drawn lines? (And when does the kick even occur? When the boot first makes contact with the ball or when the boot leather is no longer touching the ball? Or somewhere in between? A half-second makes a difference when you are talking about 24 frames per second videos.)
And why doesn’t the referee ask the VAR guy how much offside the guy was and if he says a couple inches, the referee can just go with his original call. BTW, does the referee actually request a VAR review or do they do it on their own and then just notify the referee of what they found?
This brings up another point. According to the Premier League, the referee is the one making the final call but it seems, and Mourinho also feels this way, that the referees are letting the VAR referees make the final calls instead of being assistants.
Mourinho half-jokingly said the referees aren’t even in the stadium or something like that.
I have been watching a bit of Italian football and in their league, the referees go to the pitchside monitor and review plays. Why can’t they do that in the Premier League? I think that it was suggested that they do that in the Premier League but it seems that the referees just do whatever the heck they want.
I think VAR could be useful if the referees and the league handled it correctly but they seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot and refuse to be told how to correct it.
I think the excuse that you can’t change the rules in the middle of the season was given but that seems laughable now, considering the changes made due to the pandemic.
Hopefully, during the offseason, some meetings can be organized to define how to use VAR in the Premier League in a more acceptable way.
Can’t argue with any of that Tim!
No one knows only Fosun how much they have and will continue to invest in Wolves.
City have invest hundreds of millions and seem to be in no mood to stop. This was the first question I asked myself when they first arrived how far are they willing to go are they going to do a City or not.
Well they haven’t done a City the have invested more than Sir Jack easily more the Morgan but we are still shopping a M & S and not Harrods.
There is no doubt about it the ruling on City give a clear message to wealthy owners that you can get round the FFP if you are willing to take the footballing authorities on and to be honest I don’t see why if Fosun really do want to pour millions into Wolves like City have why they don’t there no Micky Mouse outfit they are major players will the money and experts to bust these FFP strangle hold wide open.
To me I still not sure about Fosun for the reason I mentioned above surely they are not frightened of taking on Premier League and UEFA.
In any business if you want to be successful investment is essential and the FFp make that very hard for clubs like Wolves siting that it’s for our own good and that they are protecting us from going bust…..the trouble is we just as well go bust if we don’t invest its all about keeping the status quo and they and thre rest of us know it.
I’m still not convinced Fosun really want to do a City !
Next time Mike Dean shows his face to referee one of our matches at Molineux I am going to arrange for a helicopter to fly over the pitch and drop a ‘monty python’ style 16 tonnes on top of his head. That should teach him not to give silly penalties against us.
wont make any difference they will just get another ot of a box
Que?
if we kill mike dean they will replace him with another they made earlier
Reports (yeah, I know!) in today’s paper saying that Jimenez is on his way to Utd , with Paulinho from Braga an imminent signing as his replacement. Pleased if we can get Paulinho, but hoping not at the expense of losing Raul. Anyone with more info? Stu?
So if wolves buy a striker, we have to then sell one because we are only allowed to have one .
Funnily enough, man utd can buy a striker, yet there is no mention of them selling Rashford- martial- greenwood
They can have more than one striker then apparently
Now I understand
Utw
Adrian.
Nothing more than you are reading mate.
Our mole got caught bang to rights and sacked, so we rely on the gutter press too.
I believe Jimenez will go, but I hope they sell him abroad (Juventus) to stop the old player scoring against us syndrome each year.
Just as well Moxey is no longer here. Your mole wouldn’t have got off with just the sack. Moxey would have tortured him first to make an example of him! Might have lost a fingernail or two.
Looks like Jimmy is on his way, one direction or another, preferably Italy. Just make the buggers pay through the nose. If we replace him and bank £30 mil into the bargain, that will help. Didn’t hurt Liverpool in selling top players. It’s part of the long term building process.
Stu if he goes to Juventus we might be playing against him in the Champions League …..if they qualify of course!!
Did you buy any Italian pineapples at that store, Ken??
I wanted to Clive but they had pictures of Ronaldo on…quite put me off
Lovely photo of me, you look like you had D&V for a few days.
Those Italian birds look ok though.
Yep dances thats where we are at now and we have got to get used to it and im quite sure jeff will only ever get us the very best deal and that it will all go back into the club unlike our previous owners pre requisite of filling their own bank accounts first.
Despite the pathetic attempts to disguise the collusion of the faceless string pullers of EUFA, them in charge of the Prem and all Referees, Wolves still have a very good chance of qualifying for the Champions League by winning the Europa.
If that happens, more money will come into our coffers, but more importantly for all of us, and especially Fosun, our World Wide exposure will be vastly enhanced.
This is one of the main reasons Fosun wisely invested in Wolves four years ago.
Therefore, they will be happy to pay better salaries to our players, who in turn will, hopefully, be happy to stay, and play, Champions League footie, which is the hyped up media reason for our guys to move.
However, if any of our players want to move on for either supposedly better pay or whatever other reason, I say let ‘em go.
No one is irreplaceable, and if they don’t want to play for us, then don’t let the door smack you up the arse on your way out.
Having said that, I would be sad to see Raul leave.
If anyone at the club is reading this could we have a statement please about transfers in and out that puts us out of our collective misery and ignorance.?
You’ve got two chances of that BG. Fat chance and no chance. 🙂
I saw numerous reports about Jimenez to Man U. Apparently a Manchester newspaper also reported this but it was then categorically denied by the club. Man U aren’t exactly short of goalscorers. Maybe ramping is going on somewhere, to drive up his value to Juventus?
For a player who will turn 30 next birthday, seventy-odd big ones is a lot of dosh. Ironically I think he might be even more effective at Man U as they would not play him to death as we have to. If he stays with us, please sign a young deputy for him and rotate, rotate, rotate. Ditto for Coady. And a goal-scoring midfielder please Santa.
Raul has to remember that he was a super sub at his last team. Does he want to go back to that again?
He will go from 17 goals back to 6 or 7.
Is that what he wants?
Wolves should offer him the same as Patricio and Moutinho get and that would be a fair compromise.
From Wolves perspective, we might be able to get someone in to replace him but it is a risk.
As stated above, Man U have denied it. Juve have not commented.
See ya Raul. If you’re off you’re off We are Wolves. We move on. Been through bigger trauma than you anyway. Bye.
He’s gone nowhere yet Cheesey. It’s all just rumour and conjecture and ain’t worth a bean till it’s happened.
After reading (till blue in the face) report after report about Raul leaving i am now more than convinced he isn’t going anywhere.
The assumption by the the press is that we cant afford two strikers so to buy another one we would have to sell…what total cobblers.
We have all been shouting for a another striker to take the load of Rauls shoulders and it looks like thats what we are getting so why do we have to sell Raul .
Do the man utd love struck press think we cant afford to have two strikers .
Dog those assholes do pee me off.
Look gutter trash press we are going to break into the top four next season which will mean the demise of one of your media darlings so get used to it and it may well be manc utd and nothing would please me more.
Well said, Spikers, agree 100%
Just gutter press trash, as usual.
Months and months of rumours about Raul wanting to leave for greener pastures and then, less than 24 hours after my most recent posting about why Raul should stay at Wolves, this comes out.
Looks like he read my post and decided I was right.
Tim saves the day again!
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/raul-jimenez-man-utd-transfer-22452913
It’s something all locals very well know, Tim. No-one ever truly wants to leave lovely colourful, leafy Wolverhampton. Buy a corner shop now …….
By the way, never in my life did I think I’d ever say this but… come on Chelsea. Stuff them!
Hotel Wolverhampton.
Never expected Chelsea to fight for this game today as they didn’t need to.
Everything neatly divided up between the top table teams.
So what exactly do you have to do to join this club get a key to the executive toilet and get a fair treatment of referee decisions and VAR.
Just pat us on the head for an excellent season and put us in our place.
If you want to add to the VAR conspiracy theory you only have to look at that Arsenal penalty today. Joke? The joke is on Wolves. Latest non VAR table I saw today had Wolves 4th and robbed of 9 points. No other team was near. I smell a rat. A big stinking rat. VAR job done. Manure in CL. Spurs Europa. Arsenal Europa . Absolute bollocks.
Take it easy Manchego.You missed the most important short sentence. Wolves in CL.
We have to get passed Man utd in the semi final if we get there. You reckon that will be allowed?
Well that all fits in nicely with the FA and the aspirations of the lovely boys from the top table.
They couldn’t have picked two of the worst officials (or best, depending on which echelon you prefer) ….
Anthony Taylor on the whistle and Stuart Atwell on VAR.
There’s no conspiracy here … it’s so blatantly obvious the bias being awarded to them….
Emirates must have deep pockets….
To be honest this might do us a favor in the long run. If we had finished 6th we would have by passed the qualifiers.
If Chelsea had won we be starting a game 50 plus season again and we don’t have a big enough squad to cope as this season has proved the way we fell away the last 4 games.
If we win Europa then Champions League beckons……IF !
ah hah !
would you believe it !
if this wasnt so serious it would be laughable !
the arsenal keeper catches the ball a good metre outside the box and guess what …. its not even looked at amongst other incidents which astonishingly went unnoticed .
so now the bent bastards in the var room dont make the wrong decisions because they dont even look at them .
so the top six all find themselves back in europe .
what a bent disgrace and this is now not a conspiracy theory its a bloody fact.
i have no idea how the hell the we are supposed to break this immoral pile of shit up apart from burning stockley to the ground.
It wasn’t a good metre outside the box, spike, but it was certainly a lot closer to the box than the penalty Arsenal were awarded.
OK so maybe it is a London carve up but we have to use the disappointment as motivation. We’ve missed the top 4 place because we weren’t clinical enough, we drew too many home games, we missed the opportunity to win by greater margins (Villa, West Ham, Everton should have been 5 nil games), we conceded injury time goals at the end of halves. VAR did us no favours but we can’t control VAR and the other things if put right next year will make VAR irrelevant. Let’s get Vertonghen in , give Jordao a chance to shine and go for King or Wilson from Bournemouth.
Don’t discount the unconscious bias theory. I remember Wolves v Chelsea at Molineux under Mick . Probably 2012. Frank Lampard goes in on our bloke 2 feet off the ground. Horizontal. Studs up. Clear red card. But no. Because it is Frank. Who is not ‘that sort of player ‘ it was a talking to and a yellow. He stayed on the pitch and got a last minute winner. This is clearly what is happening with VAR now. Open your eyes.
Yes, I remember that well, and, also that season, I seem to recall Gerrard making a similar tackle and getting away with it with a similar remark; `He’s not that sort of player.`
Yes he is; he just made that tackle!!!
After each of these conscientious decisions, I always ask myself if the decision would have been the same if it was against one of the `big` six clubs. Some of it may well be unconscious bias, but it is certainly bias. Another tell tale is the amount of time taken to prove an offside against the `smaller` teams as compared to the quick pass over when the big clubs are likely to suffer. This does not happen all the time, but so much more often than is logical. Unconscious bias has the same result as conscious bias and it is truly doing my head in…
There is an opportunity for someone doing a sports degree to do a study on this aspect of the game…
Even the BBC pundits were saying it was a cast iron penalty! He was touched but had to hurl his feet up to `gain` a penalty; yet another `clever` dive…
Contentious
And just will add to the above. The week before we got clearly cheated because Milijas was sent off at Arsenal for an innocuous challenge . Frank would just have had a telling off. Its there. Dont deny it.
Mr & Mrs Lowves and I are Gold away STH’s, Jen de Wolf is a silver away STH, (purely because she missed the West Ham away game 3 or 4 years ago due to a bad back depriving her of the point that would have qualifIed her for Gold).
In the last few seasons the four of us have missed 1 game each, Jen de Wolf and I it was the Man Utd replay in the cup, Mr and Mrs Lowves it was due to a holiday and a re-arranged game.
Last season the four of us never missed a single game, home or away, we went to every Europa league game home and away apart from Pyunik due to a 18 hour flight at such short notice. Due to last minute dithering by the British Government and UEFA, having already paid for the Tickets flights and Hotels we decided to pitch up at Athens for the Olympiacos game.
We even took in Dog knows how many U23 games and bloody hell was it cold a Salford.
So I like to think, I do have a a right to give my opinion about conspiracy theories and the hated VAR.
We lie 7th in the league with no chance of Europa league next year, not because of VAR or dirty corrupt referees , they only compounded the real reason and rubbed salt in open wounds.
Guys, Gals, we were just not good enough this season, too many draws early on, too many dubious tactical substitutions (Watford in the cup, Burnley and Sheff Utd) to name just three.
Our squad is ridiculously light, Nuno knows that now and I’m sure he will do something to correct this, but plain and simple this season, we were found wanting.
So, it’s down to us, (Wolves and the pack) to suck it up, build the squad to match the Media Darlings and force our foot in the door.
Lest we forget, we were pretty sound in the EL, so who knows we could go all the way and shock the shit out of the Elite corrupt establishment that governs us and every other wannabe team that dares to challenge their clic.
But, at the end of the day, it’s down to Nuno, Fosun and the boys to get it right.
It’s true Stu that those early weeks of the season when we couldn’t buy a win cost us dear in the final reckoning. But some of the ludicrous VAR decisions throughout the season cost us dear too and we fans being human would rather blame VAR. At least let us enjoy this pleasure for a while longer before dumping a whole shedload of reality on our heads.
I have been looking closely at a selection of premier league tables and studies which have taken account of VAR this season. The conclusion I draw is that had we had played out the 2019/2020 season under 2018/2019 rules then I am totally convinced Wolves would now sit in the CL places. Conspiracy or not. There is a sense of grievance. Even Ruben Neves who after Chelsea alluded to Wolves up against the Sharks circulating made his feelings known on Twitter. Yes VAR. But it has been applied differently against Wolves compared to others. Eg. Man city home. Ref says no penalty. VAR intervenes says penalty. Has that been given anywhere else this season?
So our only chance of being in Europe next season is by winning The Europa. When you look at the teams left in this is obviously going to be very difficult.
However we will have an advantage Wolves are not usually granted – the officials won’t be English!
Agreed,Happy. We are very much in the difficult half of the draw. But so are Seville and Man Utd!
I agree with Stu.
The more conspiracy theories that we raise, the more we look like bad losers – which I am by the way.
But yesterday, the Arsenal ‘keeper’s feet were outside the box, but his hands weren’t.
And it was a definite penalty in my opinion. Started outside the box but carried on well inside when the man went down.
Most of the rest was down to bad refereeing.
The thing that made me laugh was the Chelsea fans on BBC 606 phone in bleating about the way the Arsenal players were throwing themselves to the ground at the slightest opportunity.
They have conveniently forgotten the free kick last week which directly influenced our subsequent defeat and securing Chelsea’s place in the Champions Cup.
VAR is another thing altogether though.
It is not fit for purpose at best…
…and at worst, it’s bloody corrupt.
Perfectly put, Stu, although I would question your commitment, fancy missing one match!
I would go further, and what I’m about to write will probably piss off a lot of you.
We all know and appreciate how far away from the bad old days we have come, and the wonderful players we have and the exciting football we have witnessed, but has Nuno lost it tactically?
In the second division, we murdered most opponents by the sheer force of our attacking play, often having games done and dusted by half time.
This season, everyone has sussed out how we play, and most have either taken points off us or beaten us.
The glaringly obvious counter arguments to the above are the fighting displays at Tottenham, Southampton, and both City games.
If we can do it then, why not every game?
It’s as though the team are being sent out not to lose, rather than to win, like two thirds of the Prem do week in week out.
Thats not what we want to see.
And team selection.
We love Moutinho to bits, but can he and Neves both be 100 % effective together?
Why do we pussyfoot around for the first half of every match?
75% of our goals have come in the second half.
Our post lock down games have been terrible.
Yes we beat Bournmouth, West Ham, Villa and Everton, but we didn’t do it easily, and yet they were pathetic, everyone beat them by scoring a bunch of goals against them, whereas we struggled mightily.
Burnley, Sheffield and Arsenal.
Disgraceful displays against them.
And we never showed up for the second half against Chelsea.
Where has the tactical nous and attacking spirit gone?
Substitutions have been mind boggling sometimes.
Putting Adama at right back is ridiculous.
I am very curious as to the line up on Thursday.
Is Nuno going to try and defend a 1-1, or is he going to try to win the game?
Never mind var and poor refs, I agree with Stu’s point, some of our players are just not good enough to help us progress to top four level, and need replacing.
And here’s another question.
How much of Fosun’s commitment is still there?
Having a business which has several hundred million pounds worth of assets, the players, on the books, much, much more than when it was acquired, may induce them to sell.
A huge profit can be made, and who knows how much sway the Chinese government might have, given the current geo political climate.
I love Nuno and his team to bits, and the wonderful renaissance we’ve seen since he has been with us, but it pains me to think he might be losing it.
Thursday’s game is one of the most critical of his reign.
In case anyone asks, before I wrote this, I have changed phone number, e mail and address!
bloody hell clive you’ve just kicked a hornets nest !
We do have to re assess the squad as it isnt good enough or big enough to properly challenge the top six .
nuno has made some daft substitutions and produced some wierd team formations at times and yes why cant they play like against city every week.
he himself would admit he’s made mistakes and got his tactics wrong and he is still learning as well as we all are.
things didnt start so well if you remember then picked up then went a bit stale again and i think this is down to the lack of quality in reserve but nuno wants a small squad so its his fault if he doesnt make sure every player is of sufficient quality to use whenever needed and lets face it the bench when playing a full strength side is not too clever well certainly not up to top six standards anyway.
so the picture is still good in my eyes but nuno has to buy top quality and that costs a lot of money and the chinese scenario is not good or is it ? trouble is no one knows and i think thats another reason a lot of people are a bit worried.
one thing is definate .. with the short turn around we will soon find out .
Clive I am glad you blogged that you certainly haven’t been wearing rose tinted glasses.
If I’d have said what you have rightly pointed out I’d have a million dislikes……as Frank Carson used to say ” it’s they way I tell em ” to quote another classic comic saying ” they don’t like it up em ”
Spot on Clive I love Nuno to bit like my daughter but it doesn’t stop me letting her no where she is going wrong.
Great insight and honesty could do with a few more bloggers like yourself , realists.
Don’t ever worry about the opinions of others, Paul.
Life would be very boring if we all liked and disliked the same things.
I don’t always agree with you, and have sometimes hit the dislike button, but as someone more famouser than me once said, I don’t always agree with what you say, but I will defend with my life you right to say it.
Or something like that.
What you also got to remember is the passion we have for our club, and we all, no matter how diverse our opinions, want us to do well.
And never forget,
FOwb
Paul.
Just keep giving your opinion mate, because it’s exactly that, your opinion.
Too many folk on here of late want to give the old thumbs down, but as pointed out above, is it with rose tinted glasses or just pure bloody mindedness of some that dare I say it, “can only get their dose of Their beloved Wolves from the sofa”. True Wolves fans non the less, but some can be quite arsey.
Keep posting Paul, regardless of the dreaded thumbs down brigade, It’s a blog for giving opinions and you are just giving yours. 🙂
Keep on blogging Paul. The great thing about this blog is that there is none of the horrible vitriol that occurs elsewhere. Sure. We may have different views but that is absolutely fine.
Fully agree Clive- I said on an earlier post that I do not believe a lot of our squad have the potential to improve their technique such that we can seriously challenge the top four cartel and upper echelons of European competition. We need to continually look to improve the squad in every position other than goalie and Neves. Can Nuno continue to source the right players, can he continue to grow as a coach? At some stage he will hit his level too. If we don’t improve we will deteriorate and Nuno may get fed up and find a new project. Can’t subscribe to the conspiracy theories, don’t waste energy moaning but use the disappointment to further motivate the team. I am a cup half full type and think our recent tepid performances have been down to mental fatigue from an extraordinary long season. Can Nuno lift them for Thursday- I am sorry to say I don’t think he can. Even he seemed pissed off at having to isolate at Chelsea and is clearly missing his family. Let’s have a long break and target the FA Cup next season
Clive a lot of what you’re saying is making a lot of sense. We do need new (better) players in some positions, we need a bigger squad to stop fatigue setting in with some players.
As the Wolves brand is now in the top 20 I don’t think Fosun will sell as it’s giving them global recognition as well. Hopefully they are big enough that the Chinese Gov can’t poke noses in.
Ideally I think we need new strength in defence, attacking midfield & a back up/strike partner for Raul. Plus we need to see if Nuno extends his contract.
Guess we watch this space.
Unfortunately, I think that the Chinese government can poke their noses in exactly where they want unless China has turned into a democracy overnight.
Don’t panic mr mainwaring
The problem with overachieving is that when a few things don’t quite go to plan, it’s easy to think we are underachieving
Fine margins is what has kept us out of the top six
T h e T o p. S I x
I actually got excited with some of the team selections prior to the last few games so I’m not going to criticise
Fine margins make huge difference to football games
I remember nuno using Traore as a wing back to mark Stirling out of the game at citeh
Then moved him up top to finish them off in one of our best results of the year
With a few forward players now all fit I think is good to mix it up, try a few things and help make a few decisions for next season
I still believe we will win the Europa if we get past the Greeks ( this will be a tight but winnable game)
My tip is that Neves will be the player of our mini tournament in Germany because it will suit him down to the ground
Neto to be man of the match in the final
Come on you wolves
I was pleased to see an article by Jim Holden in the Sunday Express today in which he spoke of the travesty of VAR specifically in Wolves case and the multitude of indifferent decisions. He mentioned we may have finished 4th. But finished 7th. For someone of his calibre in national sports media to pick up on it is quite remarkable. BUT like my old granny used to say. You take the knocks. It’s how you deal with them that makes you. We will come out fighting. We are Wolves.
And to the 2 s**t fans who were in my local boozer watching the fa cup final yesterday and absolutely delighted in Arsenal winning I say this : 1. You are already going down next season 2. I thought Vile were your major rivals. And finally f**k off.
Sure, we could have finished 4th if some VAR decisions had gone our way, in a league that was very weak save for Liverpool and Man City. Likewise, even a moderate team like Leicester was quite up there for most of the season. Next season will be tougher as Chelsea and Man U will be stronger, behind only Liverpool and Man City. Arsenal are rapidly improving, and might finish higher than Spurs next season. Looking at some emotive comments above made in the heat of disappointment, this is clear to me:
1. There was and is no conspiracy to keep Wolves out of the top four.
2. We were not good enough for top four in 2019/2020.
3. Our squad is ridiculously small if we are seriously thinking of Europe.
4. There was no conspiracy to ensure Arsenal won the FA cup.
5. Our tactics were bewildering at times, leading to squandered points.
We badly need a goal-scoring mid-fielder, a top centre back, a top deputy for Patricio, a young deputy for Jimenez and backup for Coady. If Nuno can’t or won’t work with a larger squad then we are looking at seventh at best again next season. That said, we’re better than we have been for sixty years so we have much to celebrate, but we must strive to achieve the next level, and not tread water.
A sensible summing up Dances couldn’t agree more