Well, it’s Friday and, as predicted, we’ve had a dumping of snow, so I thought I’d share some pictures I’ve been able to take.
These first four were taken earlier in the week, after the initial snow-dump on Monday.
And I took these on Thursday night after a ‘light dusting’.
And Finally, a few shots from Friday lunchtime.
I’ve got to say, I really like the noises coming out of Molineux following the appointment of Dean Saunders as manager.
This video was posted by the club yesterday, which contains interviews with Dave Edwards, Steve Morgan and, most importantly, the man himself Dean Saunders.
Couple his comments here with some of the quotes from Saunders and Morgan on the Express & Star’s website, and you’ve got what sounds to my ears to be a club that has finally admitted what the problem was and is moving to sort it out.
And the club seem to be placing the blame for the current league position and the FA Cup exit, firmly at the feet of a bunch of lazy, unmotivated players.
There’s talk of players with poor time-keeping, unable to make it to the training ground by 10am. What? 10am start and still not able to get there on time? Madness.
Dean Saunders seems to be a football enthusiast first and foremost. And that has to be good. He’s talking about effort and work rate in addition to ‘playing football’ and tactics. And at the end of the day, that’s what will keep the Molineux crowd happy.
For all he talk of a change of football philosophy under Solbakken, the simple fact remains that Wolves fans have been brought up on fast paced attacking football, preferably with two flying wingers, supplemented by hard work in winning the ball back when we lose it (which, to be fair, is a lot). That’s one of the reason that Mick McCarthy did so well. He understood the type of football the club wants to play. Not the football the chairman/owner wants to play. Not the football that the pundits think should be played, but the type of football that is built in to the very DNA of this great old club.
Face it, the majority of Wolves fans would rather see blood and thunder, up and at ‘um than tippy-tappy, let’s try and be Barcelona any day.
And there’s nothing wrong with up and at ‘um, blood and thunder. Sure, it won’t win any of our players the Ballon d’Or, but then, it seems that trophy is now called the Ballon d’Messi these days anyway. But Wolves football, played properly is as entertaining as it comes. And isn’t that the reason we watch football? To be entertained?
So it looks to me that Dean Saunders could be the right man at the right time. Time will tell, but I really do hope he is. Either way, as always with Wolves, it’ll be one hell of a ride.
This past Thursday and Friday, we had a wonderful example of both the power of Twitter in 2013 and the way that Football has sold it soul to a media that laps up everything to do with it, no matter how dubious the source.
@BBCSporf is a classic example of a parody twitter account. It has nothing to do with the BBC, but uses a similar logo to con people into believing the “news” they post may have so truth to it. It doesn’t, of course. It’s all jokes and made up stuff. They readily admit that. Their aim is to make you smile. And usually they succeed. Always entertaining, if you like sport but don’t follow them, you should.
At 7PM on Thursday evening, this tweet appeared in my feed.
Well, that’s clearly a joke. A player being chased by Man Utd, Arsenal & Liverpool is about to rock up at bottom of the table QPR? Yeah, right. Still, you can see the number of times this got retweeted. And with other people picking up on it and using the hashtag, it wasn’t long before “SneijderToQPR” was the number one trending topic in the UK.
Then, we get this…
Really? Really? No, that’s a joke, right? Channel 4 News aren’t that stupid as to believe this was real, are they?
By 9PM, we get this from Sky Bet…
So that’s two major media organisations that have picked this up and either through lazy journalism or sheer stupidity, have believed there’s some truth in it.
But it gets worse. National “newspaper”, The Sun, ran the story on their back page on Friday morning.
Of course, The Sun claimed it was genuine and they had quotes from Harry Redknapp to back it up. But the quotes from Harry were in response to a question he was asked about this after the fake storm had broken on Twitter. And besides, Harry’s quotes were basically a diplomatically worded, “You’re joking, right?”
And finally, the story appears on the actual BBC’s website, with a classic quote from the player’s agent.
So there we have it. One joke tweet is picked up by media organisations that should know better. But it involves, football, and more specifically, the media’s favourite topics, Harry Redknapp and a London based club.
You couldn’t make it up. Except, of course, someone did. The original tweet, that is. The rest is all true. Sad, but very, very true.
20 Years Ago – January 1993
1.) How old were you? 18
2.) Where did you go to school? Sneyd Comprehensive School in Wolverhampton– I was in Year 13 by then, getting ready to sit my A-levels
3.) Where did you work? I didn’t, I was still at school.
4.) Where did you live? At home, with Mom & Dad, obviously.
5.) Where did you hang out? At School. Yeah, I know, it’s a bit sad really.
6.) Did you wear glasses? Yep, was still a couple of years off getting contact lenses.
7.) Who was(were) your best friend(s)? I guess that would be Paul and Nick. And Ste, of course.
8.) What car did you drive? I didn’t. Not yet.
9.) Had your heart broken? Sort of. I guess it felt like it at the time (1991) but looking back, was it really all that bad?
10.) Single/Taken/Married/Divorced/Bitter: Single – and probably a bit bitter because of it.
15 Years Ago – January 1998
1.) How old were you? 23
3.) Where did you work? At this point I was in my ill-fated appointment at Willenhall Comp. God, was that ever a mistake.
4.) Where did you live? Ashamed to admit that I’d moved back in with my parents after 4 years away.
5.) Where did you hang out? In my room, marking books and preparing lessons.
6.) Did you wear glasses? Sometimes. But lenses for the most part
7.) Who was your best friend(s)? That would have to be Sandrine – my future wife. Ahhhhh.
8.) What car did you drive? This is shameful, but I still didn’t drive – I rode everywhere on my bike. What a saddo.
9.) Had your heart broken? Yes, but I’d gotten over it by then.
10.) Single/Taken/Married/Divorced/Bitter: Taken.
10 Years Ago – January 2003
1.) How old were you? 28
3.) Where did you work? A Solicitors in Northamptonshire! Which is where I still am.
4.) Where did you live? My first home with Sandrine – a two bed semi.
5.) Where did you hang out? Didn’t really do much ‘hanging out’.
6.) Did you wear glasses? Yep. No corrective laser eye surgery for me.
8.) What car did you drive? I think I still had my old Rover at this point.
5 Years Ago – January 2008
1.) How old were you? 33
2.) Where did you work? Same Solicitors! Although this was the year I became a ‘manager’.
3.) Where did you live? Same little two-bed semi.
7.) What car did you drive? I still had my 306 Estate back then.
9.) Single/Taken/Married/Divorced/Bitter: Married for 3 and a half years with a just-turned-two year old son.
NOW – January 2013
1.) How old are you? 38 and feeling it.
2.) Where do you work? Yep, still here. Almost part of the furniture now.
3.) Where do you live? Moved to a new house in the same area two years ago.
7.) What car do you drive? 406 Saloon.
9.) Single/Taken/Married/Divorced/Bitter: Still married, and now have a little girl as well who’s coming up to her 1st birthday.
I posted about this on Facebook a couple of days ago, but I’m going to expand on it here. Wolves owner, Steve Morgan, has a massive decision to make in the next few days. Massive.
Does he hold his nerve and trust in his initial judgement in regards to Stale Solbakken’s appointment as manager, or does he bite the bullet, pull the trigger on his time at the club and get someone in before the transfer window closes in four weeks time?
And make no mistake, they are his two options. Doing what he did last year, and waiting until after the window closes before giving his manager the boot – thereby making it very difficult to get anyone new in and turning our club into a joke for six months – is not an option. O at least, it shouldn’t be. They say that learning from your mistakes is a mark of intelligence and without doubt, last year’s debacle is one mistake that Morgan needs to learn from.
If Steve decides that he was right last summer, then he needs to back Solbakken with funds to buy new players because the player we have are either not good enough to adapt to the style of play Stale wants from them, or they are still “Mick’s Men” and just too stubborn to play for Stale. Personally, I think it’s a mix of the two, but what do I know.
However, if Steve decides that Solbakken has to go, he needs to do it now (or, more likely, right after we lose to Luton at the weekend) and get in someone who can work with the players we have, to motivate them the way Mick did and really get the best out of them.
Because let’s face it, there is something wrong at our club. This squad of players should be better than 18th in the Championship. They should be better than 6 points above a relegation place, 9 points below the play-offs and god knows how many off the top-spot. (Okay, maybe that’s not fair – Cardiff are running away with this division to some extent and it’ll be a massive surprise if they don’t go up as champions. Imagine that, two Welsh sides in the Premiership!)
Of course, this damn division is part of the problem, with its wild unpredictable, anyone-can-and-will-beat-anyone nature. For god’s sake, we’re 18th but only 9 points of the play-offs. NINE POINTS! That’s nothing That’s a gap that can be closed in a month with a decent run. Hell, string five or six wins together and you’re right back in the mix.
But here’s the problem – with the way things are going, I can’t see where the next win is coming from, let alone stinging together a half-decent run. Just look at our next few fixtures. Our next Championship game is a Friday-night home game against Blackburn. By that time, Blackburn will probably have a new manager in place and the players will, you’d imagine, be doing their best to impress him. Add to that the atmosphere of fear of failure at Molineux at the moment and it’s a recipe for disaster. Away to Sheffield Wednesday? They’re right down there fighting for their lives – that’ll be a toughie, just look at how we performed against Peterborough for evidence of that. Then home to Blackpool, away to Leicester… It goes on and on.
Is that typical Black Country pessimism? Probably. But I’ll bet I’m not far off what a lot of Wolves fans are thinking.
So, what should Steve Morgan do? Well, firstly, I don’t presume to even try and tell him what he should do. As Jez Moxey once said, “It’s Steve’s club, he can do what he likes.” But I can offer my opinion.
And my opinion is that Stale isn’t up to the job. Or rather, Stale doesn’t suit our club. I don’t like saying it. I don’t like calling for a manager to lose his job, but something clearly isn’t working and since we can’t change the whole squad of players in a month, we need to find a manager who can work with what he’s got.
I said this time last year that I’d like to see Milton Keynes’ Karl Robinson given a chance. MK play lovely football and while they keep falling just short in their quest for Championship football, that doesn’t mean Karl won’t find real success at the right club – and I think Wolves could be the right club. Either that, or Sean O’Driscoll is available – who seems to be another talented manager looking for the right club to let him show what he can really do (plus, isn’t he supposedly a Wolves fan to boot?)
Either way, I’d like to see us get a manager in who will give this crop of talented kids coming through the academy a shot at first team football. What’s the point of having a top rated academy if what it produces is sold off before being given a chance to shine? Sheffield Wednesday fans think Danny Batth is the best defender they’ve seen in years. Jake Cassidy tore up League One with Tranmere, Hibs are desperate for Leigh Griffiths to stay and keep banging in goals. And that’s not to mention the supposedly so-talented-he’ll-be-the-first-£100m-player that is Zele Ismail.
I’m not going to join the increasing number of people that are calling for Morgan and Moxey to leave. I think the club is in sound hands and is well run. When the football-finance bubble bursts (and it will burst) and the foreign owners get bored and start looking for new playthings, Wolves will be a stable club, standing tall while those around it fall.
But in the meantime, I think it would be nice to watch Sky Soccer Saturday and not get utterly depressed every time Jeff says, “To Molineux next…”
It's My Life... 