Why I fear the worst for Wolves unless changes are made!Posted by: Vinny Banks,

Football FanCast columnist Vinny Banks cannot help but feel the worst for Wolves, as their prize assets are constantly linked to the Premier League.

As I sit here taking in the early summer sunshine, with pre season only around the corner, I cannot help but feel the worst for my beloved Wolves. With prized assets like Michael Kightly and young goalkeeping sensation Wayne Hennessey, both heavily linked with Premier League clubs - you kind of sense, if a suitable offer was to come in, that neither will be starting the season at Molineux.

So what is the right price for the pair? I'm guessing we should pick up around £10m and for me it is vital that we reinvest that money straight back into the market and rebuild on the core players that are already there. Will Merlin do it? Call me negative if you will, but I cannot see Mick McCarthy splashing out on the quality that we need and those of the same calibre as Kightly and Hennessey. I may be proved wrong, but on past form I have my doubts.

Where do we need to improve? For one it is vital that we bring in an adequate replacement for Gary Breen. Christian Berra of Hearts has been recently linked and I personally feel would be a good investment at the back, but I prefer the bulk of the money to be spent on the midfield. We constantly gave the football away last season and failed to retain possession for long periods. We lacked that quality in the middle of the park to dictate a game of football and we were often overrun by the opposition.

I hate to say it but we need to emulate the Albion. The secret of their success lay at the feet of Jonathon Greening and Robert Koren, who controlled the game in midfield and as they proved against us they simply ran the show. I appreciate it may cost a bit of money but if we have any designs on being a Premier League outfit, then the only way to get there will be by investing. You have to speculate to accumulate; otherwise you stand still in the Championship.

One area that is cause of concern for me at Molineux, is the lack of experience within the squad. You look back to 2003 and with the likes of Blake, Ince and Irwin, we had winners all over the park and who knew what it took to win certain games. In the home stretch this season we were crying out for some strong heads out there, ones who could lead by example and I really felt that bit of experience could have dragged us into the play-offs this season.

What about Mick McCarthy? I have continually backed the man from the start but in the last year I have started to grow disillusioned. His transfer policy, among other things has baffled me beyond belief, no more so than the whole Freddie Eastwood fiasco, which has most Wolves fans pulling their hair out. I feel the time has come for a change at the helm and whoever does arrive shows far greater ambition.

bullshite.

1/ a lot of Wolves fans seem to forget what McCarthy as done for us.

2/ Alot of teams are in the same boat with there stars being linked away its football deal with it. If they go they go i dont want a player at Wolves who docent want to play for us

fair point try this one then

Will Wolves' empty promises come back to bite them? Posted by: Adam Thompson,

Tagged: Championship, Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton PodJockey Adam Thompson reflects on a disappointing season in the Championship for Mick McCarthy and feels the fans deserve some respect and understanding.

How do you top off a disappointing season with rare highs and even rarer quality on show? Have a pop at the fans; put a favourite of theirs up for sale and mouth off in the press you'll win the league next season (Like you did the previous). These are the realities of the McCarthy and Moxey regime at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

It has been a season full of hypocrisy and it is this that has riled Wolves fans and in particular myself. We were promised by Mick McCarthy a challenge for ‘the top two places and nothing less' and yet we failed to get even a playoff place as well as being told half way through the season that we (the fans) were putting ‘too much pressure' on the players, which reflected in our poor home form. To top this off McCarthy then states he won't look at the league until March when it starts getting important, with Wolves at this point languishing in the mid table of the division and disregarding fans concerns for our ill fated play off challenge.

The transfer dealings have been one disaster after another. Jody Craddock is deemed not good enough and is shipped out to Stoke on loan and he is subsequently replaced by new signing Darren Ward, who fails to step up to the mark so Merlin decides to bring Craddock back. A few months on and Ward is put up for sale, whilst Jody is offered a new deal. Kevin Kyle signed on loan from Coventry to ‘make an impact from the bench' starts ahead of international striker Freddy Eastwood. He starts several games which was effectively two fingers up to the Wolves fans by ‘our' manager. On request of the Wolves staff to ease off the pressure on the players ‘Super Mick' turned ‘Coco the clown' and puts Kyle (well known as a confidence player) in a must win game against Southampton. At this point I would like to make out that this is not an attack on Kevin Kyle, in fact it was poor management and was put under pressure by the his manager. But these are just a few and not even a mention of the money that was spent on players such as Darren Ward and the additions of Stephen Elliot and Freddy Eastwood, who all find themselves on the transfer list this summer.

If I am honest, it is this transfer list that has left most Wolves fans scratching their heads. Darren Potter (The best passer of a ball at the club) - Rob Edwards (The best centre back next to Jody Craddock), and Freddy Eastwood (one of three players with natural quality in the squad). Taking Edwards out the equation due to his injuries this season there have been games that have screamed out for Potter and Eastwood to get into. Wolves v Albion needed a calm head with creativity in the centre of midfield. When Potter was available, McCarthy selected the Manchester United loanee Darren Gibson ahead of him (and from his performance not even Darren Fletcher will be quaking in his boots). Blackpool v Wolves; We were screaming for a link between midfield and attack, Keogh was having a disaster out of position on the right and Kevin Kyle was having to find an extra 10 yards of pace from the searching balls played by the hot and cold Karl Henry. The chants of ‘Freddy' rang out from the away contingent, he was introduced alright.... With 50 seconds remaining.

That Blackpool game was the first time I sincerely doubted the abilities of Mick McCarthy and I felt it was a pivotal moment in our season. Blackpool which had meant nothing to Wolves fans, for years, other than a cheap weekend away was now dubbed a ‘good draw'. I ask of those reading would Rafa Benitez (who did for a period chase for the Premiership title) consider a draw against lets say Bolton away a good draw? Of course not, its 2 points dropped and I bet he would even come out and admit that. McCarthy however has shown to the fans (to politely put it) he is a proud man. Unfortunately there have been too many times this season his heart has ruled his head and clouded reason.

I have felt since the "I won't look at the table until the end of March" comment McCarthy has tried to achieve two things. A playoff place but also that tactical decision which would turn the fans from seeing Mick as ‘Coco' back to ‘Super' and he had it at his finger tips on so many occasions, by calling on #23 Eastwood to fire us into the Premiership he had a player, who in the little bits we saw of him, had enough class to influence dedicated Wolves fans week in week out to call his name. There have been times the ‘Freddy' chants have been premature (QPR at home when Keogh went on to score two) but we are not stupid. We will not chant any old blokes name for a season, if we see quality and effort we will support that as it was the same reason we chanted Henri Camara in that relegation threatened season because he had quality (but no loyalty).

To add fuel to the flames of this season Wolves handling of the press in the last few weeks has been amateur. The attempts to cover all angles by releasing details of a 40,000 seater Molineux and the promise of heavy investment in the week leading up to our crunch game with Plymouth was transparent and its purpose was obvious ‘even if we lose, we look positive'.

Jez Moxey labels the signing of Freddy Eastwood as ‘disappointing.' But how can you judge a player on 15 minutes spells in a 90 minute game? Then we are blasted by our manager as ‘Sad'. Now I will admit there is a select few of Wolves fans who even if they beat Chelsea 8-0 would suggest ‘it's about time' but that is just people in general. What angers me about this ‘Sad' comment is that its suggests that as a fan we haven't a right to voice our opinion that we should just shut up and have trust in our manager. But the question I put forward to Mr McCarthy is how do you trust a manager who at times seems to be doing what's right for his pride rather than the football club? I just find it hard to swallow especially as when Wolves failed to make the play-offs, there was certainly no fuss made and it was generally accepted among supporters that ‘we weren't good enough and Albion deserved to be champions'. I mean out of the 12 League games against the teams above us we only won once; that in itself would have been reason to grumble and yet we haven't.

I don't know about other Wolves fans but I am becoming increasingly frustrated by the almost daily comments in the Express and Star by our players coming out and promising us promotion next year.

"We'll win the league", "We'll get top two", "We'll do it for the real fans".... Shut your mouths and get on with the football. If anything this highlights the inexperience and youth of our squad, to continually come out in the press with wild predictions for a Championship season that will be immensely tougher than the last. This only makes you appreciate Dave Jones' rein at Wolves where the players came out at the right time and said the right thing. The lead up to the playoff final, no press conferences were held to let the players play the game and not the occasion. Result? 3-0 Wolves.

For me that is the difference, Wolves fans can't see a resemblance to our promotion side of 2003. We tasted success and we don't want to wait that long again. That is the long and short of it. So while Moxey and McCarthy ask for patience, a favour I'm sure all Wolves fans would appreciate is some simple understanding.

We've heard all the promises before, we've seen these tactical ineptness before and seen our favourites sold with futile reasons given to the fans. Saying we are going to win the league is not good enough, failing to admit YOU put too much pressure on the players (not just the fans) is not good enough and finally having a go at the fans for a lack of positive attitude, to a sub-par season, is not good enough because we will be here long after you kick the bucket or enjoy your big pay packet at your country club.


Poll:
Can Wolves clinch promotion with McCarthy at the helm?

Definitely
40%

No Chance
32%

Only through the play offs?
28%

Why's everyone moaning? its a new season forget last season thats what everyone says when we say McCarthy had a great first season.

1/ Yes i dont agree with th Eastwood situation and i would rather him stay BUT other managers must see what McCarthy is as no one is bidding for him!

2/ Play potter? Ive nothing against the guy but everyone who sits by me say he is shit and criticize him when he plays so why are they debating it when they the fans are saying hes shit.

3/ Karl Henry is a big part to our team. People moan how shit he is when they must not no anything about football. Henry is NOT and will NEVER be a attacking player who scored loads of goals. He is a defensive midfielder and he does his job well, quietly and effectively. When he was injured everyone said how much we had missed him!

4/ Yes they are going to say we want to go up Wolves fans would criticize if they said we want to finish 7th wouldn't they!


I will back any manager who is at Wolves and like it or not McCarthy is there and thats the way it is. We need a creative midfielder and a center defender and we have every chance of going up. There is still loads of time in the transfer market so we have to wait and see then you can judge and slag it off If he hasn't bought what we need!

i agree wait until the end of next season

I know last season was bad but everyone needs to forget about it a new season is getting closer try and be positive

Michael isnt a bad fella at all, I like him as Manager, but at the end of the day you have got to have pennies in your back pocket eh?

Agree mate a manager IMO needs 3 years at the very least. And money to spend which Morgan is giving him

So give him time, this could be the season

he's got my backing its the others that he aint got