As a Norwich-based footie commentator who supports Wolves, Dan O’Hagan is probably better qualified than anyone out there to mull over Wednesday night’s game. So we were chuffed when he agreed to do this week’s Q&A preview:
With your Old Gold hat on, you still pinching yourself? To use the old Carlsberg analogy, even if they did Championship seasons they couldn’t be much better than the one Wolves are currently enjoying. You agree this now feels like a procession to the Promised Land?
It is a procession, yes, the football is brilliant, the flair and style is like nothing the Championship has ever seen, but I can’t say I’m a huge fan of buying success “off the peg”. It’s landed me some pretty heavy abuse on social media from the hear-no-evil-see-no-evil elements of Wolves’ fanbase, but I’m old-fashioned and prefer to see a team grown organically. We’re Man City or PSG on a smaller scale, and that doesn’t sit right with me, with clubs lower down on the verge of bankruptcy for the want of a few thousand quid. I’m enjoying the football for what it is, but it’s hard to turn a blind eye to the crass vulgarity of the spending.
A commendable take on proceedings Dan, and it’s hard to disagree. Impossible even.
Obviously, the gigantic influx of cash has helped, but you wouldn’t have been the first club to have sizeable wads of cash in the Championship and yet fail to make it count. Did you see this coming in the summer? And could this have happened without the ‘dodgy’ links to Jorge Mendes?
There’s no doubt Mendes, whatever you think of him, is crucial to convincing his stable of players to come to Wolves, and the coach too. Nuno, as a player, was Mendes’ first client. The influx has been of exceptional quality, and I doubt we’d be seeing Ruben Neves and Jota in the Championship without Mendes’ involvement. Whether or not we should be comfortable with one agent influencing a club’s dealings quite so closely is another story, of course.
Hhmm. Not that the “hear-no-evil-see-no-evil elements of Wolves’ fanbase” – as you describe them – give two hoots. And, to be fair, however it arrives, we all crave success for our club. The history books will list trophies and league titles but not their backstory.
Closer to home… John Ruddy and Ryan Bennett. Discuss.
Solid pros, performing like solid pros. Both are thriving in new surroundings. Ruddy came into a difficult situation, stepping in for Carl Ikeme who continues to battle leukaemia, and has quietly gotten on with the business of effectively keeping clean sheets and making big saves at big moments – often after long spells of inaction during games.
At Norwich Ruddy was perhaps under-appreciated, but the move has given him a new energy and he’s been excellent.
As has Ryan Bennett, who has been keeping club captain Danny Batth on the sidelines for the most part. Bennett never seemed to completely win the trust of either Chris Hughton or Alex Neil, being forever in and out of leaky Norwich defences, but at Wolves he’s living up to the potential he showed at Peterborough.
Ruddy’s departure was for financial reasons – and most were sad to see him go – but ironically, Bennett would not have been short of chauffeurs to drive him to Wolverhampton if he’d asked. The big issue with him was his propensity to doze off and drop a clanger or two (especially when in the vicinity of Michael McGovern) but that’s something he’s clearly addressed, and good luck to him.
Anyway, in the way that we’ve gone German, you’ve gone Portuguese – to considerably greater effect is has to be said. Mendes presumably was central to the hiring of Nuno Espirito Santo, and the signings of Helder Costa, Ruben Neves, Diogo Jota, Ivan Cavaleiro and Rafa Mir? (although Mir’s Spanish isn’t he?).
The Portuguese theme is very Mendes-driven, but they’ve settled very well, which is to the club’s immense credit. Nuno especially has already been taken to the hearts of the fans, and tactically his football is remarkable, as we saw at Carrow Road in October, which was the night I came away from the game realising that, in football terms, this team is the real deal.
Same here. After giving us that painful lesson, the gulf between work-in-progress and a ready-made looked massive. And still does to be fair.
What have you made of City’s ups and downs this season? Have you spotted the overall improvement? Your general thoughts on Project Farke/Webber?
It was a bold sea-change by Norwich. This season was always going to be one of adjustment and bedding in, and the board did well to hold their nerve in that difficult run that followed the Arsenal EFL Cup tie. Lesser boards would have panicked and hastily sacked Farke and gone for a quick Allardyce or Pulis-style “fix”, which would have been disastrous.
True. Credit where it’s due I guess. We had a glimpse of a crude form of Pulis-ball on Sunday and no-one wants that (including Ipswich supporters it seems).
Using your Bundesliga connections, list us Zimmermann, Franke, Stiepermann, Hernandez, Srbeny and Leitner 1 to 6 in order of quality (1 being Darren Huckerby, 6 being Andy Hughes). In your view, any outside chance of us signing Leitner?
- Leitner: Absolute quality and with a point to prove and a career to get back on track.
- Zimmermann: Already one of City’s greatest finds.
- Hernande: Decent winger at second-tier level.
- Stiepermann: Solid enough, but I don’t think he’s a 46-games-a-season starting player in the Championship.
- Srbeny: A gamble, given he’s never played above 3. Liga in Germany, but I imagine the financial outlay has been minimal, and he was tearing it up at Paderborn this season.
- Franke: You win some, you lose some. That he’s already back in Germany tells you all you need to know.
As for Leitner’s future, his wages won’t be insignificant, and Augsburg are no mugs. They know what’s under the bonnet and won’t want to give him away for nothing. This is a guy getting good game time in a strong Dortmund team before Julian Weigl emerged as one of Europe’s best midfielders. Right now, I’d say the best City can hope for is a second season’s loan next year, but I suspect his performances for Norwich won’t go unnoticed at a few other Bundesliga clubs. Enjoy him while you can.
Was fearful you were going to say that. My biggest misgiving is how someone with a Champions League type CV will fit in with our new, very modest wage structure.
Looking further ahead… your thoughts on Auntie Delia and Uncle Michael’s steadfast refusal to even contemplate any of that nasty old external funding coming in to darken our doors?
Be careful what you wish for. Delia and Michael run Norwich on a sound footing, and not all mega-bucks investors come guaranteed to work out, nor have the club’s best interests at heart. They’ve gone a certain way with Farke, so back them, and him and see where it leads. Pots of money can change a club’s feel to its fans and not always for the best.
You’re not the first to give us the ‘be careful what you wish for’ line. Andy Jacobs (of talkSPORT fame) said something very similar when I asked the same question.
Finally. Standard. Score prediction for Wednesday night?
Another step down the inevitable road to the Premier League for Wolves. A 2-0 home win.
Thanks to Dan for his time. Much appreciated.
Wolves fans just seem to be enjoying the football they’re watching (and it is really good). Don’t forget they had years of both McCarthy and Moxey,
Glad to read Dan’s reticence to fully endorse the funding and structure of the club, I wonder if Mendez’s next move will be to move Nuno onto a higher profile club soon.
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hope not think nuno wants to get wolves a huge club and he is an honourable man i trust him
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With you there Wolvespete. The owners want to make Wolves a club that attracts and keeps the top talent, because they are winning things.
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A good read as always – nice to see what other clubs think to us and also how they perceive their own club. Refreshing for someone to say they wish their club was doing well through home grown talent rather than buying in too.
One criticism is the second to last comment reference no external investment – I thought that earlier this season the statement was made that whilst they weren’t trying to sell up, Delia and Michael would explore investment opportunities should anyone approach them but that no one had been forthcoming – or have I got this wrong? I just feel that there are a lot of people moaning that they won’t sell up given that if no one offers anything then they can’t very well do that anyway.
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The trouble was that in an infamous Times interview the Smiths said they were not even prepared to listen to investment offers – few fans want to hear that kind of stuff and many reacted accordingly.
Thanks for a good respectful post and I wish you well in the PL next year.
Maybe we’ll play you again sometime a while after tomorrow:-)
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Martin, although the ‘not for sale’ mantra has, since the infamous Times interview, been repeated subsequently by Jezza and Ed Balls, the tone changed slightly last November, when the accounts were released, to ‘our door is always open’. Means, if someone wants to talk they have to come to us, rather than proactively looking beyond an NR postcode.
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Absolutely Gary.
However if I were a serious potential investor I would not want to do all the hard yards only to walk into a wall of intransigence.
Any form of investment without purchasing total control of the Club is off the menu with the Smiths in charge. Who in the realm of sanity is going to back them financially without being able to even have the opportunity to outvote them at Board meetings?
There are very few people who want to talk to them as they know they’d be beaten before they’ve started. And that’s how they like it.
Mind you things on the pitch are looking up and that’s what I care about most:-)
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Erm…I am a City fan!!!
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As a Wolves supporter I agree with some of the comments in this article.
After some of the rubbish Wolves fans have put up with over the last 30 years I don’t think the cash injection or the Mendes influence is sitting uncomfortably with many of the people that are causing home games and away ticket allocations to sell out for every game. They are loving it.
But sad to say I don’t think John Ruddy has been excellent. He has hardly had a shot to save in many games but when put under pressure he has looked far from secure in recent games.
As for Norwich, have been very impressed with Maddison. Norwich will do well to hold on to him next season as Premier League clubs cone sniffing around, and maybe Wolves will be one of them.
I think a 2-0 home win is a fair prediction for Wednesday, but Wolves have been threatening to give somebody a real hammering one of these games
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This was an excellent read and with City’s away form being on the up this season we can all hope for a point.
Just a follow-up on Martins comment about the Smiths, which I agree isn’t good for the clubs future – I recently read an article from Mr Flood, co-owner of Burnley and founder of the UCFB. He noted when he first went into the club that they were making cuts in staff, so invested more money to retain person and said any club board worth its salt would always look to invest and not stand still. Like any business investment is the lifeblood and without that, it dies a slow painful death.
So Mr & Mrs Smith please take note – if you love the club as much as you say you do find some money
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Wise words Alex.
I’m in business and we have to constantly invest. If we didn’t, we would – as you say – have slow painful death. Standing still is never an option. That’s why the self-funding model at the club is naive, because it won’t take us anywhere – only south.
A football club needs owners that have ambition and want to play at the top table – sadly NCFC does not have those.
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Investment is only part of the recipe though and in no way guarantees the desired outcome. Less we forget, there are 23 other clubs in The Championship all looking for a route to the Prem, only 3 can be successful each season and 3 will drop. The league is littered with clubs who have tried and failed. The same is true in business, money alone makes little difference and can end up destroying what didn’t need fixing in the first place, if not wisely spent.
Having a plan for success and working together to achieve that plan is the key, in football terms, togetherness will build that team spirit and the siege mentality required for when the going gets tough. Good leadership is vital in all of this and in SW & DF I believe we have this, yes some money will be required in the Summer which is why Madders will be sold for £25m+ but please don’t kid yourselves that money is the be all and end all, there is so much more required. Football is unlike any other business, ask Mike Ashley!
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As a wolves fan, I love this season. 12 points ahead of Aston villa. 40 ahead of birmingham city and ready to swap places with west Bromwich albion in the premier. We have seem wolves on their knees and ridiculed. Well not anymore ” he who laugh’s last, laugh’s longest. Up th wolves.
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