General Wolves News

[Walnut]

UEFA is corrupt. Money talks

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

I don't think we will ever be a Chelsea or a Man City in terms of splashing money about to elevate us. I don't think our owners are of that mindset FFP or not.

They have been considered during all their dealings and appear to be offering a cautious, yet sensible approach. They are after all very successful business people, not Oil barons who are in their own vanity project by displaying a disgusting waste of wealth (or trying to buy a British passport)

It may mean that we don't get instant gratification of *superstar* signings but take a more measured approach where we look to develop players where we see the opportunity and of course offer an opportunity for players in their homeward straight of their career path.

It has worked very well so far and the idiots who get themselves worked up into a lather over spending money aren't worth reading, changing direction more often than a weather cock.

 

[Kenny]

but UEFA didn't make the call this morning. They banned City, so their money didn't help there at all.

 

[Del Woppio]

UEFA is corrupt. Money talks

UEFA didn't reverse the decision. They literally went to court to defend it

 

[Walnut]

Money still talks .

 

[Kenny]

It does but it didn't for City v UEFA. If it did talk it said all the wrong things

 

[Walnut]

I don't understand how City have had the case overturned. UEFA would not, I imagine make the charges unless there was something there.

 

[Monstrum]

Are you familiar with the concept of money?

 

[Kenny]

They have been found guilty of stuff, just the Court has changed the punishment from a 2 year ban and a £25m fine to just a £10m fine

 

[Walnut]

I did say that money talks.

 

[AndyWolves]

I don't understand how City have had the case overturned. UEFA would not, I imagine make the charges unless there was something there.

This assumes UEFA have not been playing political games.

My view is they were presented with evidence (Der Spiegel hacking i think it was) and had to be seen to be doing something but knew full well nothing would come of it.

 

[Walnut]

Be honest did anyone really think they would get a ban.

 

[The Bion]

The main reason it's been overturned is because of how long ago it happened. UEFA themselves (I believe) have set a limit of 5 years on things being actionable, and this breach (or supposed breach) happened in 2013. So they hamstrung themselves.

I haven't been paying a huge amount of attention to the detail but from what I understand that's the reason the ban no longer applies. They were fined for obstructing UEFA's investigation - which in all likelihood is why the time limit passed in the first place (which I guess is what UEFA's argument was)

 

[Tredman]

Good article on Raul on the BBC:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53382824

Needs to work on that conversion rate...

 

[The Bear]

See yesterday's opponents for what happens when you just wang money about without thinking about what you're doing.

Well having less restrictions on spending doesn't mean we'd just abandon our scouting philosophy.

It would just mean we'd likely have Dias here now if we could have just given them all the fee up front like they wanted.

 

[Norman Deeley]

There's supposedly a good article on Conor Coady's shouting in the Athletic if anyone can cut and paste

 

[darlowolf64]

There's supposedly a good article on Conor Coady's shouting in the Athletic if anyone can cut and paste

Kick-off: “TOGETHER BOYS! COME ON, TOGETHER!”

You can hear Conor Coady when there are 30,000 fans inside Molineux but in a deserted stadium, his voice bellows and echoes around the golden palace like Brian Blessed yelling into an empty glass bottle.

His leadership and organisation have been repeatedly praised by team-mates and staff in the past three years but behind-closed-doors games offer a chance to hear first-hand just how integral Coady is to making the Wolves unit cohesive and united.

It’s a unit that has kept eight clean sheets in 11 Premier League games and Coady is its beating heart, its mouthpiece and its brain all in one.

20 seconds: “UP! UP! UP! GO DANIEL! UP! HIGHER, HIGHER! KEEP GOING BOYS, KEEP GOING!”

“Our shape is what maintains us as a team,” Nuno Espirito Santo said last summer. “Why is it hard to break? Because it’s organised, the players know the lines of the ball, they know each other. The levels of communication are more accurate.”

The vast majority of that communication comes from Coady. Primarily he keeps the defensive line in check (how often do Wolves get caught beyond the last man?) by constantly and incessantly barking orders at Romain Saiss to his left and Willy Boly to his right.

8 mins 6 secs: “NOTHING EASY BOYS, NOTHING EASY! … OUT! OUT! OUT! (The back line advances 20 yards in unison)”

9 mins 57 secs: “SET UP BOYS, SHAPE. SAISS! (motions Saiss backwards) OK, GOOOOOD.”

He presses the whole team up the field, or tells them when to drop, when to get tight to their opponent, when to offer themselves as an option for a pass, when to stay narrow or when they’ve got a “man on”. His team-mates talk, too, but it’s mostly Coady. Wolves’ on-field manager.

“That’s the best way to describe him, as a manager on the field,” friend and former team-mate Adam Morgan tells The Athletic. “He typifies what a leader should be. For starters you know what you’re going to get from him every single week — he’s not hit-and-miss, he’s 7/10 every week and then he’ll have some exceptional games at 8/10, 9/10 or 10/10.”

Given Everton’s impotence in a performance that resembles a puppy rolling over and asking for its belly to be tickled, Coady doesn’t have to be 10/10 as Wolves coast to a welcome 3-0 victory, but the captain effectively gives a flawless performance to help ensure yet another clean sheet.

Time and again Richarlison and Dominic Calvert-Lewin making darting runs beyond Coady, Boly and Saiss. But either the pass isn’t picked or they’re immediately offside and redundant. Wolves are a tough nut to crack. Coady plays a big part in that.

17 mins 43 secs: “THAT’S GOOD, LEANDER (after a crunching tackle). HIGHER! HIGHER! (Pushing Wolves’ back line up as Everton retreat into their own half), COME ON BOLY, KEEP UP! HIGHER!”

Many of Coady’s relentless instructions (he shouts something during every single minute of the match, without fail) are directed at Saiss, with Coady repeatedly and persistently checking the Moroccan’s positioning. Boly, the most experienced centre-half of the trio, is mostly left to his own devices.

20 mins 5 secs: “AGAIN, AGAIN NETO, AGAIN! (Neto cuts back inside as Wolves’ attack restarts), GOOOOOOD.”

30 mins 31 secs: “DANIEL! DANIEL! DANIEL! (Podence finally looks Coady’s way)… WELL DONE.”

Wolves’ players know their roles inside out. They train on their shape every single day. They have done for three years since its inception in the hills of Austria, where Coady was first converted to a centre-half (almost by accident). They know where they should be on the pitch, with and without the ball, and where their team-mate should be.

Coady’s job is to manage them in-game (he talks far more than Nuno) but also to encourage them. There are no bollockings here, no chastising if a player drops out of position or doesn’t close his man down. Everything Coady says is positive. Unequivocally.

“I used to have some headaches after games!” Morgan jokes. The pair grew up together at Liverpool and regularly played in the same team from aged 15 onwards (Morgan was a year younger), as well as for England youth sides. Coady was captain in central midfield and Morgan a striker when England won the Under-17 European Championship in 2010.

“Every team needs someone like him but Conor is a bit different,” Morgan adds. “When someone yells at you during a game, sometimes you might think they’re wrong so you argue back but Conor never criticises you to begin with. It’s more like, ‘Come on son, you’re better than that.’ He’s like a father figure on the pitch, you don’t want to let him down.

“He always been loud and vocal, even aged 10, 11… He’s got, not ‘worse’, but louder! The thing with Conor is, he’d never ask you to do something he wouldn’t do himself. He had the respect of everyone, even at a young age. I’ve taken a lot of advice from him over the years.”

38 mins 45 secs: “HOLD THE LINE! HOLD THE LINE! THAT’S FUCKING GOOD!”

Like a foul-mouthed Dick Winters — the US World War Two army officer immortalised in the TV series Band of Brothers — give Coady a ragtag bunch of stoned hippy misfits on the fifth day of Glastonbury and within hours he’d have them resembling a crack army battalion.

41 mins 1 sec: “SHAPE BOYS, SHAPE! ORGANISE! SECOND BALLS NOW, COME ON, RUBEN.”

Aside from Saiss and Ruben Neves, Pedro Neto and Podence are the players Coady talks to most. That’s no coincidence, given Neto and Podence are making their first starts since the restart. Podence in particular, making his full Premier League debut, is given non-stop encouragement.

Coady keeps a watchful eye on everything his team-mates are doing. As Raul Jimenez is waiting to take a penalty just before half-time, Neto is swigging a drink on the touchline. “Nets?” Coady inquires, before pointing up-field. Neto throws the drink to the floor and heads for the edge of the box.

45 mins: “LET’S GO AGAIN, BOYS! LET’S GO AGAIN! COME ON, NOTHING EASY.”

“We still message each other a lot,” Morgan says. “I’ll always message him when he’s done something good, which over the last three years has been quite a lot. We’re from the same part of the world although he’s a ‘wool’ from St Helens, don’t let him tell you he’s a Scouser.”

Coady has barely missed a game in the three years Nuno has been in charge, converting him to a centre-half in 2017 when, during a pre-season training session, Wolves had too many midfielders and not enough defenders for their XI-a-side.

Nuno was instantly struck by not just Coady’s ability to manage the team from the back, but also his exceptional reading of the game. Against Everton, danger men Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison barely have a kick. Coady beats Richarlison to loose balls time and again.

“He’s not the quickest player but his brain is very quick,” Morgan adds. “He has the attitude of a winner and that’s helped him adapt to being a centre-half. But he’s also been coached from a young age at a club that’s now the world, European and Premier League champions… he’s been coached by the best.

“He knows the game inside out and that helps with his communication because he’s not shouting anything for the sake of it. It’s all necessary information.

“You play with some players who just shout for the sake of it, but with Conor it’s all necessary or encouragement.”

62 mins 56 secs: “DANIEL, DANIEL, GET INSIDE. CONCENTRATE LADS COME ON, SECOND BALLS RUBEN! SECOND BALLS LEANDER!”

75 mins 20 secs: “HIGHER FELLA, HIGHER! WELL DOOOONE! COME ON NOW, REACT! REACT! REACT!”

While improving those around him Coady has also worked on his own game. Those trademark quarterback passes out to Matt Doherty and Jonny Castro Otto at wing-back are a key aspect of Wolves’ play. Coady’s movement and availability allow him to often be the starting point for Wolves building from the back. He’ll rarely concede possession and defensively he’s improved as the season has gone on.

81 mins 11 secs: “THAT’S GOOD, ADAMA, THAT’S GOOD! HOLD THE LINE. EXCELLENT WILLY! WELL DONE! STAY TOGETHER, SHAPE, SHAPE!”

82 mins 31 secs: “ADAMA, ADAMA! (Traore looks towards Coady and gets a solid thumbs-up). GOOD JOB DOC, KEEP DOING THAT, KEEP DOING THAT (as he concedes a throw-in with a tackle). KEEP THE BALL BOYS, COME ON.”

The final minutes are a procession for Coady. The 3-0 scoreline flatters Everton, with Wolves doing most of the attacking. That definitely isn’t Coady’s job. He hasn’t had a single shot at goal since Wolves won promotion to the Premier League.

He also hasn’t missed a single minute of league football since October 2017, a run of 108 consecutive games. Since January 2018 he’s only missed two matches, both of them Carabao Cup ties earlier this season. He’s played 52 times in all competitions.

In fact, of Wolves’ last 138 matches he’s played 135 of them, featuring for every single minute of those 135. That’s due to his remarkable levels of professionalism and also the fact he’s naturally a fine athlete, with a body that’s biomechanically designed to cope with a heavy workload. That’s reflected in the fact he’s rarely suffered injuries throughout his career.

“You get players that will bark at you and sometimes that does more harm than good,” a former Wolves team-mate tells The Athletic. “Conor doesn’t shout random orders. Anyone can yell a few cliches all over the pitch but it’s about the quality of information he provides. Him and Nuno are in constant dialogue and Conor basically reinforces the manager’s information from the week leading up to the game.

“He transmits it on the pitch really well. It’s a very personable team with no old-school characters or egos — they’re good men and they respond to Conor. He fills that role so well. In my opinion, they’d be a couple of places lower in the table if they didn’t have his leadership.

“He cares too. He cares about the players in that team, he cares about the results, the club, the city, everything.”

That professionalism and drive have earned praise from England boss Gareth Southgate who once said that Coady was exactly the kind of character he likes in his squad. A call-up surely can’t be far away, whether England are playing three at the back or not. He’s certainly earned it.

“When he was 18 there was absolutely no doubt that Conor would make it as a footballer,” Morgan adds. “But would we have predicted he’d get to the heights he’s at now? Maybe not, Conor would probably say that himself too.

“He’s never satisfied, he’s got that desire. He’s got a great family, lovely kids, he’s just a model footballer. I’m proud of him.”

A team can reflect its captain. Professional, hard-working, organised, positive, likeable, skilful, mentally strong, driven, a winner. For Wolverhampton Wanderers, read the criminally underrated Conor Coady.

 

[sycophantia]

Thanks for going to the trouble of c & p that Darlo, great read

 

[The Bion]

30 mins 31 secs: “DANIEL! DANIEL! DANIEL! (Podence finally looks Coady’s way)… WELL DONE.”

 

[SSB]

Shame Coady wasn't tipped off that Tim was writing that story. He could have slipped some crackers into his shoutouts.