Just how good were/was/is/are (Wolves Edition)

[BGreenWolf]

Fat drummer bloke was called Lee Jobber. He was on that program about football away days years ago, following fans of each club travelling to games.

There was a chant in that game to get him to give us a wave and start drumming for us. Which he eventually did for one or two chants.

Ah, yeah, and we got a Fatty is a Wolves Fan chant going after that, I remember.

 

[The Bear]

Yeah it was a good friendly atmosphere between the two clubs that day.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Stears played at RB for Leicester that day (taken off at half time).

I don't remember Seyi being particularly impressive though. He did get a trademark goal from three yards out. Potter was playing CM with him at the time (Henry was out injured, did his spleen at Luton a couple of months before) and was the better player.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

It was a good time had by all. I have been in some fairly unpleasant atmospheres in Wolves games at Filbert Street but the King Power was just a bit of a party that day.

 

[The Bear]

I think Seyi set up Kites' goal that day too, from my admittedly poor memory.

 

[The Bear]

https://youtu.be/StKfh26m1jA

 

[Templeton Peck]

Useless footballer. I never hated him like Ferguson but he served absolutely no purpose on the field. His likeability must have oozed off the pitch as I can't remember such a shite player having such an easy time from our fans. A less effective David Edwards.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Yeah, I think Ferguson had the element of not trying along with being shit (he's clearly a twat as well). Seyi wasn't quite that but he did hide a lot in games, he never took responsibility when you'd think he was supposed to be the main man in midfield and he certainly didn't work very hard.

I'd love to know how we got hoodwinked into paying so much for him, that makes no sense. Like I say, fast forward four years and we got David Jones for £1m. Account for market inflation over that period and he's absolutely miles cheaper, he was actually a good player too and you could see what he was supposed to do.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

10. Ade Akinbiyi

Adeola Oluwatoyin Akinbiyi (born 10 October 1974) is a former professional footballer who played as a forward.

Akinbiyi has had a much-travelled career with many different clubs with transfer fees totalling more than £11.5 million during his career, including being Leicester City's record signing (at £5.3 million).

Born in England, Akinbiyi qualified to play for the Nigeria national football team through his parents, and earned one cap for Nigeria in 1999.

Akinbiyi began his career as a trainee at Norwich City, where he worked his way up into the first team in 1992. He made his début on 3 November 1993 as a substitute against German giants Bayern Munich in the UEFA Cup. The match ended 1–1, meaning that Norwich won the second round tie 3–2 on aggregate and went on to face Inter Milan, who eliminated them. He was loaned to Hereford United and Brighton & Hove Albion before completing a £250,000 move to Gillingham in 1997. He scored 29 goals in 67 league and cup games for the Gills and was quickly transferred to newly promoted Division One side Bristol City for £1.2 million.

Akinbiyi's stock continued to rise and after scoring 21 goals for Bristol City in the 1998–99 season, Wolverhampton Wanderers paid a club record £3.5 million for him in September 1999 in an attempt to replace Robbie Keane. He played only one season at Molineux, finishing as the club's top goalscorer with 16 goals but Wolves just missed out on a playoff place.

Ten months after arriving at Wolves, he departed to Premier League club Leicester City for £5.5 million, a decision he would later regret. Brought in as a replacement for Emile Heskey (who left for Liverpool for £11 million), he failed to live up to expectations, scoring only 11 goals in 58 league appearances.

His spell at Leicester hit rock bottom in a 4–1 defeat at home to Liverpool. He missed four easy chances, including a miss from six yards in the last minute. He was booed by Leicester fans whose patience with Akinbiyi had run out. Soon after, he scored his first league goal of the season in a crucial 1–0 win at home to Sunderland, which prompted him to say that "hopefully this will start a flood of goals for me".

 

[Templeton Peck]

What a game that was! Hilarity. Also, how the fuck was that a red for Vaughan??

I liked Akinibiyi. He worked incredibly hard, had good pace and he was able to use his strength to hold the ball up. Technically he wasn't the best and 2nd tier was his level but I enjoyed watching him play and you could tell opposing defenders did not enjoy facing him. That Lee side was yet another Wolves team that could have got promoted had central midfield been addressed.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

What a game that was! Hilarity. Also, how the fuck was that a red for Vaughan??

I liked Akinibiyi. He worked incredibly hard, had good pace and he was able to use his strength to hold the ball up. Technically he wasn't the best and 2nd tier was his level but I enjoyed watching him play and you could tell opposing defenders did not enjoy facing him. That Lee side was yet another Wolves team that could have got promoted had central midfield been addressed.

Poor old Tony Vaughan. Gets nutted and gets sent off for the privilege.

That wasn't a bad team which is why I thought it was very off of Spiers to call them "rag tag cloggers" last week, poor form. I think we only lost three games at home all season and two of them were when we were trying to put a team together in the early weeks.

I liked Ade. We overpaid but this is because a) Bristol City (along with the rest of the world) knew we were desperate for a striker and had cash on the hip and b) they had a big sell on clause with Gillingham.

We praised Jez yesterday for his sale of Olofinjana but he does also like to big up this one. In reality it wasn't that flash. Even at the highest estimate of £5.5m, we made less than £2m profit on him given that again, we had to pay some of it on to Bristol as a sell on. The model of selling one player a season and using that money to bring in several players isn't necessarily a bad one but you do need total faith in your management and recruitment teams, and while we got it almost all right post-Keane, we got it badly wrong post-Akinbiyi. You only need one bad go of it for it to become a real mess. I suppose you can't turn down that kind of money for a fairly limited player but it was no masterstroke.

We'd have made the playoffs if Kevin Lynch weren't an absurdly bent fat bastard.

He scored an absolute belter vs QPR down here but sadly I can't find it anywhere bar the full 1999/2000 review.

 

[Kenny]

Jez gets praise on that as SJH was ready to accept the 1st offer we received for Ade and Jez told him he would get over £5m for him. So the praise comes from his boss, as he didn't think he was worth £5m and would never get that amount. (source: SJH himself over a Pizza in Wolverhampton)

Over the years that story has just got diluted and add in what happened to Ade after leaving us the story changes a lot and you look back and think we got over £5m for a dud

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

(source: SJH himself over a Pizza in Wolverhampton)

Namedropper.

His first season for Leicester was respectable enough. 9 goals for a mid-table team. Nothing spectacular but ok.

Jez's best work that summer was telling Col that he couldn't sign David Burrows and Paul Williams, what a pair of shite signings they would have been.

Richards was still at the club at the time too, I remember him being sent out on WM to defend us signing Robert Taylor (he wasn't quite here but it was obvious we were a long way down the road towards sealing the deal). He tried but I don't think Perry Mason could defend that one.

 

[Templeton Peck]

Poor old Tony Vaughan. Gets nutted and gets sent off for the privilege.

That wasn't a bad team which is why I thought it was very off of Spiers to call them "rag tag cloggers" last week, poor form. I think we only lost three games at home all season and two of them were when we were trying to put a team together in the early weeks.
.

Especially coming from the bloke who was very sceptical of Fosuns intentions and spent much of his Twitter feed eulogising the likes of Doherty, Edwards, Price and Stearman.

 

[malta mick]

just seen some highlights on FB of the 1960 FA Cup win (the Dave Whelan 'You know i broke my leg' game). Never realised just how many chances we had and had 2 goals dubiously disallowed for offside.
strange to see most in the crowd wearing shirt and tie too.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Thought we'd get more chat on Ade, he was fairly divisive when he was here. Ah well.

11. Mark Kennedy

Mark John Kennedy (born 15 May 1976 in Clonsilla, Dublin) is an Irish retired footballer who is currently head coach at Macclesfield Town.

As a player, he was a left back and left winger from 1992 to 2012. He notably featured in the Premier League with Liverpool, Wimbledon, Manchester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers, as well as in the Football League for Millwall, Queens Park Rangers, Crystal Palace, Cardiff City and Ipswich Town. He was capped 34 times by Ireland, scoring four goals.

He won promotion to the Premier League with Manchester City in his first season, but the following year saw the club relegated and manager Joe Royle sacked. When Kevin Keegan took the reins, he sought to rebuild the squad and decided Kennedy was not part of his plans, selling him to fellow second flight club Wolverhampton Wanderers for £2 million.

He looked set for another promotion in his first season at Molineux, but a groin tear ruled him out of the run-in and the team dropped into the play-off zone in his absence, where they lost to Norwich. However, the following season saw them achieve the aim of promotion, with Kennedy scoring the opening goal in their 3–0 Division One Play-off final win over Sheffield United. The Midlands club were unable to remain in the top flight beyond a solitary season though, and soon found themselves with a new manager, with Glenn Hoddle replacing Dave Jones, in late 2004. Hoddle preferred to play Kennedy in a more restrained left midfield role, rather than his original position on the wing. With Hoddle departing in Summer 2006, so did Kennedy, after refusing the terms of a reduced contract, he moved to Selhurst Park on a free transfer to play under new manager Peter Taylor at Crystal Palace.

 

[Tony Towner]

Loved Kennedy pre Hoddle, once he arrived he became one of the most passive in the most passive of sides often indistinguishable from Anderton in the doesn't appear to give a toss stakes. Time means I can overlook that in favour of the stuff he did beforehand.

Until Neves he scored the best Wolves goal I think I ever saw live away at Stockport in the choke season.

If you are looking for suggestions Deutsch I'd put forward Dean Richards. His tragic death has seen a rewriting of history in my view. Very must a pre and post car crash career

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Yeah, we'll do Deano next (which means don't start talking about him now, you mothers). I think you and I are of a similar opinion on him.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I thought Kennedy got disproportionate stick at a time when nearly everyone was a bit shit (Miller would be an exception, even Lescott wasn't great in his final season). That weird left sided defensive midfield role was just odd.

As a wide player, I liked him a lot. More of your classic winger than a pace merchant. Superb delivery from open play although his corners were shit. One of DJ's better signings, cost a fair bit but he delivered and we got five years out of him. The thing is though - you can't buy players that have an obvious ceiling (he'd already had two goes at the PL and done nothing) then Oliver Twist your way to the board when you get promoted. Show a bit of vision, man.

Great goal at City but cancelled it out with the stupidest header in the history of football. It's on 93 minutes. It's a rubbish corner. It's right at you and you're not being challenged. Head it anywhere. Except straight to Shaun Wright-Phillips when he was good. Goal, 3-3.

A lot of fans will prefer Jarvis but I liked Kennedy more on balance. Everything has to be viewed through the prism of pre-Nuno of course.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I was a huge fan of Kennedy. His goals in the playoff final and in the FA Cup win over Newcastle were among my favourite ever Wolves goals until Neves showed up. Hoddle wasted him big time.