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

[White Wolf]

Two wins and one clean sheet. 2-1 win at Blackburn and 2-0 against Fulham. We were top of the league very briefly! That was truly a false dawn. O'Hara performing strongly in midfield and even Roger Johnson looked good. Really thought that we had moved on from relegation scraps and were going to be comfortably midtable that year.

 

[lemonjelly]

I didn't. Johnson looked a weak link in that fulham game at home I thought.
Never realised how far we'd fall mind....

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

43. Barry Douglas

Barry James Douglas (born 4 September 1989) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a left back for Championship club Leeds United and the Scotland national team.

After playing for Queen's Park and Dundee United in Scotland, he joined Polish club Lech Poznań in 2013, where he won the 2014–15 Ekstraklasa title. He signed for Konyaspor in Turkey in 2016, after which he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2017. Douglas enjoyed a successful season with Wolves, winning the 2017–18 EFL Championship and making his full international debut. He joined Leeds United in July 2018.

On 1 July 2017, he was signed by manager Nuno Espírito Santo for English Championship club Wolverhampton Wanderers for an undisclosed fee on a two-year deal with a year's option in the club's favour.He made his debut for the club on 5 August 2017 in a 1–0 win against Middlesbrough at Molineux. He scored his first goal a week later, in a 2–0 win away against Derby County. On 22 November 2017, Douglas scored a long range freekick in a 4–1 win against Leeds United. He was nominated for the EFL Championship Player of The Month award for November 2017.

Douglas picked up a winner's medal during the 2017–18 EFL Championship with Wolves winning the league, contributing five goals and 14 assists from the left back position. His tally of assists also saw him finish joint-top (with Robert Snodgrass) of the relevant charts in the EFL Championship.

On 28 July 2018, EFL Championship side Leeds United signed Douglas for an undisclosed fee on a 3 year contract.

 

[Deano]

Douglas was a very good signing at the price. He fit the system well and credit needs to go to whoever scouted him as he played for some pretty obscure teams.

His assists and his set pieces in particular were very important but I remember commenting to.my brother at games that his position would need looking at if we went up as players used to go past him far too easily. Never thought he'd be sold, thought we might have him around the squad but I always thought we'd be signing a new starter for that position.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

An example of how brutal football can be really.

He did superbly for us but we needed to move on quickly and we did. I don't miss him. But I will always love him for that season, what a left peg.

Best dressed Wolves player I've ever seen too, a dandy.

 

[YoungWolf]

Such quality set piece delivery - in particular will always love him for Bristol City away.

Definitely would have struggled defensively for the level we want to be at and in general play his attacking felt like it would decline quite quickly.

It was refreshing as well just to sign a proper left back for the first time in years :icon_lol:

 

[b3h]

I didn't get why we'd got rid tbh

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but obviously comparing him now to Jonny, we upgraded massively

Amazing left foot... 14 assists that's just class

 

[darlowolf64]

What a great player for us in the Championship! I was shocked when we got rid so soon after promotion but, as always, Nuno called it right.

Still, great memories of his time with us and some cracking free kicks and that assist for Bennett at Bristol one of the stand out memories of that season

 

[PuntsWolf]

Good signing and fit the system perfectly, lethal set piece delivery too. Poor defensively though. Slow and often got too tight to people and would be turned easily. Fortunately we had Willy Boly inside him so he was never an issue. He’d have got murdered in the PL and we can’t carry a player for set pieces at this level.

Certainly not a LB. The fact Leeds have played 2 wingers ahead of him there speaks volumes.

 

[Tredman]

Best left foot I’ve ever seen for Wolves. Including Cook in that too.

 

[Nando]

That free kick against Leeds was magnificent. What a hit.

I'll never tire of watching the ball to Benno either. Perfection. I think pretty much everyone behind the goal knew it was going in as soon as it left his boot.

 

[Parkins left foot]

We finally had a left back when Barry arrived - his goals & assists were a massive bonus as well.

He was what we needed at that time & will always thank him (& Benno) for the joy of the Bristol winner - even the walk back to Temple Meads (& almost getting lost) was an irrelevance.

It was a surprise when we let him go so quickly, but Jonny & Vinagre are an upgrade on him. A good solid pro

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

44. Mark Venus

Mark Venus (born 6 April 1967) is an English football coach and former player. He currently works as assistant head coach of Blackburn Rovers. As a player, he spent the majority of his career with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Ipswich Town. As a coach, he has served as an assistant manager to Tony Mowbray at Hibernian, West Bromwich Albion, Celtic and Middlesbrough.

His career started with his hometown team of Hartlepool United where he signed as a youngster in 1985. After a stay at Leicester City, he signed in 1987 for Wolverhampton Wanderers. Over nearly a decade at Molineux, Venus was an integral part of the club's resurrection after bankruptcy. Playing left back and, occasionally in his preferred position of central defence, Venus helped Wolves to Divisions Four and Three championships.

He joined Ipswich Town in 1997 after being exchanged for Steve Sedgley. With Ipswich Town he won the 1999–2000 First Division play-offs, and then finished 5th in the Premier League, qualifying for the UEFA Cup. Ipswich were relegated in 2001–02, but Venus picked up the club's Player of the Year award. He was given a free transfer by Ipswich Town manager Joe Royle at the end of 2002–03.

Whilst playing for Cambridge United in 2003–04, he fell out with the club and played the rest of that season on loan to Dagenham & Redbridge.

 

[Sniffer]

I liked Veno. Always gave his all and was competent wherever we played him. Didn't he get sent off in the Bristol game of which you posted the program in the new kit thread? Opening day of the season and I thought that we'd piss the league and we still would have if it wasn't for that pesky Howey.

I thought that Sedgley would be an upgrade but in reality we went sidewards or backwards whereas Veno went onto the Premier League.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

He did (ridiculous red card too). I never thought he was all that as a LB, excellent at CH though and did a decent job in midfield too.

The deal when we got rid of him was a scandal, no idea why we did that. Money AND him for Sedgley, say what bro? McGhee was always trying to get rid of him though for some reason, only played in 96/97 as everyone else was injured.

Cracking player. Was still good in the PL for Ipswich years after we let him go. Big time gambler but none of us are saints.

 

[Tredman]

He was ok, don’t think he was as good as some say. He gets mythologised a little bit as he is one of the very few players who left us, at the time, and ended up playing at a higher level. Plus he was injured for a long time so was built up a little in people’s minds at the tome.

A good LCB, definitely not an LB and probably not as suitable in a CD 2 either.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

Mark Venus, supported local ventures such as the bookmakers in Codsall along with the Bull public house. Also took a charitable day trip for the old bar flys out the pub to Cheltenham. Also supported the local football team by playing for them whilst coming back from injury a fair bit

He was OK as a player, never really did anything for me and always struck me a touch 'agricultural'

I seem to remember Turner towards the end talking about triangles and introducing a passing game. This flummoxed our back line who passed it around a bit amongst themselves until it reached Veno who just proceeded to boot it upfield.

I can only imagine that on an Ipswich forum the subject of him being voted player of the season is brought up with bemusement by certain fans.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

I liked Venus, a couple of memorable moments for me include his thunderbastard free kick against Coventry, and a particularly good performance away at Blues where he totally snuffed out Kevin Francis, who was shit, but a very awkward, unusual opponent. He dominated him in the air throughout.

He played Sweeper/central CB for Ipswich didn't he? And performed superbly for them - thus the POTY award. They finished 5th in the league with him a key part of their defence, so he WAS clearly a lot better than the performances suggested whilst at Wolves, we never were very good at getting the best out of our players.

It was clearly an obscene decision to pay money and sell Venus to get Sedgley, especially as Sedgley ended up spending a lot of time doing a worse job in defence for us than Venus would have!

 

[Tredman]

I don’t remember a big hoo-har (if that is how you spell it) about the deal at the time - I think most people thought it was an ok deal, particularly as it was supposed to sort out our powder puff midfield. Shame it all went to shit.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

I don’t remember a big hoo-har (if that is how you spell it) about the deal at the time - I think most people thought it was an ok deal, particularly as it was supposed to sort out our powder puff midfield. Shame it all went to shit.

Well yeah, that was before we saw Sedg play though, he was largely dreadful for us other than a weird spell when he was scoring Seyi 2 yard tap ins for a couple of months.