The Wolves Archive

[KiwiWolf61]

Today’s update:

2011/12 Season (17 matches)

Season Summary:
Premier League = 20th (Relegated to the Championship).
FA Cup = 3rd Round.
League Cup = 4th Round.
Top Goalscorer = Steven Fletcher (12).
Fans' Player Of The Season = Wayne Hennessey.
Players' Player Of The Season = Steven Fletcher.

After the tense and nail-biting end to the previous season, where Wolves had narrowly survived on the final day, ending one point above the relegation zone, Wolves embarked on their 3rd straight season in the Premier League with renewed optimism.

Two key new signings were made during the summer transfer window in Jamie O’Hara who had spent part of the previous season on loan at Wolves, was tied to a permanent deal, costing £5 million. In addition, defender Roger Johnson who had suffered relegation with Birmingham City was also bought for £5 million, and was duly made club captain.

The season started brightly with a fine 2-1 away win against Blackburn Rovers, followed by a home 2-0 win against Fulham. Their 3rd game was an early kick-off against local rivals Aston Villa in which Wolves secured a 0-0 draw. Therefore, for a period of around 3 hours, Wolves actually sat on top of the Premier League table.

However, it was a steady downhill from there as Wolves suffered 5 consecutive losses, tumbling the club down the table to be hovering just above the relegation spots.

Only 2 more wins for the balance of the year saw them enter the New Year in a precarious position, and when Wolves suffered a 2-3 home loss to Aston Villa in late January, they were finally in the relegation zone.

A crucial home game in mid-February saw it all explode as Wolves were ripped to shreds by their bitter local rivals West Bromwich Albion to the tune of 1-5. This proved to be McCarthy's final game in charge of Wolves. The morning after the match he was sacked after five-and-a-half years at the helm, the longest reign of any Wolves manager since Graham Turner in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

Then Wolves embarked on an inept search for a successor, playing out like a skit from Monty Python, where a number of candidates were interviewed (Alan Curbishley and Steve Bruce appeared to be the favoured candidates). However, neither were appointed and instead the task of managing the team was given to assistant manager Terry Connor for the remaining 13 games of the season.

This decision was derided for being in contrast to CEO Jez Moxey's earlier-stated belief that the job was "not for a novice”; with Connor having no previous management roles. Over the following weeks it emerged that Alan Curbishley was the only candidate who had also been offered the post but, after initially accepting it, had later had second thoughts and declined it - wisely I’d suggest.

The club was looking like a rabble and things soon fell apart under Connor's control with the team losing 7 consecutive matches, including a pair of 0–5 defeats against Fulham and Manchester United, that left them rooted at the bottom of the table. During this period captain Roger Johnson was fined by the club for arriving at training under the influence of alcohol.

Relegation was confirmed with the 0-2 home loss to eventual champions Manchester City with still 3 games to play.

Terry Connor had failed to win any of his thirteen games in charge and gained just four points from a potential 39; whilst Wolves final points tally of 25, was the 2nd the lowest ever recorded in any league campaign during the club's existence. Their poorest was 23 points way back in 1905/06 when Wolves were relegated from Division 1. But this season was worse as in 1905/06 it was 2 points for a win and Wolves won 8 games out of 38 compared to 5 (3 points for a win) out of 38 in 2011/12.

The scary thing was, that however bad season 2011/12 was, the next season would prove to be even worse.


I’ll be commenting more about this season inconjunction with 2012/13 when I release that season in 3 days time.

Also note the quantity of the match videos for this season is quite low simply because there is fuck all available to source.

 

[Sniffer]

IIRC Steve Bruce thought he'd been offered the job, only for Wolves to pull the plug after a fans backlash?

 

[KiwiWolf61]

IIRC Steve Bruce thought he'd been offered the job, only for Wolves to pull the plug after a fans backlash?

My recall was that Bruce was never actually offered the job but he may have thought he was going to get it. It was typical of the total clusterfuck of the time in trying to appoint to a new manager.

It was even more incompetent than anything Shi had done . . . but give him time.

 

[Tony Towner]

My recall was that Bruce was never actually offered the job but he may have thought he was going to get it. It was typical of the total clusterfuck of the time in trying to appoint to a new manager.

It was even more incompetent than anything Shi had done . . . but give him time.

Bruce was verbally told he'd got the job and the official written version would come in the morning, Moxey called him instead and told him they'd had a change of heart due to fan reaction.

Colin was the one who thought he'd got it but never had an offer so he took the Leeds job instead while we dithered.

 

[KiwiWolf61]

Today's update:

2012/13 Season (40 matches)

Season Summary: Championship = 23rd (Relegated to League 1).
FA Cup = 3rd Round.
League Cup = 3rd Round.
Top Goalscorer = Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (15).
Fans' Player Of The Season = Bakary Sako.

Just to cheer everyone up after the frustration and disappointment with the game against Man City, today's release is reliving Wolves worst season since the relegation to the old Division 4 way back in 1985/86.

Norwegian manager Ståle Solbakken was appointed to begin the season as the club's manager supposedly to bring in a new tactical approach and style.

In contrast to Mick McCarthy's preference for British and Irish players, the Solbakken used the foreign market for all of his summer signings, with Bakary Sako, Razak Boukari, Björn Sigurðarson and Georg Margreitter signing permanent deals as well as the loan captures of Tono Doumbia and Sławomir Peszko. Of these additions, only Bakery Sako was a success, continuing Wolves poor dealings in the transfer market for the last few years.

The transfer window also saw the sale of several key players with leading goalscorer Steven Fletcher exiting for a club record £14 million fee to Sunderland, and both Matt Jarvis (£11 million to West Ham United) and Michael Kightly (to Stoke City) also remaining in the Premier League.

Initially the omens were looking good for Wolves under Solbakken; sitting in 5th place after 12 games but a bad run in November saw they lose 5 out of 6 games, and despite a recovery of 3 wins in December saw them finish the year with a further 3 losses starting the New Year in 18th place, 6 points clear of the relegation zone and 9 points from the place-off places. It was increasingly apparent that the players were simply not responding to Solbakken’s style and tactics (which were at times were frankly baffling).

Again, like the previous season, an explosive catalyst was reached with the shock 1-0 defeat to non-league Luton Town in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. This was Wolves first exit from the FA Cup to a non-league side since 1986 (the infamous defeat to Chorley). But for me this was far worse in that Luton were playing 4 levels below Wolves, whereas in 1986 Chorley were 2 levels below Wolves.

Solbakken was duly sacked, and unlike the previous season, where Wolves procrastinated in appointing a successor to Mick McCarthy, he was swiftly replaced by former Doncaster Rovers manager Dean Saunders who oversaw the remaining 20 games.

Now Saunders duly declared he was aiming for the play-offs and then spent the next 9 games failing to get a win as Wolves now plummeted into the relegation drop-zone.

A mini turnaround occurred with Saunders first win at Millwall in early March where Wolves would go onto win 4 out of 5 games and by early April were sitting in 18th spot. However, end-of-season injuries to strikers Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Bakary Sako would make the run home very challenging.

In an alternate universe, both SEB and Sako don't get injured and manage to help Wolves achieve survival seeing Saunders not sacked and retained for the following season - sorry Dan !

Unfortunately the last 6 games, saw Wolves lose 5 times, as they slumped to a catastrophic loss at home to Burnley in the penultimate match which effectively consigned the club to their fate which was duly confirmed with the final season match loss at Brighton & Hove Albion.

It was a truly dreadful campaign for Wolves as they were relegated for a second consecutive season as they dropped into the third level for the first time since 1988/89. This made them the only club to twice experience back-to-back relegations from the top flight, having already suffered this previously in the mid-1980s. Three days after their relegation was confirmed, Saunders was fired having held the post for only four months.

The club was in a total mess having sacked 4 managers in 15 months, The dressing room had a toxic atmosphere with cliques, although Bakary Sako was outstanding during the season and was one of the very few players who could hold their head high.

For nearly 2 years, Wolves fans had witnessed an appalling case of utter incompetence and mismanagement from the board, managers and the players. This was an even worse double relegation than that of the mid-1980s (which was a triple relegation) in that the 1980s was mostly driven by the club being effectively financial broke (care of the Bhattis') and a reliance on players who simply weren’t good enough as they were all Wolves could afford. Albeit the appointment of Tommy Docherty would rival Dean Saunders in terms of a manager who was bereft of any decent football acumen whilst believing they were legends in their own minds.

Wolves now needed to look to find a way back at the first time of asking with another new management structure and with a playing list that was mostly broken and dysfunctional. This was going to a very difficult task with many Wolves fans fearing the club would not be able to meet given the humiliating events of the last 2 years.


Well season 2012/13 propels the channel in hosting over 1,400 Wolves matches - with still another 580 scheduled to be released in the next couple of months.

 

[White Wolf]

Worst season since I started following Wolves and the most humiliating. Just so many things went wrong. Signings like Boukari and Margreitter disappeared off the face of the earth, Doumbia started excellently and then declined sharply. I thought Peszko was decent although Saunders in his infinite judgement disagreed. All of those loans under Saunders too... with them alongside O'Hara and Johnson you can fit about half of our worst ever signings in a team and have the manager to boot.

When we beat Blackburn away I actually thought it was going to be an OK year in the Championship. We were in transition and Solbakken made some odd tactical choices (the high line) but we were solid at home and used to play really well in the first-half and then drop off. Players getting too arrogant as well before it all collapsed. Too many things went wrong with Saunders to say it all. Once we lost against Barnsley I knew we were going down.

The toxicity then is pretty hard to believe if you see our fans now, I remember when we lost to Ipswich with Mick coming back and humbling us and the atmosphere was unbelievably negative. Home losses to Huddersfield and Burnley were horrific.

Would we have kept Saunders if we had stayed up? Scary thought. If the answer is yes, then going down and the regeneration in L1 was the better option. It was quite a high points total to go down anyway, IIRC Peterborough's 54 points was the highest total to ever go down? Not sure if it's still standing.

 

[Kenny]

Would we have kept Saunders if we had stayed up?

100% he would have started the next season as our boss.

Johnson and Gorkss would have been our CB pairing.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Listening to that fucking idiot wibble on every single fucking day was soul destroying. He lost me after a couple of days on that front when he started going on about the Army like a shit Gareth Keenan, then one game vs Blackburn at home confirmed that his football was similarly awful.

I'm annoyed at the club right now for various reasons but nothing compares to that four months of drivel.

 

[KiwiWolf61]

Listening to that fucking idiot wibble on every single fucking day was soul destroying. He lost me after a couple of days on that front when he started going on about the Army like a shit Gareth Keenan, then one game vs Blackburn at home confirmed that his football was similarly awful.

I'm annoyed at the club right now for various reasons but nothing compares to that four months of drivel

Like your good self, at present, I'm angry with the club and I detest Shi with a passion; but I still recall my over-riding emotion at the end of the 2012/13 season was one of humiliation - with just about everyone connected with the club.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Him crowing about 0-0s at Sheff Wed and Derby where we were awful and barely had a shot. They were below us in the league. Unreal.

 

[KiwiWolf61]

I suppose I was fortunate in that in NZ we didn't get to hear or see too much of Saunders, but just reading about it is enough to simply

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

If it were another club, you'd be grimly fascinated in it as a piece of performance art. A bit like Nathan Jones at Southampton, but with an even thinner record of achievement.

There are so many of his statements that were bewildering then and haven't improved with age.

“I have got self belief,” said the former Villa and Liverpool striker. “If you said to me ‘Do you want to open the batting for England. They are playing down the road’, I’d say ‘Go on then, give me a bat’.

“Then I’d get to the bottom step and see the fast bowler marking his run-up and realise I can’t do that. But my first reaction is ‘I will give it a go’.

“You have to have a bit of that without going over the top.

“Some players go over the top. And you are deluded then. You are like the people on X Factor who think they can sing.

“Someone has told those people ‘You are really good, go on’ and they sing in the mirror and think ‘Yeah, I am good’. “That’s deluded. That’s not just: ‘I’ll have a go’.

“It’s about having the brains to know. that’s why I didn’t walk the last step (on the cricket pavilion). I am not deluded, I can do it.”

The nerve of Steve Morgan to describe him as "one of the best young managers out there" as well.

1) When he took the Wolves job, he was older than Mick McCarthy was when he took the Wolves job.

2) He had won ABSOLUTELY FUCK ALL. No promotions, no trophies. He did have a relegation though.

 

[KiwiWolf61]

Wasn't Saunders Steve Morgan's golfing buddy ?

 

[Kenny]

Wasn't Saunders Steve Morgan's golfing buddy ?

His golfing buddies persuaded him to give Saunders the job

 

[KiwiWolf61]

His golfing buddies persuaded him to give Saunders the job

JESUS H CHRIST !

Were they Baggie supporters ?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Definitely sleeper agents

 

[Kenny]

JESUS H CHRIST !

Were they Baggie supporters ?

Liverpool buddies.

Clearly hated us for some reason.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Us losing at home to Blues next season is going to hurt.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

If it were another club, you'd be grimly fascinated in it as a piece of performance art. A bit like Nathan Jones at Southampton, but with an even thinner record of achievement.

There are so many of his statements that were bewildering then and haven't improved with age.

“I have got self belief,” said the former Villa and Liverpool striker. “If you said to me ‘Do you want to open the batting for England. They are playing down the road’, I’d say ‘Go on then, give me a bat’.

“Then I’d get to the bottom step and see the fast bowler marking his run-up and realise I can’t do that. But my first reaction is ‘I will give it a go’.

“You have to have a bit of that without going over the top.

“Some players go over the top. And you are deluded then. You are like the people on X Factor who think they can sing.

“Someone has told those people ‘You are really good, go on’ and they sing in the mirror and think ‘Yeah, I am good’. “That’s deluded. That’s not just: ‘I’ll have a go’.

“It’s about having the brains to know. that’s why I didn’t walk the last step (on the cricket pavilion). I am not deluded, I can do it.”

The nerve of Steve Morgan to describe him as "one of the best young managers out there" as well.

1) When he took the Wolves job, he was older than Mick McCarthy was when he took the Wolves job.

2) He had won ABSOLUTELY FUCK ALL. No promotions, no trophies. He did have a relegation though.

Did he say that formations don't matter?

 

[Sniffer]

IIRC there was the masterclass at Barnsley (?) where we were one up and had also hit the woodwork and then he changed the formation to fool the opposition only for them to dominate from then onwards.