With Carson Yueng's purchase of Birmingham City ten Premier League chairman are now foreign and so could effectively close the premiership down by starting their own league elsewhere, or at least take premiership games abroad. If you don't think that will happen then think again. Last Sunday a regular season NFL football match took place between The New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers some 6000 miles away from their home grounds here in London. If you bear in mind the Bucks and Patriots fans get just 8 home games a year in the regular season then it's a big chunk out of their season ticket. But over in the US the league is a franchise and if the fans complain too much then the team moves cities with their new host more than willing to accommodate them with huge tax breaks and open arms. There have been 15 team relocations there in the last thirty years. That is what I fear will happen here one day soon, no reason at all why a premiership game cant be played in Thailand or Miami etc.
The reason why I'm on this tack in this review is Wolves were already doing this some 50 years ago; a very forward thinking team before and after the great wars. Not only where they one of the first teams to erect permanent floodlights but in the summer of 1967 they actually played a season in North America as part of a fledgling league called the United Soccer Association. This league imported twelve entire clubs from Europe and South America to play in American and Canadian cities, with each club bearing a local name. Wolverhampton Wanderers played as the "Los Angeles Wolves" and won the Western Division and then actually went on to earn the League Title by defeating the Eastern Division champions the 'Washington Whips' (Aberdeen of Scotland no less!) in the championship match. This FIFA-sanctioned league is now know as the North American Soccer League, home to Beck's and the Los Angeles Galaxy...a.k.a. the LA Wolves!
Wolves were also the founder members of the Football League and one of the main drivers for European Football in the late 1950s, second only to Manchester United to enter The European Cup back in 1959. Playing Prem games and seasons abroad seems unthinkable but who would have thought teams would be playing two European leagues today when the idea was proposed in 1953? A World League is seriously viable now. It will happen in some form.
But back to today and a year ago Spurs were bottom and then came Harry - a year later they are third top of the Premiership, the second best English manager the national team never had doing the business at a big club he has always wanted a crack at. Whether the tax man will ever catch up with Redknapp and end that dream is another story. It's the reverse for Wolves though under Mick McCarthy, he a very under-rated and much maligned boss, this time last year flying up the table and never looking back to seal the Championship from big rivals Birmingham City, and enjoying the fact that West Brom went the other way, but now Wolves themselves bobbing just above the Plimsoll line at the bottom of the Premiership table ready to rejoin them. Midlands's football is very yo-yo.
The Premiership is another world for his current squad, Mick having to quickly buy experience and quantity for this campaign. There's a great statistic that Jamie Carragher is the top scoring Englishman against Liverpool in the premiership with seven own goals, not only highlighting the fact he is passed it but just how many foreign players there are in the Premiership and why McCarthy had to buy players outside his comfort zone, youtube time! If you ever wanted to see just how wide open football is to alleged corruption because of that then that Kevin Keegan statement to court that he had to buy players he had never even heard of or seen play just to keep South American agents sweet for Dennis Wise then that was all you needed to know. There, of course, no truth in the rumour that Rafa Benitez is going to sign eleven beach balls to join Gerard and Torres in the January transfer window to strengthen the squad!
With Rangers and Celtic looking to breakaway from their league Wolves are the level of team that would probably sit 3rd and 4th in the EPL. And if two teams come this way then why not two that way, Newcastle finally having a chance to win a trophy. Wolves, alas, don't quite have enough class or passion these days to stay in the Premiership and any sorts of serious overspend on players and wages could see them fall two levels not one. They had a huge plunge in the 80s alongside Birmingham City. The glory post war years won't be returning. It's great to have a season of Prem footy for the fans to see all the stars but it just window shopping now for the Wolves, the big boys shutting out the medium sized clubs with medium sized ambitions. Wolves will soon be ushered and then shoved back into the Championship by the premierships Beefeater style footmen like those guys that used to stand outside of Harrods.
Now that the autumn is here and the leaves have turned and withered away for their suicidal plunge from the picturesque trees it was no surprise Wigan played Burnley off the pitch at Turf Moor and ended their unbeaten home league run of 14 games last week. That should see the rot set in at Burnley if they lose home games now and so bottom by the spring. Hull will obviously follow them down and so that leaves Wolves and the like in a desperate scrap for the final place to escape the gravitational pull of the championship, another team who will also suffer in the winter when their skill players are forced into their shells as team's block for away draws. Eubanks-Blake scored buckets of goals down the leagues but his goal in the Villa derby last weekend was his first in the premiership as November nears. He was and is their only chance of staying up and he has to make it happen. Michael Mancienne on loan from Chelsea has genuine class but if you look past that there are few clean sheets on offer.
-The Squad-
No. Position Player
1 GK Wayne Hennessey 3 DF George Elokobi 4 MF David Edwards 5 DF Richard Stearman 6 DF Jody Craddock (captain) 7 MF Michael Kightly 8 MF Karl Henry (vice captain) 9 FW Sylvan Ebanks-Blake 10 FW Andy Keogh 11 DF Stephen Ward 12 MF Andrew Surman 13 GK Marcus Hahnemann 14 MF David Jones 15 MF Greg Halford 16 DF Christophe Berra 17 MF Matthew Jarvis 19 FW Chris Iwelumo 20 MF Nenad Milijas 23 DF Ronald Zubar 26 DF Matt Hill 27 DF Michael Mancienne (on loan from Chelsea) 29 FW Kevin Doyle 30 GK Carl Ikeme 31 GK Matt Murray 32 DF Kevin Foley 33 FW Stefan Maierhofer 35 MF Segundo Castillo (on loan from Red Star Belgrade) 36 DF John Dunleavy 37 MF Kyle Bennett 39 FW Sam Winnall 41 FW Ashley Hemmings 42 DF Scott Malone 43 FW James Spray 44 MF Nathaniel Mendez-Laing
No. Position Player
18 FW Sam Vokes (on loan to Leeds United until 1 January 2010) 21 DF Daniel Jones (on loan to Notts County until January 2010) 22 DF Jason Shackell (on loan to Doncaster Rovers until 1 January 2010) 24 DF Mark Little (on loan to Chesterfield until 5 November 2010) 25 DF Neill Collins (on loan to Preston North End until 4 January 2010) 28 MF George Friend (on loan to Southend United until 24 November 2009) 34 DF Darren Ward (on loan to Millwall until 13 December 2009) 38 MF David Davis (on loan to Darlington until 22 November 2009) 40 DF Danny Batth (on loan to Colchester United for 2009-10 season)
= = = The Trophies = = =
Since the league's creation in 1888, Wolves sit in the all-time top four, behind only Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal in terms of all time league position. Add it all up and they are the eighth most successful club with 13 major trophy wins. Of their day they were the Chelsea.
Wolves are also the only club to have won titles in five different Football League divisions (and the one in America!), their Fourth Division title in 1988 making them the first team to have been champions of all four professional leagues in English football, latter equalled by Burnley in 1992 and Preston in 1996. They remain the only club to have won all top national cups of the FA Cup, Football League Cup, Charity Shield and the Football League Trophy. They were also the first team to score 7,000 league goals and trail only Manchester United in total league goals.
Reading up on them for this review has been quite interesting as they clearly are one of the foundations of the modern game, Moneliex, their old ground, one of the first all-seater grounds after the war. If I was a Wolves fan I would be very proud, which I'm sure you guys and girls are. I personally hope you stay up after writing this.
Highest Attendance: 61,315 -- Liverpool (FA Cup Fifth Round, 1939) Best league win: 10-1 -- Leicester City (Division 2, 1938) Worst league loss: 1-10 -- Newton Heath (Division 1, 1892) Best cup win: 14-0 -- Cresswell's Brewery (FA Cup Second Round, 1886) International appearances: 105 caps -- Billy Wright (England, 1946-59) League appearances: 501 -- Derek Parkin (1967-82) League goals: 250 -- Steve Bull (1986-99) League goals in a season: 38 -- Dennis Westcott (Division 1, 1946-47)
Advantages: Good chance for several players to prove themselves, not a lot to lose and some good players who could enjoy the Premiership Disadvantages: Have not got the squad to really compete, lacks real quality and has several weaknesses
exceptional by (12%):
very helpful by (88%):
