I posted about this on Facebook a couple of days ago, but I’m going to expand on it here. Wolves owner, Steve Morgan, has a massive decision to make in the next few days. Massive.
Does he hold his nerve and trust in his initial judgement regarding Stale Solbakken’s appointment as manager, or does he bite the bullet & pull the trigger on his time at the club so he can get someone in before the transfer window closes in four weeks’ time?
And make no mistake, they are his two options. Doing what he did last year and waiting until after the window closes before giving his manager the boot—thereby making it exceedingly difficult to get anyone new in and turning our club into a joke for six months—is not an option. Or at least, it shouldn’t be. They say that learning from your mistakes is a mark of intelligence and without doubt, last year’s debacle is one mistake that Morgan needs to learn from.
If Steve decides that he was right last summer, then he needs to back Solbakken with funds to buy new players because the players we have are either not good enough to adapt to the style of play Stale wants from them, or they are still “Mick’s Men” and just too stubborn to play for Stale. Personally, I think it’s a mix of the two, but what do I know?
However, if Steve decides that Solbakken has to go, he needs to do it now (or, more likely, right after we lose to Luton at the weekend) and get in someone who can work with the players we have, to motivate them the way Mick did and really get the best out of them.
Because let’s face it, there is something wrong at our club. This squad of players should be better than 18th in the Championship. They should be better than six points above a relegation place, nine points below the play-offs and God knows how many off the top spot. (Okay, maybe that’s not fair—Cardiff are running away with this division to some extent and it’ll be a massive surprise if they don’t go up as champions. Imagine that—two Welsh sides in the Premiership!)
Of course, this damn division is part of the problem, with its wildly unpredictable, anyone-can-and-will-beat-anyone nature. For God’s sake, we’re 18th but only nine points of the play-offs. NINE POINTS! That’s nothing That’s a gap that can be closed in a month with a decent run. Hell, string five or six wins together and you’re right back in the mix.
But here’s the problem—with the way things are going, I can’t see where the next win is coming from, let alone stinging together a half-decent run. Just look at our next few fixtures. Our next Championship game is a Friday-night home game against Blackburn. By that time, Blackburn will probably have a new manager in place and the players will, you’d imagine, be doing their best to impress him. Add to that the atmosphere of fear of failure at Molineux at the moment and it’s a recipe for disaster. Away to Sheffield Wednesday? They’re right down there fighting for their lives—that’ll be a toughie, just look at how we performed against Peterborough for evidence of that. Then home to Blackpool, away to Leicester… It goes on and on.
Is that typical Black Country pessimism? Probably. But I’ll bet I’m not far off what a lot of Wolves fans are thinking.
So, what should Steve Morgan do? Well, firstly, I don’t presume to even try and tell him what he should do. As Jez Moxey once said, “It’s Steve’s club, he can do what he likes.”
But I can offer my opinion.
And my opinion is that Stale isn’t up to the job. Or rather, Stale doesn’t suit our club. I don’t like saying it. I don’t like calling for a manager to lose his job, but something clearly isn’t working and since we can’t change the whole squad of players in a month, we need to find a manager who can work with what he’s got.
I said this time last year that I’d like to see Milton Keynes’ Karl Robinson given a chance. MK play lovely football and while they keep falling just short in their quest for Championship football, that doesn’t mean Karl won’t find real success at the right club—and I think Wolves could be the right club. Either that, or Sean O’Driscoll is available—who seems to be another talented manager looking for the right club to let him show what he can really do (plus, isn’t he supposedly a Wolves fan to boot?)
Either way, I’d like to see us get a manager in who will give this crop of talented kids coming through the academy a shot at first-team football. What’s the point of having a top-rated academy if what it produces is sold off before being given a chance to shine? Sheffield Wednesday fans think Danny Batth is the best defender they’ve seen in years. Jake Cassidy tore up League One with Tranmere, Hibs are desperate for Leigh Griffiths to stay and keep banging in goals. And that’s not to mention the supposedly so-talented-he’ll-be-the-first-£100m-player that is Zele Ismail.
I’m not going to join the increasing number of people that are calling for Morgan and Moxey to leave. I think the club is in sound hands and is well run. When the football-finance bubble bursts (and it will burst) and the foreign owners get bored and start looking for new playthings, Wolves will be a stable club, standing tall while those around it fall.
But in the meantime, I think it would be nice to watch Sky Soccer Saturday and not get utterly depressed every time Jeff says, “To Molineux next…”
Related articles
- Stale Solbakken under pressure at Wolves (dailymail.co.uk)
- Sean O’Driscoll set for Wolves job (dailymail.co.uk)
- Where did it all go wrong for Wolves? (footballfriendsonline.com)
- Wolves boss Solbakken confident of avoiding sack (tribalfootball.com)
- Batth shrugs off loan talk (skysports.com)
