Wolves Fancast pundit and blogger Ben Husband looks at the media coverage of Wolves and the press’ perspective on Wolves, Fosun’s billions and Jorge Mendes.
‘No one likes us, we don’t care.’
Usually an anthem belted out by another Championship side, but as Fosun’s revolution continues to gain pace, it may be a rhetoric uttered in WV1 before long.
As Wolves got off to the most positive of starts, with a 1-0 win over bookies’ favourites Middlesbrough, there was a palpable sense of optimism inside Molineux. As well as a sense of relief, the vultures are circling, should we fail, there will be a lot of people rubbing their hands in glee.
So is there a genuine feeling of negativity towards Nuno Santo’s men or is it some fans being overly precious of their team?
Undoubtedly, the method that Wolves have followed since Fosun came to town has not been a traditional one. From the very outset, they dispensed with Kenny Jackett, a popular man with local and national press alike.
This instantly soured a lot of public opinion on the new regime. Particularly after the hiring, and subsequent firing of Walter Zenga, a man with no experience of English football and more clubs than (insert golfer here).
Alas, that didn’t work and Wolves went British with Paul Lambert, another ‘proper football man’ who will always give a quote and garners a great deal of respect from many within football. However, when he had little to no influence on Wolves’ fortunes, his services were also dispensed with. In contrast to Zenga’s dismissal, this was met with utter contempt and disbelief.
Nuno Espírito Santo (not di Santo, as I’ve read elsewhere, a little research can go a long way!) did little to dissuade those naysayers that Wolves have become little more than a vessel for Jorge Mendes, the apparent antichrist of British football, to flog his commodities and make a tidy profit. This totally ignored the fact that Nuno, had allegedly joined Wolves over a number of more high profile jobs in the Premier and Champions League.
‘Who is Ruben Neves? Who is Diogo Jota? Willy Boly, never heard of him? Roderick Miranda, I bet he hates rain.’
While Wolves have continued to build a youthful side with Champions League experience, the detractors have been in fine voice. This is not how you should go about attaining Championship promotion, the self-professed hardest league the Galaxy has ever seen.
As recently as last week, on 5Live’s excellent football phone in, Messrs Powell and Clemmit were chiming out the same criticisms that have become a daily occurrence for most Wolves fans with any access to social media.
‘BUT WHAT ABOUT FFP? YES THEY MAY HAVE BEEN IN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE LAST YEAR BUT HOW WILL THEY FARE AGAINST MUCH WORSE PLAYERS WHEN THE WEATHER IS COLD.’
The FFP argument as brilliantly highlighted by Dan https://wolvesfancast.com/ffp-mean-wolves/ is a fundamentally flawed one, particularly when our opponents from this weekend Middlesbrough have spent in the region of £30m on reinforcements. Wolves are certainly not the outliers in a low spending division.
Following Wolves’, impressive opening day win, many were still quick to highlight that Middlesbrough would need time for their new signings to gel. That is Middlesbrough with 6 debutants vs Wolves with 7. Again, why let logic get in the way of a good narrative?
Fans of other clubs may argue, that every club has their fair share of negative criticism, but this has seemed a sustained attack on the club. Whether it is a combination of foreign owners, managers and players, supposedly doing away with the traditions of English football. Or even a throwback to the 1930’s and the hatred that was generated through Major Buckley’s supposed doping https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/ranked-30-most-hated-ever-teams-british-football-10-1 . There seems a reluctance to accept that Wolves have done anything right since the summer of 2016.
Fortunately, Wolves got off to the best possible start, but don’t expect any adoring fans from outside the club. They are waiting for us to fall, the only hope for Nuno, Fosun and the fans are that it won’t happen for the next 9 months.
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