Believe!

We beat Tottenham at White Hart Lane on Saturday so we can beat Man United in the Theatre of Dreams tonight. That will be what Mick should be telling the lads tonight in the team-talk.

The loss to an under strength United side in the League Cup earlier in the season should be a valuable lesson. Just to remind you all, we were on the front foot and then United went down to ten men after 40 minutes. Ironically this shook us and we didn’t know what to do. We didn’t how to go and win the game and even a second string United side sensed this and killed off the tie.

The same thing happened when we lost 1-0 at Old Trafford in our last venture into The Premiership. If it wasn’t for a hatful of wasted chances from Henri Camara then the mighty Wolves would have come away with a famous victory. But we lost heart after these missed chances and we looked scared. This can’t happen tonight, we can’t be in awe of a United side which is a shadow of its former self. Mick needs to tell the players that United are there to be beaten and I’m sure he will do just that.

Villa exploited United’s injury hit defence on Saturday in particular, Darren Fletcher at right back. Matt Jarvis has been a revelation this season and I think if Fletcher plays tonight then the Scot will in for a long night.

Fletcher doesn’t look comfortable at right back at all so I think ‘Jarvo’ will exploit this and we will see an awful lot of crosses in from the left and I also believe the ex-Gillingham winger will have the chance to cut in a lot so I wouldn’t bet against him getting a goal tonight.

Vidic and Evra look also look uncomfortable at the back which will provide a lot of encouragement to Ebanks-Blake and Doyle. The little Irish lad’s confidence will be sky high after his goal against Spurs and I believe he is starting to form a good relationship with Sylvan. The two look to have a good understanding now and they are both playing with a smile on their faces.

The two goal scorers will know Vidic and Evra are vulnerable in the centre and this will give the chance for Doyle to get in behind them. I’ve been mightily impressed with Doyle’s work rate this season and I think this will be evident tonight. This is good news for Sylvan because Doyle could well serve up a few chances tonight for him and this could make Sylvan a hero if he does bag a couple and secure three points.

There is also the prospect of Iwelumo or Mairehoffer coming on later in the game. This could cause a whole load of different problems for Vidic and Evra. The strength of the two will cause great problems to a tired United defence and with a little bit of support we could have a few chances from there flick on’s as the game opens up.

Let’s not forget Milijas either. The Serbian magician is on fire at the moment and he is clearly enjoying his role as our playmaker. He loves being centre of attention and this quality is certainly needed at Old Trafford. We can’t afford players to go missing against a team like United. His left foot deliveries could well cause a shaky United defence all sort of problems.

We can beat Manchester United tonight in their own back yard and we shouldn’t go out and respect a once great side. We should go out and attack and make them fear us. The word tonight is believe not fear.

2-0 to the lads tonight.

Up the Wolves!

We're on the up!

Wolves' first win at White Hart lane since 1973 this afternoon made it two wins in two and ultimately six points in six.

We're now out of the relegation zone and this is down to two reasons. Nenad Milijas and our superb defence.

I will come back to the defence later but first of all Milijas. We have been lacking an awful lot of quality in the midfield and I have been quite vocal in my thoughts on our midfield needing to be grabbed by the scruff of the neck. Milijas set up both goals at Stoke in October and Mick McCarthy has eventually realised that he needs to be starting if we are getting to get anything out of the games.

A superb 30-yard strike and a clever free-kick setting up Jody Craddock gave us the three points against Bolton last week. This afternoon the Serbian midfield genius swung in a delightful free-kick from the left for Kevin Doyle to get the deftest of flicks on to score. The delivery was magical and beat the Tottenham defence all ends up. This man has got quality and I think Mick has finally realised that Milijas is the one winning us points and showing his commitment to the relegation cause.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that we could have been dead buried by now. As well as the major role the Serb has had to play in the last two wins, he also played his part in the draw at Stoke plus the goal he set up for Keogh in our first win of the season. This amounts to ten points and how we needed them or we could be sitting on an embarrassing six points now.

I now want to focus on the defence in our last wins and the introduction of Marcus Hahnemann. Mick and Jez Moxey made it quite clear in the summer that they wanted experienced Premiership players and in Hahnemann they got that. The 37-year-old 'Keeper has brought the experience we need to the back line.

Wayne Hennessey has been excellent so far this season but he doesn't have the experience or confidence to 'bully' and organise the defence meaning Berra and Craddock have looked shaky of late. Mick saw he needed Hahnemann in their to sort out a leaky defence.

This was brilliantly highlighted today. A third minute goal by Doyle meant 87 minutes of defending. This was daunting to say the least with a goal difference of -14. We defended superbly. Hahnemann made a couple of great saves but more importantly he organised the defence. Every man knew what he was doing and that meant Spurs hardly had a chance on goal. I'm sure Berra and Craddock will feel a lot more confident with a Keeper who had been there and done it and in turn they will respond better to taking instructions of Hennessey than a relatively inexperienced 22-year-old.

A solied and experienced keeper has tightened up the defence and this has been a major factor in us recording back-to-back victories and a vital six points.

An away win against a free scoring Spurs seemed very unlikely but this has hopefully given us the confidence to get something at Man United on Tuesday night which now doesn't seem quite as unlikely.

Up the Wolves!

Oleg Luzhny

In the second of my 'where are they now' stories, I'm going to look at one of our expensive flops last time we ventured into the Premiership.

Oleg luzhny was without a doubt, a failure at Molineux, he only made six league starts plus four in the cup. We needed someone with Premiership experience who we could rely on to step up and take control of the team. I expected a lot more from a player who made 75 appearances for Arsneal and was highly thought of by Arsene Wenger.



It might not be something as Wolves fans you really think about but what did Luzhny get up to after his time at Wolves?

In truth he didn't do an awful lot at first.

I couldn't imagine anyone would really want to move to somewhere like Latvia but Luzhny didn't really have a choice. The Ukrainian was getting on a bit and with his reputation in tatters, the little know FK Venta signed him as player-coach in 2005. Venta unfortunaly ran into financial difficulties so Luzhny was released in June 2006.

Luzhny, who is a big celebrity in his native Ukraine, went back to his former club, Dynamo Kiev. The 41-year-old was named caretaker manager in November 2007 and to be fair to the Ukrainian, he held the fought quite well. Despite defeats to Man United, Sporting Lisbon and Roma in the Champions League, Kiev won all three of their league matches including an impressive win over rivals, Shaktar Donetsk.


Luzhny didn't impress enough to be handed the job permanently but he was named assistant coach.

Luzhny might be making a name for himself in the coaching game but I don't know how he was named the fourth best Ukranian player of the 20th century after an abysmal spell playing in the Old Gold and Black and not doing much for Arsenal.

He might be well thought of in Ukraine but he certainly isn't in Wolverhampton.

No show against The Blues

I travelled down to Molineux this morning not expecting much from the game after are recent poor run of form and the comments Mick made earlier in the week. I was right to take this attitude after seeing our boys go down 1-0 to The Blues after a terrible performance.

We were dreadful and I expected a performance filled with passion and pride but we got nothing of the sort. The boys just didn’t look up for it with the exception of Kevin Doyle, Matt Jarvis and Michael Kightly before he came off injured. The most frustrating thing was not being able to see any urgency from Wolves. We lost with our tail between our legs and if there are more performances like this then we will be relegated in this manner.



I don’t think there was any real urgency or passion from Wolves because the players have no confidence. I mentioned in my previous blog that I was dismayed at Mick saying we can go down. I think the players took this to heart and lost the confidence to go out and play their stuff. This was evident today and it looks like Mick has lost the dressing room after his downbeat comments.

Mick’s negativity shone through today after naming a conservative line-up. If we want to have any chance of winning our home games then we have to pick our best possible team and go for it. I have said this before and will say this again. Castillo and Milijas are international class who know each other’s game inside out. This would be a better partnership in the middle than Henry and Edwards who are no better than good Championship players. Kightly also has to be starting even if he isn’t 100% fit. Halford simply isn’t good enough and is only in the side because of his long throw. Most managers in their right mind would see Halford’s track record and not sign him.



I’m not sure if Halford was injured in the first half but bringing Kighlty on after 30 minutes was the right decision. However, Ward for Mancienne at half time baffled me and many other fans sitting with me. Mick had two changes left and these had to be attacking ones if we were going to salvage anything. A left back for a left back was a panic decision. Mick didn’t know what to do.
Milijas and Maierhofer for Henry and an out of form Ebanks-Blake would have been the most logical decision. Milijas looked lively in the middle when he did eventually come on and ‘The Hoff’ was needed for all the balls we were lumping up field.

This brings me on to the Ebanks-Blake conundrum. Wanderers’ number nine hasn’t had the service he might have liked but the 23-year-old looks short of confidence due to a goal drought. He simply doesn’t look up to the pace of The Premiership. Doyle has had the same poor service but his willingness to run into the channels has meant he has created things for himself and looked impressive. The little Irish lad has got pace and an awesome work rate. The same can’t be said about Ebanks-Blake.

I suggest that Maierhofer should be given a go from the start with Doyle. This could be a great partnership which has so far been untested. Little and large worked for us last season with Ebanks-Blake and Iwelumo. Mick should put Ebanks in the reserves so he can have a run of games, score a few goals and get his confidence back while having a good look at Maierhofer and Doyle together.

All of this aside, Wolves were awful against The Blues today. The early goal scored by Brum and then their contempt to play the ball around without really threatening echoed the performance by Pompey last month. When we go on the back foot we just lose all our confidence and produce a poor display for the rest of the game.

The performance was not acceptable today. Mick has to go into training on Monday with a far more positive attitude if we have are going to have any chance against a poor Bolton side on Saturday.



It is time for Mick and the players to turn things around otherwise we are going to plunge further into the relegation mire.

Where are they now?

I was playing Fifa 10 with my housemates the other night when one of the worst players in our history reared his ugly head. Tomasz Frankowski.



Yes that is right. The 35-year old who was signed by Glenn Hoddle is now plying his trade with his hometown club, Jagiellonia Bialystok. The pole started his career there in 1991.
Hoddle was lured into buying Frankowski in January 2006 after hearing about his impressive record of 115 goals in 173 goals for Wisla Krakow. £1.4 million seemed a lot of money for a player who has only played in the lower leagues of Polish, French, Spanish and Japanese football but Hoddle thought otherwise.

Spanish second division side, Elche CF would have been laughing their heads off after bagging a cool £1.4 million for a striker whose scoreless streak at Molinuex earned him the nickname of “the Pole with no goal”. It wasn’t so much the lack of goals but more the fact that he looked woefully out of his depth in The Championship. It was no surprise that Hoddle left by 'Mutual consent' just five months after the capture of Frankowski.

There was a lot expected of Frankowski due to his impressive exploits with the Polish national side. He scored seven goals in their qualifying campaign for the 2006 World Cup making him the top goal scorer in their side. The former Wisla striker was omitted from Poland’s World Cup squad after his shocking performances for Wolves.

So what has the infamous strike got up to since his time at Wolves? The answer is not an awful lot.

Mick McCarthy was appointed in the summer of 2006 and immediately sent him out on loan to another Spanish second division side, CD Tenerife. The pole scored on his home debut but could only manage a total of three goals in nineteen games for the Spanish side. Tenerife didn’t sign the striker permanently which came as no real surprise to anyone connected with Wolves.
McCarthy told Frankowski to earn his transfer to another club but a knee injury in pre-season lead to the mutual consent of the Pole’s departure in August 2007.

MLS outfit, Chicago Fire were the next team to take a gamble on Frankowski. He scored two goals in 17 games but the two goals came in his first game before falling out with his manager, Denis Hamlett. The Pole didn’t like his coaching style so Hamlett left Frankowski out of his squads as the season wore on.

Frankowski left Chicago last November and joined his hometown club, Jagiellonia Bialystok a month later where he signed a two-year contract. “The Pole with no goal” has managed to bag six goals in 13 appearances so far for his local team.

The Pole earned another two caps for his country after leaving Wolves ending with 10 goals in 22 appearances inculding a goal against Engalnd at Old Trafford in 2005.

Someone who promised so much delivered so little. This can also sum up Hoddle’s rein at Wolves quite well.

Pessimistic Mick

'We are in a relegation fight and we could go down'. This is the grim view of 'Super' Mick but this isn't the sort of talk you hear from a 'super' manager.

McCarthy made these comments on Monday after we were licking our wounds from a 4-0 defeat against Chelsea. We were never really expecting anything out of the game so a hammering by a superb Chelsea side was hardly a surprise.

The way we rolled over and let Chelsea tickle our tummies was the real worry and Mick's comments did nothing to assure us fans. It was a miserable display from the Molineux boys. The attitude was poor and I suspect this came from McCarthy. The former Republic of Ireland boss claimed that we could cause an upset but he came across as not being too confident. However unlikely a victory may be, it's the manager's job to be confident so the players can feed off that. There was nothing like this at top of the table Chelsea.

We looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

We go into Sunday's derby against The Blues with zero confidence. A good solid performance against Chelsea would have done us the world of good but now we go into the game worried by the fact that we haven't won since beating Fulham 2-1 in late September. This was nine games ago.



Birmingham on the other hand are unbeaten in their last four games. Wins over Fulham and Sunderland together with draws against 'Heavyweights' Liverpool and Manchester City makes for impressive reading.

The Blues confidence is sky high as they look to push on into the top half of the table while we are second bottom thanks to hopeless Pompey below us.

We know we're in a relegation battle and I have no problem with McCarthy coming out and saying that but I don't like him saying 'We could go down'. There is a difference between acknowledging the fact we are in a relegation dogfight and admitting we could go down. I don't want to hear this and I'm the sure the players don't want to hear this.

The way we have played in recent weeks suggests to me that the players don't have the confidence to go out and 'bully' teams or at least have the confidence to attack when we should.

Brum at home was a game I was expecting us to pick up three points but after are poor run of results and the obvious lack of confidence among the players and in particular McCarthy, it will be an uphill struggle.

If McCarthy is at fault, should Steve Morgan bite the bullet and hand Mick his P45?

No Frank for Chelsea!

News of Frank Lampard’s injury will be music to the ears of us Wolves fans.

The England international who is arguably Chelsea’s best player will be out of action for eight weeks and this starts with the game against us at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

It is still unlikely that we will come away from West London with a positive result but the absence of Lampard might just give the boys a bit of inspiration. The 31-year-old is rarely injured but when he is, Chelsea lack a certain something going forward. I would assume that Deco would play in Lampard’s position but to be quite frank (excuse the pun) he hasn’t shown the class of Lampard during his time in London.

The Romford born midfielder holds some frightening records. He has scored 136 goals, the most in club history for a midfielder, plus he is the highest goal-scoring midfielder in Premiership history with 111 goals. No matter how good Chelsea are, a player with those sorts of statistics is going to be missed. Chelsea owe a huge debt to Lampard for where they are now. Lampard also has 71 assists to his name making him second in the all time Premiership assists table. These are magnificent stats and I’m glad we don’t have to contend with these on Saturday.

John Terry and Lampard form the spine of Chelsea Football club and when either of them is injured, Chelsea suffers. Didier Drogba and Lampard share a strong bond and this is shown on the pitch. The Ivorian and Englishman have a great understanding and Drogba relies on Lampard for the quality service he is needs. Lampard also relies on Drogba. The Essex lad scores a lot of goals from Drogba’s rebounds and passes.

I think Drogba and Nicolas Anelka might struggle a little without Lampard tucked in behind them.

I still think we will head back up the M1 with nothing to show from our trip to London but I think it we will only lose by the odd goal. Lampard has the quality to finish teams off four, five nil as we saw against Bolton a couple of weeks back but without him there isn’t the same quality to fear. I believe Chelsea will still have enough quality to get a couple of goals but nothing more than that.

It’s going to be tough down at Stamford Bridge but the absence of Lampard might just give us an outside chance of a point or maybe even three.

We really would be in dreamland if that was to happen come 5pm on Saturday evening.

Up the Wolves!