If there’s one thing that is always true about football, it is that fans are fickle. Boos can turn to cheers, and cheers can turn to boos in a matter of minutes, with heroes becoming villains and vice-versa on a game-by-game basis. Fans will sometimes single out players for abuse, but more often than not, it’s the manager who will draw the most vitriol from fans when things aren’t going well. And that is exactly what happened at Molineux on Saturday, as Wolves faced Swansea.
After picking up 7 points from their opening three games of the season, Wolves have been in freefall, with five consecutive defeats dropping the club into the bottom five. When Wolves found themselves joint top of the Premier League after two games, Mick McCarthy had shot down talk of European football for the club, claiming that Europa League football would damage the club’s ability to stay in the top division. But as Saturday’s game kicked off, Wolves were in danger of ending the week in the bottom three.
That possibility began to look like a sure thing as Swansea took a two goal lead. Danny Graham took advantage of poor defending to give Swansea the lead in the 23rd minute, and Joe Allan finished off a smart move in the 35th minute, giving Swansea a half-time lead. The home support was growing ever more impatient and angry, with boos ringing out after the second Swansea goal and again at half-time. Wolves improved in the second half, but were not creating a great deal. In the 68th minute, McCarthy drew more anger from the crowd with a double substitution, replacing wingers Matt Jarvis and Adam Hammill with Sam Vokes and Nenad Milijas. The home fans didn’t like the moves, and chants of ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ rang out around the stadium.
As the minutes ticked by, Wolves fans started to leave. But finally, in the 84th minute, Wolves got a goal back. Swansea failed to clear the ball from a corner, and a Vokes shot was parried into the path of Kevin Doyle, who prodded the ball home. Two minutes later, Jamie O’Hara equalised, and fans who had decided to leave turned back to the pitch wondering how the game would end. The game would finish 2-2, but after the game Mick McCarthy was an angry man.
He sarcastically quipped to reporters that his substitutions had been ‘hopeless’, in reference to the home fans criticism. And before last night’s Carling Cup tie against Manchester City, McCarthy didn’t hold back when asked about Wolves supporters. He called fans who had chanted for his head on Saturday, ‘mindless idiots’ and told reporters that he deserved all the credit for his substitutions and tactical changes brought Wolves back into the game. He also denied that fans generated a good team spirit and siege mentality saying ‘They haven’t. All they do is destroy it. It is destructive and no good to me or anyone else’.
In another interview, he said that fans had ‘short memories’ and that he had ‘done a great job’ in getting Wolves into the Premier League and keeping them there.
But is McCarthy right to be so harsh in his criticism of the fans? This is Wolves third consecutive season in the Premier League, having finished 15th and 17th in the previous two campaigns. After 7 points in the first three games, Wolves have picked up just a single point in the last six. With Norwich and QPR having made positive starts to the league season, the odds of a more established club or two being relegated is increasing. Compared with other Premier League clubs, Wolves have been low spenders, but McCarthy has spent big money on players such as Kevin Doyle, Roger Johnson and O’Hara. Is it so unreasonable for fans to expect progress? They could rightly look towards a club such as Stoke, who have made steady progression since promotion in 2008 and qualified for this season’s Europa League after reaching the FA Cup final, and wonder why their club hasn’t done the same.
Regardless of how good a job McCarthy feels he has done, results will dictate his future, and if Wolves continue to drop points, he may find that the ‘mindless idiots’ no longer abuse him, because he will no longer be Wolves manager.
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The fans have had their say, the manager has had his say and the club are trying to draw a line under it – BUT STILL THE GUTTER PRESS KEEP BRINGING IT UP TO GET A STORY, GET A LIFE AND FUCK OFF AND LEAVE US ALONE SO THAT WE CAN !ALL” TRY AND TURN OUR SEASON AROUND – YOUR A FUCKING IDIOT! DOUGAN
Bwahahahaha!
It’s ‘you’re’, meaning ‘you are’, not ‘your’.