Who’s to blame for Wolves plight?

Thursday, 02/02/2012

by Nathan Lloyd, Shoot's Wolves blogger

The blame game. As fans we all play it. Usually if the team loses, the buck stops with the manager, whereas if they win, then praise is saved for either an individual player or the team as a collective.

So who should we point the finger at for Wolves woeful current predicament? The obvious and perhaps slightly lazy choice by many would be just to blame Mr. McCarthy.

After all, apart from Jody Craddock, the squad is entirely of Mick’s making. So, if they underperform, then surely the buck stops at our dolorous manager?

Or do we blame the players? Look at the capitulation against the Villa, when Wolves were terrific in the first 45 only for the second half to dish up Frimpong being Frimponged, Henry back healing Albrighton’s gastric canal and the washed-up Keano (I got that slightly wrong) to score two sublime goals and win the game for the claret and blue.

And then against Liverpool the other night where players forgot the simple footballing rule about closing down the opposition time and time again, and we gifted the game in the second half to Liverpool.

So, yes, I blame Mick and the players, but I reserve the biggest blame for our current plight at the door of the board and particularly Steve Morgan.  

I accosted Steve a few years ago at a Wolves function and he obviously has passion for the club, albeit that it doesn’t quite have “You’ll never walk alone” above the gates.

And it’s all well and good beginning to replace stands at Molineux which were perfectly fine and only built a mere 20 years ago. But look at the team, or the squad we are left with at the end of the January transfer window.  

I’m personally livid with the lack of investment and ambition the club has shown and worried that we just don’t have enough quality to maintain our Premier League status.

Emmanuel Frimpong may be a great loan signing, but we’ve bought Eggert Jonsson for peanuts and bought in loanee Sebastien Bassong, who will probably have to play out of position to get a game.  

We’ve lost Keogh, Vokes, Doherty and most bizarrely for me, Guedioura. So why haven’t we splashed out on a striker, the most obvious of positions that need strengthening at the club?

Is it that the board no longer trusts Mick with the funds? And if that is the case, why do they allow him to continue at the helm?  

Or is it that try as they may, targets just wouldn’t swap a Premier League bench for a relegation dog fight?  

Is it the wage structure, which may prevent the club getting into financial difficulty but perhaps also means that we can’t attract the right quality?

So without any stellar signings, fans pin their hopes on a returning Jamie O’Hara, who should be back for the QPR game and hopefully Ronald Zubar isn’t far behind to tighten up our defence.  

Kightly has come back from the Hornets playing some terrific stuff and perhaps Bassong will help plug a defence low on confidence.  I am of course clutching at the proverbial straw.

Every one of these last 15 games will feel like a cup final. And at the end of the season it will be great having a shiny new North Bank and a healthy bank balance, but that will hardly be cause for an open top bus celebration down the Waterloo Road if we do, as is looking more and more likely, plummet into a league we are all to well familiar with.

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