Can Wolves claw themselves away from mediocrity?

Two wins from two has seen Wolves make their best start ever to a premier league season, with striker’s Doyle and Fletcher catching the eye, the wolves faithful can surely expect a season which offers more than a bottom half slog. Over the years the words indifferent, inept have all marred the clubs performances, with the weakened side sent to Old Trafford being the perfect example. But signing’s like centre half Johnson and creative thinker O’Hara have proven to be shrew business, so can Mick McCarthy’s side take their giant killing mentality to clubs in and around themselves?

The side has enjoyed a series of survival day successes, despite boasting a debt free bank balance the club must kick on to ensure that the prudent running of the club comes to fruition. Mick himself is no stranger to criticism, with the incident as highlighted above causing the FA to fine the club for making extravagant changes to the first team. But whilst the manager has been touted by many in the media circle as a lightheaded tactician, he has at least taken a championship winning side to one which top four sides dread visiting with Chelsea, Liverpool, United all enduring losses. 

Buys such as Jarvis, Hunt, Hamill have all shown the clubs desire to be creative without opting to go for the long ball, so much so that Jarvis the former Gillingham winger has been the subject of serious interest from Arsenal this close season. It is not just the plethora of wingers which have shown the club striding to playing a more acute style of football. The signing of Christophe Berra another SPL export has contradicted the mantra that Scottish players have no future in the English game, with the centre half producing performances which exceed his £2.5 million price tag.  

So with the successful purchases, the club it would imagine should be looking at a comfortable mid-table finish. But with stop-start performances against the Blackburn’s and the Bolton’s, Mick’s men have surely got to rid themselves of the lethargic 10 minute spells which allow such disappointing results to occur.  But with teams such as Everton, and arch rival Aston Villa unable to flex any true financial muscle in the transfer market, then the side can only look on with optimism.

However even though the planned redevelopment of Molineux juxtaposes any ambitions of prolonged bottom half finishes, the prospect of being a feeder club still haunts the club with the final 8 days of the transfer market still looming. As target man Kevin Doyle is rumoured to be another target for Kenny’s Liverpool revolution, such a loss would heap the burden back on Steven Fletcher and disgruntle the terraces once more. With Arsenal becoming increasingly desperate for creativity, Jarvis could as well find himself in a reds shirt.  But for all this to happen the manager would have to overlook his target of making Wolves a regular fixture in the premier league, which would be something that Mick would not give up so easily given his ill-fated sacking at Sunderland.  So in order for the club to avoid slipping into the abyss of the championship, the club must do all it can to avoid any enforced sales. 

But some may argue that the club can never be seen as the west-midlands ‘topdog’, as players such as Karl Henry and Ebanks-Blake have done little to suggest that they are true premiership quality. As the club suffered yet another humiliating survival day fight last term, the team’s good start to the season must continue long past Christmas.  The signs that the club is moving in the right direction was highlighted by the stripping of the captaincy from Karl Henry with latest recruit Roger Johnson given the armband. Such a move may help the club avoid being labelled as a team whose captain reflects the attitude of Tony Pulis’s much disparaged Stoke.

Whilst Mick McCarthy has given the Premier League much entertainment, his credentials as a true premier league manager will be tested once again if any mid-season slumps filter in once again. 

Nabeel Perwaiz

Comments

[Brian]

Doyle and Jarvis are not going. Every manager bar Wenger supported Micks right to change his squad. Blackpool lso copped a fine - but Wenger never did when he changed his squad and nor did Mr Ferguson. Thankfully sense has now returned. If Doyle and Jarvis left then McCarthy would resign in disgust.

[Joe]

Unenlightened, lightweight tosh.