
Well….yeah. It’s been a funny old week at Molineux towers hasn’t it? It’s like working in a Factory or production line, rumours of a Management clear out. It is discussed over the shit sandwich you made and the cup of tea with stuff floating on top. Us, the great unwashed. What do we know us ‘Legacy’ fans, how can we extrapolate our experiences to the tangled web of Managerial appointments and the Borg like Fosun? Man, we can’t, but we can wax about it so you can imagine this post as a chat in the canteen sipping hot tea fast so you still have time for the two roll ups you have to inhale before starting work again.
Fosun don’t know what they are doing. I mean we have watched them from afar and made our minds up pretty much. We see the Executive team Jeff Shi has assembled and we hold our heads in our hands and shake it slowly from side to side. They really haven’t got much of a clue have they? I mean Bruno Lage for fucks sake. He was making YouTube videos before we dragged him here to look after a dysfunctional squad. Never trust a man who’s face is bigger than his head. What ideas did Bruno bring? I don’t actually know, I’ve watched his idea of football but I’m still in the dark as to what he actually wanted out of Fosuns team of players. He was an uninspiring zoid for me. Absolutely no connection with the fans at all. You know ‘fans’ us like. Did we have any feelings for him? At West Ham he lost the Wolves Away crowd. This was a major fuck up. Every Wolves Coach needs the away lot. They are the most knowledgeable about the Wolves game. These people are that into the idea of Wolves that sometimes it verges on mental illness but they are still a group that should be listened to. But the weird esoteric substitutions, the tactics, the fucking zeitgeist. Bruno treating us great unwashed like he’s just stepped in a turd. Nah Bruno was never the right choice. I am glad the mumbling prick has gone but unsure of whether a new appointment will do anything to halt this weirdness around the team.
Now I know I could fill this page with energy about subs, tactics, players etc. But it’s already been said on all the platforms, chat rooms and spaces, all over the socials. It has gone very wrong. Many of the ‘Newfans’ won’t really understand what’s going on but we do. Us Legacy freaks. Jeff Shi has fucked it up. He listened too much…listened to the Lizards he has put around the dysfunction of Compton and Molineux. We know who they are of course and I don’t have to name names. But ultimately, it’s Jeffs fuck up. He’s the one that assembled the backroom team. The highly wracked off medical department filled with Staff who have a very murky past. The Brand ambassadors, the ‘football experts’, the brand builders. Compton has become a trough to feed in and the Brand thrives there like a pulsing tumour sucking the life out of the club. The brand is everywhere but nowhere at the moment.
We look at the team, who are they? Do we know them? They don’t want to know us that’s for certain. But I think that’s because they don’t know us. Teams in the past knew who we were and even if times and certain seasons were a pain in the arse they were still Wolves and we were too. But now, we don’t know. We haven’t battled with them because they haven’t got the fight in them and we haven’t either at the moment. Covid, VAR, cost of living crisis, a team full of Prima Donnas, a Molineux full of people sick to the back teeth of brand bullshit. This is a hefty cocktail of shite that the new Coach has to navigate when he pulls his chair up at his desk at Compton. There has to be a big clear out there. There must be some sort of ‘Night of the Long Knives’ when he does arrive. We need someone with the ideas and energy to transform the culture of Non Entity at Compton. Someone who is really going to set the dogs on most of the staff there. If this is to happen and it is badly needed then there also has to be a transformation of the executive staff too. Scott Sellars isn’t fit for purpose in these times of War. Neither is Big Vinny. We need hungry men and women to transform our fortunes and I don’t think the Executive Team have it in them to knock the top off a rice pudding.
The team. I feel sorry for the new dudes. They must be wondering what the fuck is going on. They are not inspired and even in the late warmth of Autumn when Compton explodes in colour they can’t raise a fight so what’s going to happen when the good old British Winter arrives and everything is dark and the sun they have in their souls is getting slowly dimmer. I think Diego Costa will be a more important addition than we think. I suspect Diegos madness and his stoic visage will be kicking up a stink in that dressing room. I hope he may put a bit of fight in the team as he lays the foundations of his time here. But there has to be change. There has to be some madness that is allowed to flow through the echelons of the Molineux corridors. Ideas even. We haven’t had any for ages. So what are we going to get? Another Gestifute yes man? Another faceless Portuguese Coach? Another lyrical non entity? How about Jeff goes and fetches someone that will shake the foundations of Molineux with ideas and then links with the fans like Nuno did. Nuno understood the importance of having the fans close to the team, to have them feel a part of the project and the idea, the philosophy of football. Since he departed we haven’t had anything like that. All we ask is that we can become part of the project again. Stop thinking about global brand reach and start making links with Wolverhampton again. People from Wolverhampton are good people, the best people and you can’t keep ignoring them. The Club will always be bigger than the brand. Fosun are eating the cake that hasn’t even been cooked yet.
The Club is in disarray but we aren’t at ‘that’ point yet where we have to lose our heads. These are interesting times hence I am writing about it again. I had nothing to say about Bruno Lage. The Coach that flew back to Portugal after every match when he should have been at Compton working out what went wrong (or right). Managing the dysfunctional squad we have. Man management, being right on point for every player, just being there for them. Less of the seeking for solutions more searching for answers. He fell short in every way and will become a Zenga of our times but without the humour and madness. Bruno was decaffeinated, he looked like a Coach and said all the right things (sometimes) but he was tasteless, lifeless, a Fosun Droid and a yes man. Not what Wolves needed after the essence of Nuno departed.
It will be interesting to see if Guo gets involved. He wont be happy with Jeff Shi. A lot of Fosun money has been invested in this idea, this brand. I suspect Jeff has been working very hard going over the fine print in running this club but you know I also suspect he has been that busy with his face pressed against his Apple Mac screen that he’s not been looking at the larger picture. I suspect he has trusted and delegated his Executive decisions to be made by the underlings he has assembled to push the club on. I think he has trusted people who should not be trusted and this current situation is largely his fault.
We carry on of course. Supporting the team even if we don’t really know who they are. I said at the start of the season it was going to be long, disjointed and fucking weird. But we can deal with that, me and you, the people that read this blog, the Legacy massive. We have been here before of course and know it intimately. But this time we have a great squad (on paper) a squad bereft of inspiration. A squad but not a team really. This next Coach appointment is going to be one of the most important additions to the idea of Wolves that has been made for years and years. Jeff has to get this right. Go out on a limb for fucks sake, let a bit of madness in, get us a Coach with drive, ideas, mental tenacity, and the gumption to face the squad he has and forge something new and exciting. Get us a Coach that understands the importance of having the fanbase on side. We know that we can’t win every gamne but all we ask is that you fight when you are on the pitch and try to remember there are people paying to watch you who can barely afford to go to the Molineux now, they have made big sacrifices to be there. Give us something to sing about, make us proud again.
I will be writing again about Wolves. It is time for a new chapter and I think the next few years are going to be very interesting so it’s worth me sitting down for a few hours every week and writing something about my thoughts. Out of fucking darkness cometh light and we are standing on top of the subway looking at the dark skies waiting for that slither of sunlight.
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