Pre-Season

By: Matt | July 28th, 2008

There are few things I’ve learned about pre-season fixtures from past experience:

1. They give no indication of the season to come
2. The results are often misleading
3. I really shouldn’t attend them.

The last time I attended a Wolves pre-season game was at Dundee in the ‘Discovery Cup’ a few seasons ago. It was a tournament played between the Wolves, the two Dundee teams and Sheffield Wednesday. I can’t remember the score, one part of me thinks it was 4-0 to Wolves, another part of me seems to remember a 1-0 win, with a last minute winner. I never forget results of regular season games but this one escapes me. Anyhow, my point is, that sometime during that game, I vowed (not for the first time) never to attend another Wolves pre-season game. I can see the attraction if you travel up with a few mates on tour and make a holiday of it, but when you’re a married with two small children Billy No Mates, and you travel up on your own just for the game, it can leave you with that “I should be doing something more important with my life” feeling.

That said, Wolves have had a reasonable pre-season thus far. It kicked off with a 2-0 defeat at Wrexham (Mick McCarthy making sure that everyone knew it was just a fitness improving exercise didn’t stop the doom mongers predicting a season of misery ahead) and has been followed by first team wins at Hereford (2-0) and Dundee (1-0), a draw at Motherwell (1-1) and a convincing win at Kilmarnock (3-0). The pre-season finishes with games at Walsall on Tuesday night and Blackburn Rovers at Molineux on Saturday.

New signings Sam Vokes, Richard Stearman, David Jones and Chris Iwelumo seem to have settled in well and performed adequately. McCarthy seeming to be particularly pleased with the performances of Chris Iwelumo. I’m pleased with our captures so far but most Wolves fans (including me) are hoping for a few more signings, particularly one at centre back. It seems that we have so far failed with bids for Christophe Berra (Hearts) and Jason Shackell (Norwich) and rumour has it we have been sniffing around Sheffield Wednesday’s Mark Beevers (no pun intended) with little success. The latest (uninspiring) rumour is that Mick is interested in bringing Ben Thatcher. We also currently have Ian Harte on trial (hmmm not sure about that), the thinking being that he could be cover for Elokobi at left back. We also apparently have New England Revolution’s Michael Videira , a young midfielder, on trial. I know next to nothing about him, apart from he hasn’t actually played a game for New England Revolution as yet and that he was spotted in a Wolverhampton hotel last night (hopefully not the same Wolverhampton hotel that Dennis Bergkamp stayed before our brief flirtation with the Premier league).

Surely however, the best bit of business of the season was the sale of big George Olofinjana to Stoke City for £3 million. Now, lets be honest, I like George, on his day he’s a good midfielder. Unfortunately he hasn’t had many good days in recent times, and £3 million is a deal well done. Good work Mr. Moxey. Maybe George is one of these players who will suit the Premier League better (although I can’t actually name one of these players), if that is the case, everyone’s a winner (£3 million hehehe!)