As we know, football managers come and go like buses from a bus station, and that if you sack a manager you need to have your eye’s set on a replacement to take over at the club, however Wolverhampton Wanderers decided not to go down this route. What I will be explaining is the problems of what Wolverhampton went through to secure a manager.
Wolves themselves were on a pretty baron run and Mick McCarthy was under severe pressure. So what wasn’t needed was the game of all games to manage, the Black Country derby, Wolves vs West Brom. A proper derby where the tackles fly in and the fans give it their all before, during and after the match. Out all of the games not to lose for a manager under pressure was the Black Country derby.
The game was brilliant viewing, with West Brom taking a deserved lead before a last gasp equaliser meant the game finished 1-1 at half time. However no-one could foresee what would happen next. Wolves came out the second half full of promise, trying to get one back on their old rivals but their defence collapsed and let in 4 goals, not what was needed for an already under pressure McCarthy. As a West Brom fan I was full of ecstasy after what had happened, but in the back of my mind I felt we had hammered the final 5 nails into McCarthy’s coffin.
Surely enough Monday gave us the news that Wolves had sacked McCarthy and what occurred to me was who would take the job. Mick McCarthy proved to be a rather successful manager for Wolves as he kept them in the Premiership last year by the skin of the teeth and also proved his team could win the big games against top clubs. However too many losses this season proved to be the final straw for the owners.
Now, in my mind a manager must be appointed A.S.A.P in the football world so the manager can get to know the players, for example let’s look at Chelsea. Abramovich has sacked so many managers over the past few years – for being unsuccessful – yet still managed to get someone to take the job within days however with Wolverhampton Wanderers, it’s took an age to find the appropriate man for the job.
Many names were being thrown about such as Alan Curbishley, Steve Bruce, Sven Goran Eriksson and many more. All very good managers who have had a proven record in the leagues they have managed. Many of Wolves’ prime targets were interviewed yet many of those who were interviewed rejected the job offer. Curbishley’s reason was the ambition of the club didn’t match his own opinion – I can see why. More and more managers were being rumoured to take the job but more managers walked away. Ex Rangers boss Walter Smith reportedly walked away and this summed up Wolves’ luck. What I felt was that the managers who were being interviewed knew that it would be hard to keep Wolves up because of their defensive frailties and the fact if they were to go down they would lose their best players and would have to rebuild from scratch.
In the end Wolves appointed McCarthy’s number 2 Terry Connor to keep them in the Premier League as what was labelled a 13 game season. After the sacking of Mick McCarthy on the 13th February it took nearly 2 weeks to sort out his replacement. This to me just meant nobody wanted to manage a team that is possibly going to get relegated at the end of the season. So by appointing Terry Connor they have found a manager who has been at the club for 13 years and knows all the players inside out, obviously there was a cache to his appointment, if he got relegated he wouldn’t get the job permanently, on the contrary if he manages to keep Wolves safe he gets to keep his role as manager. This appointment was way too late, I think that McCarthy should have been sacked earlier then maybe a new manager would have been able to sort out the mess that is going on at Wolverhampton but they sacked him a bit too late resulting in this horror show of finding a manager.
Well I hope you enjoyed reading this report and it feels great to have started blogging again, as a West Brom fan I would love to see Wolves go down but I do feel sorry for them a bit due to the situation they have had to go through in order to find someone willing to take over a club in turmoil.
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