Who will break through?

We haven't had an academy player break into our team for a while now. While we have had players promise a lot, they've never sustained a place in our side and have left the club. Mark Little, Dan Jones and Lewis Gobern all left in the last year or so despite impressing in Mick's first year, remember Liam Hughes or Chris Cornes? We've produced a few good players over the years. Matt Murray is still at the club, Joleon is an England international and playing in Europe for Manchester City and Robbie Keane has been at all the clubs he supported as a kid. This year, there are a few youngsters who could make it.

Scott Malone - An England youth international, and has been involved in the u19s squad in the last few days. As a left back, you'd think he has a decent chance. The signing of Jelle Van Damme has made a first team place a lot more difficult but if it doesn't work out for the Belgian he may well get a chance. 6/10 chance.

Ashley Hemmings - Got a couple of games towards the end of our promotion season and impressed. Struggled with injuries last year, but the skillful forward played well at Walsall recently and bagged a goal from left wing. With Doyle, Fletcher, Sylvan, Keogh and Vokes currently ahead of him it will be very tough for him.  4/10 chance.

Batth - future skipper?

 Nathaniel Mendez-Laing - In his only senior appearance for Wolves, he won the man-of-the-match award in the home Carling Cup tie against Swindon. It was a very dull game but he still received plenty of praise for his pace and dribbling skill. He's on loan to Peterborough right now but if one of our wingers gets injured, which they quite frequently do he'll be called back and be fighting for a place. 7/10 chance. 

Danny Batth - Had Colchester fans raving about him last season, the future looks bright for the young centre back. He won the academy player of the year last season, and Mick has been pleased with him. He has shown great leadership skills in his friendly appearances and to me looks the likeliest to get in our team. Craddock might bot be able to last the year which could see him battling it out with Mouyokolo and Berra for a place in the heart of the defence. 8/10 chance. 

These aren't the only ones too. James Spray made the bench last year away at Wigan when we had injury problems up front, Johnny Gorman made his international debut for Northern Ireland at the age of 17 this month and John Dunleavy has been involved in the friendlies as has Sam Winnall. Who knows, maybe Zele Ismail might get a chance. I haven't heard much about him though for a while now. Anyone have any news about him? 

And we're off

We've finally started, with a comfortable victory over Bohemians.

Van Damme and Fletcher got their first starts, Mouyokolo missed out because of an ankle injury. We started well, a Jones corner was headed in by Jody Craddock. I wonder how many he will score this season?

Then Fletcher got his first goal in a Wolves shirt. Jarvis pulled it back for him to smash it into the top corner. Then Mick made eight changes but we weren't fined, don't worry. Mujangi-Bia weaved his way through, played a one two with Ebanks-Blake and drilled it past the keeper.

Overall, a decent performance and result. Fletcher and Doyle linked up well at times and Keogh was decent on the right wing. Hopefully we can keep performing well and getting the results to get us ready for the upcoming season.

Please get up....

He does get up. Or at least, I think he does.

As I heard someone say somewhere, that is a sight to behold. We haven't seen Matt for a long time now, three seasons in fact. But now, he seems to be near. If fit, he will be in the twenty five man squad named by Mick which could mean he is fit to start. No offence to Hahnemann (who is statistically the best goalkeeper in the world) or Hennessey but if we have him in our side we could do very, very well this season.

I think (when fit) he is one of the best keepers in the country, you could argue that he would have been England's number one at this world cup. The problem is, he can never sustain any type of fitness. Last season, half an hour into his comeback match for the reserves he got injured making a save (a good one I heard too). Before that he got injured in his fourth game in a loan spell for Hereford.

As that picture shows, he could be getting closer to fitness. I think if Mick hadn't had him in his first season (where Murray nearly got us up on his own) then he might have been let go. Luckily, Mick knows what he's all about. Dominates the area, quick thinking and a huge throw to cover his only weakness, his kicking.

With everyone talking about England's next world cup squad, who knows. Maybe even he could be the number one.

World Cup Final Predictions

Holland face Spain in the World Cup Final. That means someone will win it for the first time.

Personally, I'm backing Holland. They have won everygame and haven't looked like losing. Spain meanwhile have bored their way to the final, which I don't think many expected (maybe the Octupus?)

I didn't do the double points for the quarter finals. I erm.. forgot. Here's how you score points:

9 points for each correct result
12 points for a correct score
6 points for a correct scorer

Good luck!

"We've got the best keeper, in the world!"

That's not a chant you hear often at Molineux. You might even have to look fifty years back to hear that one.

I hear lots of arguments over who really is the best goalkeeper in the world and of course, the obvious candidates regularly come up. My friends talk of Cassilas, Cesar, Cech, Buffon and Murray (just kidding, they have no idea who he is) as the best.

BUT, if you look at the statistics and a list complied by Castrol Rankings (http://www.castrolfootball.com/rankings/rankings/) you will see who they have come up with as the best players in the world. And quite shockingly, Wolves have one player at eighteenth.

We signed him on a one year deal on a free last summer. He arrived from Reading, merely as a back up to at the time number one Wayne Hennessey. In November, after conceding four goals two games running he was drafted in.

Since then, Marcus Hahnemann hasn't looked back. He played a major part in keeping us up and brought a calming presence to our own penalty area. I didn't agree with Mick's decision to drop Hennessey, but I must say that was one of the changes that kept us up. He had the best shots to saves ratio, and that is a lot of shots in a team trying to stay up.

He hasn't got the praise he has deserved from the outside. Wolves fans obviously praise him all the time, and you get the odd comment (notably from Arsene Wenger, who said after the one nil defeat to Arsenal that he had been excellent) but he is one of the many unsung heroes of our season. He will undoubtedly continue to get on with his job, and with the possibility of a fit Matt Murray at some stage I don't think we need to worry about our goalkeepers.

WC Prediction League - Quarter Finals

Sorry to miss the second half of the predictions for the second round. For this round, you will receive double points for correct predictions. Which means:

6 points for a correct result
8 points for a correct score
4 points for a correct scorer

Holland v Brazil
Uruguay v Ghana
Germany v Argentina
Paraguay v Spain

Good luck, and well done to dennisons wrong foot so far!