{"id":9919,"date":"2024-08-16T11:10:05","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T10:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9919"},"modified":"2024-08-18T12:35:22","modified_gmt":"2024-08-18T11:35:22","slug":"depleted-wolves-facing-paw-return-at-emirates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=9919","title":{"rendered":"Depleted Wolves Facing Paw Return At Emirates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I must admit that at the end of last season I was really looking forward to a complete summer break from football after the exhausting tension and ultimate disappointment of once again finishing second to Manchester C137y. Yes, C115y have become C137y due to the addition of no less than 22 charges of kicking off late in Premier League games over the last two seasons. Quite what advantage they hoped to gain by delaying kick offs by a minute or so in games that could easily have 7-8 minutes of time added on, is anybody\u2019s guess, but inveterate cheats will, you know, cheat, I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


There was much to look forward to – Wimbledon, The Open golf, test cricket, the Olympics and last, and very definitely least, The Euros in Germany where we would most likely see some of our best players run pointlessly into the ground by the meta-negative Gareth Southgate.
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To deal with the last mentioned first, the Euros actually made me angry, watching poor Bukayo Saka trying to mesh with the head down and hopeless Kyle Walker and a variety of right sided midfielders from Mainoo to Gallagher. Before moving his best attacker of the last two years to left back (!) Gareth Southgate explained his and Saka\u2019s plight – \u201cthey were missing Kalvin Phillips\u201d! Declan Rice was our other elite player effortlessly made to look average by Southgate, as he was repeatedly left with no passing options in Southgate\u2019s hotch-potch team formation. How the pair of them must have longed to return to the demanding but carefully planned and constructed methods of Mikel Arteta. 
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The golf in the howling wind and driving rain of Troon was entertaining – they cover it so well on TV – but frustrating as Rory McIlroy once again faded from contention after a promising start; the tennis was ultimately sad as the quite brilliant career of Andy Murray ground to it\u2019s inevitable end under the weight of two hip surgeries and a very recent operation to remove a cyst from his spine; but then there was the cricket! The cricket saved the day with a quite magnificent test series against the West Indies. If you missed it, you missed out!<\/p>\n\n\n\n


However, we are here again because the football\u2019s back!<\/strong>
First of all, huge thanks to TTG for his superb series of close-season articles which are now to be reproduced in The Gooner. If you\u2019ve missed them so far, they are worth tracking back for.  Here’s the link<\/a> to Part 1.
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Our season opens against Wolves, those big, dangerous, grey things with lots of sharp, cutting teeth. However, the ones we are playing are black and gold and may not be quite so dangerous as they have just lost one of their sharpest teeth – called Pedro Neto – to a group of apparent madmen in West London who have also, as I write this, just extended the remaining 7 years of Cole Palmer\u2019s contract, to an incredible 9 years. I\u2019m not sure anyone honestly understands what Todd Boehly and Clearlake are up to over there but it will hopefully result in their bankruptcy and disappearance in due course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Wolves Transfer Business <\/strong>
Wolves sporting director Matt Hobbs confirmed on Sunday that 24-year-old forward Pedro Neto had completed a \u00a354m move to Chelsea. The transfer is a record sale for Wolves, beating the \u00a347m they earned from Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal for Ruben Neves in 2023. Neto, reported in some places as of interest to Arsenal, joined Wolves from Lazio in 2019, and scored 14 goals in 135 appearances. Not exactly prolific for a player who seemed to have an excellent reputation among fans, definitely has great pace but who also has a big injury record to go with it. Wolves have also sold Max Kilman to West Ham for \u00a347.5m, given away Bolla and loaned out Bueno – if they mean anything to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n


So far, in return for the \u00a3100m or so of income, they have signed Rodrigo Gomes from Braga, Pedro Lima from Italy and Tommy Doyle aged 22 from Man C137y. They have also taken Jorgen Strand Larsen on loan, a striker from Celta de Vigo. In total, their outgoings are \u00a333m so possibly more action to come from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Arsenal Transfer Business<\/strong>
So far (Friday am) we have made only one signing for the first team squad – Riccardo Califiori, the Italian defender from Bologna., and one young goalkeeper from Ajax who has been brought in as one to develop for the future. Mikel Merino of Real Sociedad reportedly edges closer to the entrance at Shenley, while Eddie Nketiah edges closer to the exit. Both remain speculation as yet though. I do wonder if Fabio Vieira is under instruction to keep a bag packed too, whether that is with the idea of getting him somewhere on loan, where he can play more and build up his resilience, or in readiness for a straight sale. To me he doesn\u2019t have the strength for Premier League football and plays so few other minutes, you wonder how he justifies a place in the squad, especially with the emergence of Ethan Nwaneri who looked very comfortable in pre-season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


What do we know for sure about Wolves ? <\/strong>
Well, Wolves fans are known as the Dingles who, for the unfamiliar like me, are characters from the TV soap opera \u201cEmmerdale\u201d, which is strange because the TV series is set in the Yorkshire Dales rather than the West Midlands home of the football club. They seem to have acquired the nickname unsurprisingly from their Midlands neighbours – particularly Villa and West Brom – because, like the TV characters, they are stupid, have few morals, a plethora of wives, even more kids and grim accents. But do not be mistaken. Despite the heavy accents, Wolverhampton is only sometimes (don\u2019t ask, please) officially considered part of the Black Country. That distinction belongs to the boroughs of Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Tipton. The region takes its name from the many local iron working foundries and shallow, 30ft thick coal seams.
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The club was founded in 1877 as St. Luke’s F.C. by John Baynton and John Brodie, two pupils of St Luke’s Church School in Blakenhall, who had been presented with a football by their headmaster Harry Barcroft. The area eventually became known as the City of Wolverhampton which over the years was often shortened to Wolves, so having an actual Wolf as their team badge and “Wolves” becoming their official nickname was an obvious progression.
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The club’s famous colours, black and gold, are unique in the English League and originate from the motto of the city, ‘Out of Darkness Cometh Light’. Black represents the darkness of the industrial area and gold represents the light – “After darkness (black) always comes light (gold).” The colours were changed in 1954 from the original, darker, old gold to plain gold as the club wanted a brighter shirt colour when playing under their famous floodlights – Wolves having been one of the first clubs in Britain to install floodlights in their stadium, also in the 1953 \/ 54 season.
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The only thing I couldn\u2019t remember at this point of writing was the name of their stadium. I eventually gave in and rang Molly, a friend of mine in the Midlands, to see if she could help me out and, luckily – Molly knew !That iconic Molineux Stadium is named after Benjamin Molineux, a successful local businessman. He initially developed the land on which the stadium stands as a pleasure park in the 18th century. The football club bought the ground in 1923 and soon afterwards began work on their new main stand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teams<\/strong>
Trying to guess at teams after pre-season and with the transfer window still open can be a fools errand – as I discovered last season when I entered the Predictathon far too early. BUT by kick off on Saturday it will be TOO LATE ! – see the attached note at the end of this piece which will direct you to joining instructions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


If I had to guess I would go with – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Odegaard, Rice, Havertz; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka, Jesus, Martinelli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Whatever the starting elevens on Saturday, the final league placings of last season are means for encouragement as we hunt the first win of the new season: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2nd – Arsenal P38 W28 D5 L5 GF91 GA29 Pts 89 GD62<\/p>\n\n\n\n

14th – Wolves P38 W13 D7 L18 GF50 GA65 Pts 46 GD-15<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The Holic Pound<\/strong>
The average price for an Arsenal win is 1\/5, the draw is 73\/10 and a Wolves win is 17\/1 against. Individual bets for first goal scorer can be found for Havertz at 9\/2, Jesus at 19\/4 or Saka at 11\/2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Rule changes for this season <\/strong>
1 – From the start of this season the number of substitutes allowed to warm up at the same time has gone up from 3 to 5. This is because 5 subs may be brought on at once. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 – The Multiball system in use will require 15 balls. If a ball goes out of play and is not easily retrievable, a ball \u201cassistant\u201d may place a spare ball on a vacant cone. They are not allowed to pass the ball to a player (I kid you not!) other than an assistant behind the goal at the end where the ball goes out, who may pass the ball to the goalkeeper. Thank heavens for whoever makes this nonsense up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 – Match officials will only start adding time for goal celebrations once they exceed 30 seconds. This is to reduce the amount of time to be added on.
We will also see the introduction of semi-automatic (?) offsides with VAR – and at the Euros there was massive controversy when a player was adjudged to have handled by some football version of cricket\u2019s Ultra Edge. That is beset with so many obvious anomalies I\u2019m not even wasting cyber ink on it here. 
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4 – There is, however, a new directive to penalise forwards for obstructing goalkeepers especially at set pieces. Hopefully they will also crack down on defenders wrapping both arms around attackers and stopping them from moving. There didn\u2019t appear to be anything about fiddling with the Velcro on the keeper\u2019s gloves, so Benny should be in the clear there.
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5 – There are also changes to the handball rule. Again! Something to do with arm positioning, intent, and amount of deflection from other body parts to arm \/ hand in determining intent. No room for controversy there then!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope that saves you all from in-match bewilderment.
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Match officials <\/strong>
Referee: Jarred Gillett, Fourth official: Gavin Ward, VAR: Paul Tierney, Assistant VAR: Natalie AspinallKick off is at 15.00 UK time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no UK TV coverage.
Enjoy the game. This could just be the year we do it ! \ud83e\udd1e\ud83c\udffb\ud83e\udd1e\ud83c\udffb\ud83e\udd1e\ud83c\udffb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Reminders from our Holics Ropey League supremo, Osaka Matt, and Predictathon Svengali, North Bank Ned that time is now seriously running out to partake in next season\u2019s premier competitions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n