Emotional Wolves: A label more damaging than it is helpful

The current squad is persistently labelled an ‘emotional’ group. Not least by their own manager. Whether they are truly any more or less emotional than any previous squad, or any other current squad in the league, is hard to quantify. Emotions are infinite, with some deemed positive, such as courage, bravery and resilience, and others, of course, deemed negative, such as cowardice, feebleness and fear. So what is actually meant by the term ‘emotional’ when describing this current Wolves team?

It seems to specifically point to the emotion of frustration, fuelled by past injustices. Unfortunately, this won’t help us in the here and now. It is almost as if they feel they do not deserve to be bottom of the league, winless after eight Premier League games. If you read between the lines, it is easy to see why. This is a message that is now being routinely repeated by opposition managers—with Pep Guardiola most recently coming out in his pre-match press conference and saying something along the lines of, “their position is false; they’ve been unlucky; they deserve more points.”

Before we begin to give ourselves too many pats on the back for such ‘plaudits’, we must ask ourselves what is in it for the opposition managers to adopt this approach? Well, football is as much mental as it is physical. It gets inside our heads; it fuels the fire that is threatening to burn us down. Plucky, unlucky Wolves—who the world seemingly conspires against. It’s tedious. But no manager wants to be on the receiving end of the game in which Wolves finally shed this restrictive mindset, finally rid themselves of the shackles and play without fear. Our squad has quality in abundance, quality that could seriously hurt any opposition, so it makes sense to perpetuate a damaging and debilitating narrative. It’s the small margins that can make all the difference at this level. If the card is there to play, they’ll play it; hence, I expect we’ll hear Fabian Hürzeler say the exact same about us in the build-up to this weekend’s game against Brighton. It makes no sense from an opposition point of view to suggest anything else, but from our perspective, we should first be asking where this frustration has come from, why this squad feels such a sense of injustice, and how we can finally shake it off.

A BBC report this week revealed that O’Neil last season deterred the players from taking a stand against a flurry of poor refereeing decisions. It was said the players had planned to refuse to shake the officials’ hands pre- and post-match. This didn’t happen, allegedly because O’Neil said it would cause a shift in public backing, leading to neutrals backing the officials and seeing Wolves as bitter and petulant. Whether this would truly have been the case or not is inconclusive—many neutrals may well have supported such a simple but powerful protest, as it is now common knowledge that Wolves have been victims of far more refereeing mishaps over the last couple of seasons than any other team.

This season, however, this has not been at the core of our problem. I would go as far as to say that last year it was detrimental and continuously killed any momentum we threatened to build. There were a host of simply scandalous decisions that went against us. O’Neil was right to be angry, and he had the support of all fans and neutrals when he articulated his frustrations perfectly post-match against Fulham (a game in which we had two incredibly soft penalties given against us):

“I’m managing a big football club here—the difference you’re making to my reputation, the club’s progression up the league, people’s livelihoods is huge.”

This was absolutely word perfect, and the timing was immaculate. It was the right argument at the right time. It was a damning indictment of the PGMOL. Gary O’Neil was spot on, and his comments screamed ambition, professionalism, and a simple, uncompromising demand for higher standards—and rightfully so. He simultaneously criticised the officials and upheld the reputation and pride of the club; he highlighted the very real and immediate damaging effects of refereeing errors in such a results-based business as football.

Flash forward to his comments post-Manchester City, and the feeling isn’t quite the same. For our manager to be calling out deep-rooted psychological issues that are rooted not just in football but in the very foundations of society feels futile right now. We must address our own issues head-on; we must find our own true identity and not search endlessly for excuses. It feels like we are once again allowing ourselves to get wrapped up in this narrative that we are an ‘emotional team’, that the world is against us, that it’s not fair, and that we deserve more. The truth is the late Manchester City winner was far from the most contentious decision we’ll see this season. But we once again got swept up in the noise and got sucked back into our unproductive comfort zone: plucky, unlucky, frustrated ‘emotional’ Wolves.

But we needn’t think like this. Yes, there may very well be an ‘unconscious bias’ towards the bigger teams, but there always, always has been. However frustrated we have been by that in the past, we have always competed well and not let that define us. We have never before pinned our identity to it, but that’s not the case anymore, and it’s a weakness to fall into that way of thinking—the fact opposition managers play on it points to that. 

With all this talk of mindset this week, club psychologist Martin Littlewood (initially brought in by Julen Lopetegui) has his work cut out. It is believed he is a familiar face around Compton and is central to forming O’Neil’s messaging to the squad. Well, put simply, the culture must change. The real challenge for our manager this week is not to fight the powers that be, at least not for now. Instead, look a little closer to home: inspire the players (they look deflated and frustrated—not merely ‘emotional’ to me—and the manager can change that), make them feel like world-beaters, encourage them to take responsibility for the position in which they find themselves, and take action to change their circumstances. Do all this in-house; don’t publicly criticise the fitness levels of individuals. Speak to them. Speak to the fitness coach. Devise a plan to improve. Promise them it will lead to results. Results we will all see on the pitch.

The answer is not to be continuously labelled as an ‘emotional’ group on whom the world takes pity. After all, the world does not pity winners. I long for the day the footballing world no longer feels sorry for us, but first we must stop feeling sorry for ourselves.