From Steve Bull to Matheus Cunha: Loyalty vs Changing Times

This past week Wolves have been celebrating the 60^th birthday of one of its favourite sons, the one and only Steve Bull – a genuine icon in the history of our club. There is no further need to wax lyrically about the man and his achievements, as those who were there will never forget them.

 

No, what struck me the most, in the same week, was the announcement that Matheus Cunha now wants to leave Wolves. Hardly a shock, of course, as this was always going to happen once the ink on his new contract was dry, but still something of a disappointment. However, what a contrast between the 561 appearances of Bully and the kiss me quick Wolves career of Cunha.

 

For a young fan, getting to support Wolves nowadays must be sheer hell (to be fair it wasn’t much fun for us in the middle 80s!) – as no sooner do they find a player they like than he is gone, whisked away to achieve ambitions seemingly beyond our club.

 

As a norm, very rarely do supporters see a player and immediately fall in love with his talent, although I did for Robbie Dennison, all those long years ago. No, normally the relationship needs time and sustained evidence on the pitch before one can fully commit to such a bond between player and fan. This relationship is now becoming strained, due to high player turnover.

 

Will anyone ever score fifty goals for Wolves again? Will anyone ever rack up three hundred appearances for the gold and black? Will anyone even match the 253 appearances of Ruben Neves? To be truthful, I just can’t see it happening, as the vultures and agents will circle way before such targets are attained. However, if I had to pick one player from our squad who may still be here in five years, I would pin the needle on the donkey of Toti Gomes, a player who gives his all and is rapidly developing into a cult hero. He is also one of the players who seems to get better season after season, yet often goes under the radar.

 

But as for the rest of our squad? I suspect they will fly as soon as they produce the goods for a whole season, with this ‘buy them cheap and sell them high’ approach being fashionable amongst clubs in the top flight.

 

Of course, it is hard to argue the logic of buying players for 10m and selling them for 30m but surely football is about more than reading profit and loss accounts once a year? Otherwise we may as well just watch the stock market listings of those clubs who have been floated. As it stands at the moment teams with the highest outlay on wages see their league position mirrored by the amount of cash they splash on salaries, with those offering peanuts invariably in the bottom three. Whatever happened to glory and sporting success? Why is it that so many clubs/players/fans would rather get a Champions League spot, as opposed to winning a trophy? Thankfully, most Newcastle fans I have heard from are far happier to have won a silver pot – the League Cup – than they are chasing financial success by gaining a Champions League position. They, at least, seemingly recognise that football is about glory.

 

I understand that Mr Jeff Shi and the like are more into football finance but I think that Wolves fans have also been duped into thinking this way. I have lost count of the number of people contributing to Wolves podcasts who stated they would ‘rather see us staying in the Premier league,’ than ‘winning the FA Cup’. I beg to differ, as no one in the future will remember Wolves staying in the Premier league for season 2025/26 but they would have remembered us winning the cup that year. I’m with Magic Moss on this one!

 

Cricket has recently gone through the same kind of issue, with counties accepting 15m each to allow The Hundred to monopolise the month of August. As a result, there is much debate over whether cricket has sold its soul. Truth is, football sold its own soul years ago, with barely a flicker of remorse from those concerned.

 

Years ago, gates from football were shared between home and away teams, thus allowing poorly supported teams to still have a reasonable income. Can you imagine that happening today? Personally I think that all football revenue should be shared between all the clubs, just to make the competition fairer and more competitive, as it is not in the long-term interest of the league as a whole for promoted teams to know they are doomed to relegation before a ball is kicked in anger.

 

In all honesty, perhaps I am being naïve and seeing the past through the prism of an idealistic memory, but football just seemed more honest and purely about football, when Bully was banging in the goals. Then again, perhaps I feel that way as the first eleven players I saw at Wolves as a season ticket holder were: Kendall, Bellamy, Streete, Robertson, Thompson, Purdie, Vaughan, Robinson, Dennison, Bull and Mutch.

 

And what memories they left.