STIV BAGNALL CHATS ABOUT WOLVES’ LABEL PORTUGAL WANDERERS & PORTU-HAMPTON
I mean seriously, what have Portugal ever done to anyone?
Currently, most social media content about our beloved Wolves from non Wolves fans is all of the same ilk, Portu-hampton gate!
Whilst it’s true we do have 10 Portuguese players, soon to be 11 with the signing of Nunes, why do other fans care so much about this? I don’t recall a massive backlash against Arsene Wengers Arsenal side back in the day for being predominantly French, yet for some reason all I ever hear is Uncle Jorge’s brought another one in. So what if he has?
It’s well established that our owners have a good relationship with the super-agent and as he manages a lot of players from his country of birth, it stands to reason we would use his influence and garner some good players from it. That’s just common sense surely?
One of the biggest things to come out of our recent master stroke of a signing is the common belief in world football that Wolverhampton Wanderers are a small club, that these players are only here because of Mendez, only here to get their face in the shop window.
Chris Powell said this exact thing way back in 2017 when Ruben signed, literally the exact same thing in a Radio 5 interview, look it up. At that time we were in the Championship, where, as a 40 year old fan, I had watched them play for the majority of my life, so clearly signing a Champions League playing captain was just to advertise him for Jorge Mendes. I mean woe betide anyone having any bloody ambition or anything! No, it has to be that, there’s a status quo you know. Well he’s still here and could walk into pretty much any midfield in the top flight. Fingers crossed he will sign a new contract soon as well.
Now this line of utter nonsensical chuff is being spouting again, Wolves are a small club. What have they ever won? Asked one bitter Sporting fan on Reddit after the announcement of the Nunes deal. Er… well, literally everything there is to win in England maybe? The accolades don’t stop being real just because it happened in the past lads, there’s this little thing called history, something that a lot of people tend to ironically forget.
Wolves are not a small club. For years we were toted as the sleeping giant, we were a founding member of the football league! I mean without us there might not be a Champions League for these so called bigger boys to play in! Billy Wright was the David Beckham of his day, he even married a pop star! Wolverhampton Wanderers was literally the best team, not just in England, not just in Europe, but the best team in all of world football. We were that damn good.
Then it all fell apart, poor management, both on and off the pitch, led to us slipping further and further into oblivion. But thanks to a local chap that we all know and love, we started rebuilding. Molineux looked fresh again after years of neglect. The team started performing, the fans started returning. Now we are an established Premier League team and apparently that means we have to just accept that and not try and better ourselves anymore. Be a mid-table side. Why? Are “Top 6” so afraid of change? Manchester United are looking like relegation contenders this season, things happen. Change is inevitable. The mighty fall, just like we did and there are other teams willing and ready to take their place. Just not Wolves though, they’re a tiny club. Sorry I forgot. We just over achieve a lot don’t we Mr. Roy Keane?
Clearly what these other teams don’t understand, is the black country spirit! We will fight. We will keep trying, because that’s what we do, what we’ve always done. There’s a reason we love hard working players, the Shabba Rankines, the Psycho Muscats and it’s because we’re a hard working bunch of people. A working class fighting mentality that a lot of teams just wouldn’t understand.
It’s clear to me why so many fans of other teams feel the need to lambast us and our team for the Portuguese influence, jealousy. Portugal is a lovely place and their people are a friendly affable lot, just like us. It’s a good match really. Did you know that Portugal was the only truly neutral country during World War 2? Well they say they were, but they still helped out the Allies with supplies and the like.
So what if Nunes prefers Birmingham (honestly Sky Sports, buy an atlas or something) to London. So do I, London is a bloody hell hole of a place where you have to pay to do pretty much anything.
Do I care if our team is mainly from Portugal? I wouldn’t care if they were a different species, as long as they could play good football and work for the team and I guarantee that every single one of these fans moaning about us wouldn’t care either. So don’t worry about where our players come from guys, worry about your team. Because the pack is coming ladies and gentlemen and the only difference, is now we have the help of the top agent in world football today, so “bigger clubs” be afraid, be very afraid because we are coming and the Wolves have their bite back!
ARTICLE BY STIV BAGNALL
Born and raised in Wolverhampton, Stiv is a lifelong wolves fan, watching his game in 1990 on the old red seats of the family enclosure. He is a published author and an award winning stand up comic and he can normally be found in the back office of his shop, MouseBench, in the Mander Centre.