Fan column: Criticism can go both ways at Wolves

He left himself exposed to the glaringly obvious retort that one solitary league win since his arrival wouldn’t facilitate us turning cartwheels. We’ve been let down on an industrial scale, taken for granted, faced with inflation-busting price hikes and delivered a product vying to be amongst the worst ever produced at this level. 

Asking for more patience and understanding might just have been a touch intemperate. But he was irritated with some justification. I’ve expressed my dislike for fans barracking their own players on this platform before. 

Jackson Tchatchoua joined Hwang Hee-chan and Jorgen Strand Larsen in enduring sarcastic derision heaped upon him as he departed the pitch. Derek Parkin this guy demonstrably is not, but nobody can question his commitment; limited or otherwise, he was giving his all and he was playing for Wolves. 

That in itself should command a modicum of empathy and besides, nobody enjoys being belittled and if we reserve the right to taunt one of his players, then we shouldn’t be so prissy and thin-skinned when Rob Edwards, slightly irked, mildly takes us to task. 

He isn’t the first Wolves boss to give us a broadside; I wasn’t put out in the slightest when a bristling Mick McCarthy told the press that he didn’t ‘give a flying fiddlestick’ for the opinion of the Wolves’ fans. The fact that he expressed himself in slightly more strident alliterative terms simply added to my amusement! 

Anyway, those of us watching and supporting shouldn’t get too precious or convince ourselves that our feelings or opinions cut any ice with the professionals. Their mindset doesn’t give a thought to us enduring a mind-numbing coach journey home after yet another defeat. 

For them, Wolves like every other club is simply a port of call in a lucrative career where they install themselves to the highest bidder. 

Players clutching the badge of their shirts and pointing animatedly at the crest to signify some mythical and magical bond is at best performative and at worst, downright phoney. 

That same week, the insanely affluent Chelsea players were berated by observers many of them non-football fans, for their curt and dismissive attitude towards a group of paying young mascots. Patience and understanding? Rare commodities that should apply mutually but rarely coincide.