Got a mate that's a wolves fan and he is far from confident about next season. Problem they have is that they NEED to sell there core players as there wages are very much of PL stardards. They can no longer afford them and other clubs no this. Jarvis will probably go for 4-5 mill, which is a fair price and a price that reflects the position wolves ae in. They are not west ham, who gambled on promotion this season and kept paying huge wages across the team. Wolves will have to rebuild to gain promotion.
Annoying comments, but we'll let the football do the talking next season. And Wolves will not be coming back up, for one. Not next season anyway. Look at all the comments on that poll at the start of this season, where people laughed Southampton's chances off the forum! However, I don't think it's Premiership arrogance - I have definitely seen this forum packed with sly comments on other 'lesser' clubs eg. Wigan not being a 'proper' club, other clubs being too small to be associated with us, and Southampton being way bigger than them. It happens all the way through every fanbase down to the Conference and below, including our own. It will happen on here next season too. Wolves are the third or fourth biggest club in the Midlands at the moment. Southampton are THE club of the south coast. We will win more games next season than Wolves won this season, and will stay up way longer than they have in this - what was it - two season run?
I'm not bothered, and it wasn't long ago a few of this group were saying Wigan shouldn't be in the Premier League because they're not a big club. Every club has it's arrogant and deluded fans. Let them wimper in their decline.
If we had four south coast clubs in the top flight, I reckon that compeititon to be the best would drive us on and make us strive to improve. Wolves couldn't seem to marshall that spirit when the top flight had Brom, Brum, and Villa up there with them. And Villa would have got relegated last season on their points tally this season. The only thing that saved them this season was the utter crapness of Wolves and a few other teams in crisis to manage to limp to an even wose points total. I'm sure Matt Jarvis would welcome the fresh start with an ambitious, upwardly mobile club with a big future.
The big club little club is really silly, as it should be more about "what have you done lately?". However, not intending to be insulting here sir but you must be smoking crack if you think this is actually true. I'm living in Kuwait right now and often I will see kids in shopping malls wearing Chelsea shirts, the games are televised in bars and cafes, men profess to them being "their team". ****, down the street from me right now is a goddamn BOAT WITH DIDIER DROGBA'S FACE ON IT, next to a boat that has been painted with Barcelona badges. Chelsea are a massive club, ask any fella on the street outside of the UK who Nottingham Forest are and you'll be greeted with blank stares.
10 years ago, I knew 1 Chelsea supporter and never saw another one apart from in London. Now they're up all over the place. When the money goes, the fans will slowly disappear and they'll be back to being a the club they were. The reason people in Kuwait love Chelsea is because they are (...were) one of the Premier League contenders and so are always on TV with well known quality players. People in places such as Kuwait don't see much of any team outside the top 5 or 6 so they pick a team from the shortlist. When the money runs out and they aren't challenging, people abroad will start donning Swansea shirts or whoever the next big team is. It's a cycle that will happen to most teams as it has in the past but I would never consider Swansea a bigger club than Chelsea just because people starting wearing Swansea shirts all over the shop.
Getting off topic a little here but the coverage thing isn't strictly true, every weekend the full premiership and most of the championship program is televised here, and with few Arabic language magazine-style shows there is very even coverage. Unfortunately for smaller clubs like us, these days brand recognition is the biggest indicator of the size of a club. It's just a fact that the average football "fan" is no longer the season ticket holder and historian who remembers Forest ruling Europe. I'm sure if you could look at the average fan for most of the top 6 they would live outside of England, probably also outside of Europe and have never visited 'their' club's ground. Kuwait is flipping it's **** right now as Real Madrid have bought a side over to play the Kuwait national team. Everyone knows Madrid, and Ronaldo. Everyone knows Drogba and Chelsea. No-one knows Forest, and Dexter Blackstock. Forest are irrelevant, as are we, in the scheme of things. All IMO. I feel it's the brand as a whole which represents the club, that's what you have to sell to new fans and new players, that's the indicator. Not the dusty old silverware from over a decade ago.
I welcome this arrogance from other fans, and the small chance they give us next season. For this is exactly what happened last pre-season, and our chances of going up, even making the play-offs, was thrown out of contention. We seemed to thrive on being 'unexpected' in the championship and this is what we will also do in the premiership. Wolves, for some time, have been near the bottom of the midlands pecking order, and now their relegation has only proved this. To suggest they are a bigger club than ourselves is laughable.
