Latest Opinion

Happy Easter are just two of the words that Preview Percy won't have used in his look at the Bank Holiday trip to Wolverhampton. Let's face it, he would rather have not been going somewhere a bit nicer than the Midlands - not staying in the New Forest for Southampton, perhaps. Or maybe not enjoying a tub of whelks down at Brighton. Instead, he will be stuck indoors trying to remember what the local beer was like in Wolverhampton. It's a hard life...

After an international break that felt like it was a month long we return to action at the pleasingly as yet unnamed for sponsorship reasons Molineux where we will be hosted by Wolverhampton Wanderers. Kick-off on Easter Monday is at 8:15pm with Sky Sports doing the honours. The gentlemen from Eyes up Mother Brown will be dribbling Easter eggs all down their fronts on You Tube if you are the sort of person who enjoys freak shows.

So Wolves then. It’s fair to say that they haven’t hit the heights of last season. In fact, but for a useful February, in which they picked up 3 wins and two draws, they would be in real trouble at the bottom. They went winless in the fixture-light month of March. Losing to Man City (4-1 away) and, somehow, Liverpool (1-0 at home), those defeats sandwiching a goalless draw at Villa Park. All of which – and before the Easter weekend fixtures – left them in 13th place with 35 points from the 29 matches played so far. That means they won’t be looking over their shoulder too much. However, for context, Newcastle who currently occupy the last position of safety, have 29 points. That February was more than a bit useful then.

Daisy, the socially-distanced support bubbling personal assistant with the beautiful smile, has, begrudgingly, dragged herself away from the spa facilities on the grounds that our opponents actually did some business during the January window. A bit short-handed up front after the horrific fractured skull suffered by talismanic striker Raul Jiminez, they brought in Brazilian striker Willian Jose from Real Sociadad. The loan deal keeps the forward in the Midlands until the end of the season, with Wolves having an option to make the arrangement permanent in the summer.

Being on loan is not a novelty for Jose who, since making his debut for his first club Barueri, has been on loan with (pause for breath) Deportivo Maldonado (who, disappointingly, are based in Uruguay rather than Essex), Sao Paulo, Gremio, Santos, Real Madrid B, Real Madrid, Zaragoza, and Las Palmas, finally ending up at Sociadad in July 2016. Since then he has scored 52 goals in 143 league appearances. He has yet to score in nine appearances for Wolves.

Jiminez’s absence has put a little more on the plates of those charged with placing the ball in the back of the onion bag. Before his season was (probably) prematurely ended in November Jiminez had netted four times. He still remains their top scoring striker, though winger Pedro Neto who is no relation to the European supermarket chain, and midfielder Ruben Neves both have five apiece, Neves’s total being augmented by the fact that he has taken three of the four penalties they have been awarded this season.

On the injury front they have received a boost in the form of a thumbs-up from the medics for the availability of Rui Patricia. The ‘keeper was involved in a nasty collision with Conor Coady which must have prompted thoughts of “oh no not again”. However, sitting out the international break gave him extra recovery time and happily the ill-effects were not long-lasting.




Striker Daniel Podence is a doubt having missed the last seven with a muscle problem. He has, however, been training and a spot on the bench isn’t totally out of the question.

And so we move on to the wild and wacky world of Association Football. And even though it was an international break Klopp still couldn’t resist one of his whines to fill in the gap in league fixtures. Klopp, it seems doesn’t understand why Terrence Trent D’arby wasn’t selected for the England squad. Well allow me to help Jurgen. For one thing he has never been the “best in the world”, secondly, he is having a poor season and, finally, the England manager has given up on the policy of selecting any old crap in a Liverpool shirt as long as he’s English on the grounds that, well it’s worked so well in the past hasn’t it?

Elsewhere Klopp will have been dismayed by the further delay in changes to the So-Called Champions League qualification process which will result in a place for Liverpool for life with the rest to be divvied-up by other means, with, if there is any space left over, a spot going to the league champions if Liverpool say so. The changes were due to be debated last month but, some old-fashioned people who happen to believe merit should be involved, have complained and the decision won’t happen now until mid-April.

Meanwhile outside the world of football some lucky cove has won over £122m in the Euro Lotto, something that, according to the Sunday Times has made him or her “richer than Gareth Bale only without having to kick a football”. So much like Gareth Bale then.

And so to us. Well, if you can remember that far back, the 3-3 draw against Arsenal was a bit Jekyll and Hyde wasn’t it. That first 35 minutes were sublime. Unfortunately when you are that far ahead it’s important to keep the collective foot on the accelerator. As we found out to our cost once you cede momentum in a match like that it’s difficult to regain it. The fact that we only drew a game that we ought to have won was completely our own fault. well almost completely.

Step forward Jon Moss whose decisions over the course of the 90 minutes were so baffling one thought he might have been using a set of laws from a completely different sport as his guide. Written in a different language. And scanned briefly before kick-off. The free-kick awarded to Arsenal when Bowen had been fouled only makes sense if you believe that Bowen was LBW. And stopping a game when Lingard was bearing down on goal “in case of a head injury” to a player clutching his leg plumbed new depths for an official rated by the officials themselves as “probably the worst” of an already poor bunch.




On the injury front, bar Declan Rice (see KUMB's home page), those on international duty seem to have returned with little more than aching arms. Presumably Lingard and Rice shared a lift so I’d check the suspension on that car before buying it.

We are edging closer to a return for Arthur Masuaku. From the way Mr Moyes was speaking pre-match I suspect this week may be just too soon but we are getting close to the time when he will make the bench with match-fitness now being the issue.

Ogbonna is a couple of weeks away on current progress whilst Fornals faces a late test of his troublesome groin to see whether he will make the squad. The two other definite non-starters will be Randolph – who will be happy to have missed out on Ireland’s defeat to a gift shop somewhere between Germany, Belgium and France – and Yarmolenko, whose knee is proving to be a slow healer.

Which leads us on to the matter of the prediction. Chelsea’s hilarious defeat to West Brom – which no doubt saw Allardyce lambasting his team for wasting two goals – means that a victory will see us go fourth. We have had other chances to do that this season but, frankly we shouldn’t get too hung up on the mythical glow that the position seems to radiate. The attitude to take to each game is to 1) Ignore League Position. 2) Go out and win game. 3) Look at league position after match. 4) Laugh at Spurs for 24 hours 5) Repeat step 1 for the next match. Concentrating on the league position seems to distract from the job in hand, namely winning the game in question. All of which as I write this out I realise amounts to “take each game as it comes”. And laugh at Spurs for 24 hours. Obviously.

Although time spent with the squad will have been limited by international absences I am sure that the Easter weekend will have been spent drilling the lessons of the Arsenal game into the squad. Man for man our squad should have enough to prevail over theirs so, assuming they go into the match in the right frame of mind, I have confidence in our ability to get a win. Let us place the £2.50 that I was going to spend on a new name plate for that ship in the Suez Canal – the SS Ruddock has a ring to it don’t you think – on an away win. 2-1 to us I think Mr Winstone.

Enjoy the game!




When last we met at Molineux: Lost 2-0 (Premier League December 2019)

Having dispatched Chelsea the previous weekend we could have been forgiven for having a wee bit of optimism going ino this midweek fixture, Pellegrini having finally discovered that Roberto was no more a goalkeeper than Mother Teresa of Calcutta was a prop forward for Hull Kingston Rovers. Unfortunately, a goal halfway through the first half from Dendoncker scattered any high hopes we might have had. Snodgrass might have equalized when put clean through but a first touch reminiscent of a rhinoceros trying to play a piano saw the chance go begging. Cutrone’s late finish wrapped up the points.


Referee: Michael Oliver

If he were one hundredth the referee he seems to think he is he might make adequate. He isn’t – but when things go wrong it’s always someone else’s fault.


Danger Man: Adama Traore

Was struggling for a DM this week – Jiminez is injured and there are issues with form. Traore hasn’t been as influential this season as he was last – and he was marshalled out of the game in the return fixture. However, he has caused us problems in the past and will therefore require a close eye kept on him.


Percy’s Poser

Last week the Islington Tribune’s subsection entitled “Never Too Old” provided the following statement:

XX XXXXXXXX XXXX

Well done to Mrs Samantha Smyth-Nomzamo of Cold Norton (the only village named after a problematic motorbike) for guessing that clicking on the menu provided an announcement stating that there were “No Articles Here”. I guess they figured that old people would never find the page anyway so left it blank to save time.

This week we look at what the Wolverhampton Express & Star Columnist Peter Rhodes is getting upset about:

Peter Rhodes on a XXXX XXXX XXXXXX, XXXXXX phrases and some useful Spanish words for XXXX

Best of luck with that!

* Like to share your thoughts on this article? Please visit the KUMB Forum to leave a comment.

* Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the highlighted author/s and do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy or position of KUMB.com.