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No More Spiers

goldfish

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I liked Spiers writing, but with regards to any reliable Wolves info/news, the most important part for me, is whether the local reporters has any good sources at the club. None of those currenty seem to have that.
Tim to me seemed to have some access to snippets of info, but generally Wolves was pretty much a close shop in that regard and he often seemed to try and cover all possible scenarios in his writings, because essentiallly he knew very little

Will it be any different for the new guy?
Who knows...
But it does take time to build up a good network of sources, especially sources inside a club. Spiers took years to do that and even his info was pretty sparse.
I think this kind of local journalism is largely obsolete once you get to bigger Championship and Prem clubs tbh. Fifteen years ago people working around Molineux and Compton would have been the most ITK and someone like David Instone could cultivate a mutually beneficial relationship. Now, the people who know the most are global agents and foreign-based owners. Tim can't invite Mendes down the Great Western and get him to spill the beans after one too many bitters. There are a few global 'mega journalists' close to key agents, club Presidents etc (Fabrizio Romano) who get titbits, but they're international transfer specialists, not club or regional journalists. And so the 'long-read' exposing the inner workings of clubs, often including an interview, replace transfer speculation as the main format for club journalism. That's what The Athletic's premised on and the direction Liam Keen at the E&S is going in.
 

Wolves2018

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What did you say to him out of interest?
Just polite to him with the usual hello, how are you etc he completely had disinterest and couldn't be bothered to speak. I was expecting him to be abit more polite and friendly like he relays in his tweets, was completely the opposite, shocked me tbh. Seen him a few times since then so not bothered putting myself out again.
 
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reanswolf

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Think it is doomed. The notion of a fanzine that covers multi clubs just won’t grab enough attention, when people simply crave news about their own club only.

I though TS was ok, and was Wolves through and through, it just showed that he was anti FOSUN at the time.
 

sillytuna

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Think it is doomed. The notion of a fanzine that covers multi clubs just won’t grab enough attention, when people simply crave news about their own club only.

I though TS was ok, and was Wolves through and through, it just showed that he was anti FOSUN at the time.
The irony being he was concerned for a while then chilled while folks here chilled and are now concerned!
 

Newbridge Wolf

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The Athletic as a whole has gone downhill. I won’t be renewing next time.
Given how long they’ve been offering it at £1 a month, can’t see how they can sustain it without massive subscriptions.
 

Wonder Boyo

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I haven't cancelled - yet.

Much preferred TS to SM have to say, not sure the athletic is worth it now.

The Wolves stuff just feels like it's written by a journalist not a fan. I think Tim was both.
Wouldn't disagree with any of that. The Athletic demonstrated what they thought of us when they cancelled our excellent podcast with Tim and Jacqui and doubled or tripled the amount of weekly podcasts for other Premier League teams. You do get the impression they're all about the big teams and just play lip service to the rest of the Premier League because they have to. I can only imagine that there aren't many subscribers who follow Wolves in comparison to some of the other teams and therefore we are a low priority.

I like some of their general articles and also follow an NFL team which they cover really well. However, I only pay £1 a month and I don't think I use it enough to carry on with another offer after my annual subscription is up.
 

Sussex Wolf

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The Athletic as a whole has gone downhill. I won’t be renewing next time.

I cancelled my renewal when Tim left. Some good articles but not worth the subscription rates now.
 

sedgwolf1980

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For £1 month it’s not too bad, but Jesus Christ who the hell is paying £7.99!!

Steve Madeley is a **** fan. It’s ludicrous he ‘covers’ Wolves. May as well bring back Malcolm Boyden.
 
W

WasStefan

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Think it is doomed. The notion of a fanzine that covers multi clubs just won’t grab enough attention, when people simply crave news about their own club only.

I though TS was ok, and was Wolves through and through, it just showed that he was anti FOSUN at the time.
I think it’s financially feasible so it will continue. Its worked in the US for years, but will never be a big earner, i have a feeling they will end up being acquired by an upcoming streaming service like DAZN or Amazon Prime to supplement their content
 

Shergar

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The new fella is so far out of it, like reporting from so far outside the fish tank he doesn’t even know the fish are in there. AND he has fooooked off on his holidays when the team travels to Portugal.
Definately a part timer and just a gesture by The Athletic to have someone ‘connected’ ( so remote it’s embarrassing) to Wolves.
 

PM Wolves

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Sub standard. I like TS, he was genuinely funny and at least was passionate. SM got off on the wrong foot and hasn't recovered, unsubscribed from Athletic as I also love boxing and a bit of an anorak, the content is pitiful on both fronts. No regrets
 

JOSWolf

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God knows why this new guy is covering us. He isnt even going to Portugal and left early from Spain. At least get someone who really wants to cover our club. He is a **** fan as well isnt he? That says it all. Glad I dont pay to read this ****e to be honest.
 

WeAreTheWolvesII

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He's a Walsall fan. Or is that what people mean when they say he's a **** fan :D

Agree, hasn't been good though.
 

NJ Wolves

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Might give him the first month of the season but then I'm likely cancelling as well. The few articles he has written aren't that good in my opinion, Tim's writing style was better.

Tim's twitter feed was all Wolves too .. including pics/videos from the games, post-match celebrations etc.

I think what annoys me most is this guy has a lot of non-Wolves stuff on his feed .... cricket and retweets of random topics. Just not professional enough for me. You're the Wolves reporter no one cares about the other crap.
 
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Just cancelled the new guy ‘s absolutely abysmal.
I probably won’t renew either when my subscription runs out in September I really only read the Wolves articles and I find this new guys writing VERY dry. He doesn’t do the fun tweets during matches that Tim used to do either basically he’s boring!
 

DanishWolf

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Spiers knew as little about the ongoings at the new club as this new guy does, so with regards to getting some actual inside knowledge, absolutely nothing has changed. Only thing might be, that Spiers engaged a lot more with fans on places like Twitter, and were generally generous in sharing what he knew, without just telling people to read the articles..
Problem of course was that he knew very little. Also he tended to cover all bases when presuming to know about potential transfers..
I'd say though that I dont subscribe to The Atletic for their news coverage, but for their long in depth reads. In that regards, the recent article on the training camp was a good read.
I do miss some genuine local journalism though. There's simply nobody right now having any idea what's going on at Wolves with regards to transfers, and there's nobody holding the club accountable through the media.
 

thetwistedsock

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My £1 subscription increases to £7 at the end of the year, I'll be cancelling.
 

Chris H

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My issue with the Athletic isn’t so much the new guy but the type of media outlet they’ve become.

I’ve just cancelled my subscription and when asked for my opinion I thought I may as well give it, not that they’ll care:

You’ve removed the wolves podcast which I enjoyed and replaced the wolves corespondent who I enjoyed following.

You originally came in to the market offering something different, in depth content on individual clubs and situations rather than clickbait chasing articles like other providers. I paid for that experience and enjoyed it however you’ve diluted this by following the crowd with transfer gossip pages and an apparent loss in focus on your original M.O.

Content about my club seems to have reduced as does quality to the extent where I question why I pay for this service when I can get regurgitated puff pieces elsewhere for free.”


It’s a shame as I really liked the product you originally sold, shame you’ve sold out chasing numbers instead of focusing on your original values.”

I doubt they’ll care as long as they can sell hordes of £1 a month subscriptions to people who forget they’ve got it and never cancel. I’d much rather pay £5 a month or so for what they originally promised to offer which was something different as opposed to what they offer now which is little different to most outlets.
 

Hoganstolemywife

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God knows why this new guy is covering us. He isnt even going to Portugal and left early from Spain. At least get someone who really wants to cover our club. He is a **** fan as well isnt he? That says it all. Glad I dont pay to read this ****e to be honest.
Completely agree. Feel bad to say it but if your job is to cover a Premier League club, perhaps going to their games would be a pre-requisite? Irrespective of family commitments
 

Mark Rankines Lovechild

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My issue with the Athletic isn’t so much the new guy but the type of media outlet they’ve become.

I’ve just cancelled my subscription and when asked for my opinion I thought I may as well give it, not that they’ll care:

You’ve removed the wolves podcast which I enjoyed and replaced the wolves corespondent who I enjoyed following.

You originally came in to the market offering something different, in depth content on individual clubs and situations rather than clickbait chasing articles like other providers. I paid for that experience and enjoyed it however you’ve diluted this by following the crowd with transfer gossip pages and an apparent loss in focus on your original M.O.

Content about my club seems to have reduced as does quality to the extent where I question why I pay for this service when I can get regurgitated puff pieces elsewhere for free.”


It’s a shame as I really liked the product you originally sold, shame you’ve sold out chasing numbers instead of focusing on your original values.”

I doubt they’ll care as long as they can sell hordes of £1 a month subscriptions to people who forget they’ve got it and never cancel. I’d much rather pay £5 a month or so for what they originally promised to offer which was something different as opposed to what they offer now which is little different to most outlets.

Its a great response. Love to hear what they say if they respond (which I don't expect they will)
 

JonahWolf

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My issue with the Athletic isn’t so much the new guy but the type of media outlet they’ve become.

I’ve just cancelled my subscription and when asked for my opinion I thought I may as well give it, not that they’ll care:

You’ve removed the wolves podcast which I enjoyed and replaced the wolves corespondent who I enjoyed following.

You originally came in to the market offering something different, in depth content on individual clubs and situations rather than clickbait chasing articles like other providers. I paid for that experience and enjoyed it however you’ve diluted this by following the crowd with transfer gossip pages and an apparent loss in focus on your original M.O.

Content about my club seems to have reduced as does quality to the extent where I question why I pay for this service when I can get regurgitated puff pieces elsewhere for free.”


It’s a shame as I really liked the product you originally sold, shame you’ve sold out chasing numbers instead of focusing on your original values.”

I doubt they’ll care as long as they can sell hordes of £1 a month subscriptions to people who forget they’ve got it and never cancel. I’d much rather pay £5 a month or so for what they originally promised to offer which was something different as opposed to what they offer now which is little different to most outlets.
Exactly that. I joined as soon as it came to the UK with football coverage, and it was indeed everything you said initially.
Now it’s the same as all other media, 5x as many articles about the usual suspects, more than 1 per day on the Ronaldo and Haaland sagas, general bandwaggoning rather than the depth and breadth that went before.

There are still the odd good ones, I like the analysis pieces from Cox, Carey et al, and the most recent Madeley one wasn’t bad…just find him dry to the point of dull, which you could never accuse Spiers of.
Some found his ‘laddish’ turns of phrase too much, but for me that’s what you should get from a real football fan that’s blessed with some word-smithery.
 

Chris H

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Its a great response. Love to hear what they say if they respond (which I don't expect they will)
I don’t expect I will either, I doubt they’ll care about one person’s opinion as long as they can sell thousands of memberships at £1 a month to people who forget about them that eventually auto renew they’re getting more than they’d get from me and people like me paying that bit more for the actual quality they once proclaimed to offer.

Exactly that. I joined as soon as it came to the UK with football coverage, and it was indeed everything you said initially.
Now it’s the same as all other media, 5x as many articles about the usual suspects, more than 1 per day on the Ronaldo and Haaland sagas, general bandwaggoning rather than the depth and breadth that went before.

There are still the odd good ones, I like the analysis pieces from Cox, Carey et al, and the most recent Madeley one wasn’t bad…just find him dry to the point of dull, which you could never accuse Spiers of.
Some found his ‘laddish’ turns of phrase too much, but for me that’s what you should get from a real football fan that’s blessed with some word-smithery.
Yep, still some decent stuff on there but amongst a lot of crap, especially at this time of year where they’re fully on the transfer rumour bandwagon.

Nothing recently has come close to some of the in-depth articles they did like the player recovery one by Spiers after Besiktas leading in to Man City away. Sure that was probably helped by both results but it was genuinely interesting getting that perspective you don’t get anywhere else. There’s now far less of that and far more fillers.

I’d rather one good article a week for my money than dozens of non entity ones you can get from anywhere, even if they are written to a good standard.
 

DanishWolf

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Completely agree. Feel bad to say it but if your job is to cover a Premier League club, perhaps going to their games would be a pre-requisite? Irrespective of family commitments

Well I'd normally say that he's entitled to days off like everyone else. Spiers missed games too.
But seeing that there's very limited Wolves content from his hand since the appointment I do wonder whether his employment is part-time or less and that's my real issue.
By all means take a break but when you do work, provide some decent content.
 

Wonder Boyo

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Listened to the main Premier League podcast on The Athletic today, covering predictions and expectations for the season They had Spiers on. The producer had Wolves in the section of clubs expecting to struggle (with Everton, Leeds, Southampton), but Tîm was very bullish about Wolves new formation and Lage's coaching and predicted us to come 7th. Never thought he was particularly optimistic in the past, so was quite surprised.
 

MasWolf

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Listened to the main Premier League podcast on The Athletic today, covering predictions and expectations for the season They had Spiers on. The producer had Wolves in the section of clubs expecting to struggle (with Everton, Leeds, Southampton), but Tîm was very bullish about Wolves new formation and Lage's coaching and predicted us to come 7th. Never thought he was particularly optimistic in the past, so was quite surprised.
By all accounts, our first 11 is good enough to be top 7, but the rest of our squad wouldn't even get promoted from The Championship. To be honest, if we don't sell anyone, I'm pretty optimistic about our chances this season. If a miracle happens and we sign Nunes, then i think we're nailed on for Europa Conference League.
 

wolfslair

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Spiers leaving plus the dropping of the awesome podcast with Jackie oatley when it was one of their most listened to podcasts shows how far down their pecking order we are.

Spiers wolves content on there was really good and enjoyable and it was clear in that environment he was going to move up the ladder and I am happy for him.
 
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