Solbakken speaks..

[DanishWolf]

Don't know if it's been mentioned, before, but Solbakkens autobiography came out recently here and while he doesnt shed much light on his time at Wolves, there are a few things being said:

- He absolutely despised Morgan, and says he had absolutely no idea about which direction he wanted for the club.
- Morgan constantly interfered in his work, even though his football knowledge was quite limited.
- Solbakken was told, when hired, that his job was to create a new identity and that he'd get at least a couple of transfer windows to do it
- Dropping some senior players who were high in the hierarchy, but didn't perform, was "suicide" he knew, but felt he had to do it in order to create a culture where you are dropped if you don't perform
- There was a strong culture at the club, but no winning culture.

- Moxey wanted to keep him and tried to convince Morgan. When he did get the bullet, Morgan didn't have the guts to deliver the message himself, but had Moxey call him
- Solbakken thought dreams of promotion was completely unrealistic with that squad

Now, I'm personally very happy, that neither Solbakken or Morgan are still at the club
I think Solbakken is right in his critic of Morgan, but I also think he shows a complete lack of humility regarding his own shortcomings. You simply don't get 3 transfer windows at a club recently relegated from the Premiership before talks about promotion can start.
Also, if the culture was bad, as he rightly saw, then why not do as Jackett did and completely bomb out those responsible?
Also, he complaints about lack of funds and loss of key players, but it was him who spend money on Sigurdasson, Doumbia and Margreitter.
Anyway I don't particular care about Solbakken and I'm so glad we've a completely different leadership.
Nuno and Fosun are different class to Morgan and Solbakken.
Just thought I'd share it for those with interest in it.

 

[The Professional]

Thanks for the information. Interesting stuff.

 

[Phitsanulok (Poole) Wolf]

Did you not consider that after Solbakken was shafted and then Dean Saunders weaved his magic that it was a lot easier for Kenny to be able to do what he did. Solbakken's hands were tied.

 

[The House of Wolves]

Thank **** Morgan is gone. ****er.

 

[DanishWolf]

Did you not consider that after Solbakken was shafted and then Dean Saunders weaved his magic that it was a lot easier for Kenny to be able to do what he did. Solbakken's hands were tied.

That's certainly a valid point

 

[shaygriff]

Thanks for this, Danish, I was going to ask if you'd heard anything. I thought I'd buy it even though it's in Danish, not much different from Norwegian. I'll forget about that then.

 

[Stratman Wolves]

Thank you for posting that. Some people have had revisionist history regarding Morgan lately, and it is vital to not forget what an awful owner he was.

 

[Wolves in Bucharest]

Personally I think he was worse than Dean Saunders. The idea the club had at the time was good, but the person they brought in to do it was hopelessly out of his depth.

 

[Sephiroth]

Personally I think he was worse than Dean Saunders. The idea the club had at the time was good, but the person they brought in to do it was hopelessly out of his depth.

Worse than Saunders? Have a word.

 

[North West Wanderer]

Couldn’t stand him

 

[shaygriff]

Couldn’t stand him

I loved him, and was depressed for a while after he got canned.

 

[Bossworld]

Personally I think he was worse than Dean Saunders. The idea the club had at the time was good, but the person they brought in to do it was hopelessly out of his depth.

He set the relegation in motion. Saunders was hopeless but I remain unconvinced Solbakken was any better and let’s remember which of the two spunked millions on crap players.

Interesting points and thanks for the translaton but thankfully a period consigned to our history.

 

[Tring Wolf]

Just out of interest, who were the high-profile players he dropped? I thought he kept playing the likes of Henry, Ward and Doyle every week.

 

[Ponty]

Bringing in SS to manage a squad that was largely built by Mick was doomed to failure. Just like WBA employing Pardew to manage a squad built by Pulis. If you want to change a club in a short time you need an excellent manager who is fully backed. Nuno is a great example - got rid of a lot, brought plenty in and most importantly kept the right ones which he improved beyond belief. I don’t think SS was going to succeed with the backing and squad available, but the reality is he didn’t buy well, alienated players and all in all was rather poor. The only mistake sacking him was replacing him with a total muppet.

 

[Ponty]

Just out of interest, who were the high-profile players he dropped? I thought he kept playing the likes of Henry, Ward and Doyle every week.

Indeed. Revisionism to try and justify his abysmal failure. We were heading down with him in charge but sealed it by appointing the Welsh cretin.

 

[Flynn]

I rate Solbakken, and I'm pleased he's been able to rebuild his career at Copenhagen - who he has sorted right out again. But at Wolves he needed time to overhaul a squad built over a period of 6 years to play under Mick McCarthy. He needed time. He got one transfer window. Hearing what he thinks about Morgan and his time at the club does sound about right. We were rudderless and directionless at the time - and abandoning a long term project (which is what it should have been) to bring in Dean Saunders after 6 months was just mindless.

But I said this on another thread, going down to League One was a needed detox, and refreshed the link between the club and the fans. If we had stayed up that season (which I think we would had we kept Solbakken), and given him two more windows of backing, then it is impossible to say where we would be now. It could have worked, or it could have had us float frustratingly around The Championship for a few more years. We'll never know. But Solbakken wasn't the reason we went down to League One. It was the ownership chopping and changing the direction of the club at whim, and not backing the manager to the extent a complete overhaul of the mess we were in as a club - which when he came in wasn't completely apparent - would have needed.

 

[Ponty]

I rate Solbakken, and I'm pleased he's been able to rebuild his career at Copenhagen - who he has sorted right out again. But at Wolves he needed time to overhaul a squad built over a period of 6 years to play under Mick McCarthy. He needed time. He got one transfer window. Hearing what he thinks about Morgan and his time at the club does sound about right. We were rudderless and directionless at the time - and abandoning a long term project (which is what it should have been) to bring in Dean Saunders after 6 months was just mindless.

But I said this on another thread, going down to League One was a needed detox, and refreshed the link between the club and the fans. If we had stayed up that season (which I think we would had we kept Solbakken), and given him two more windows of backing, then it is impossible to say where we would be now. It could have worked, or it could have had us float frustratingly around The Championship for a few more years. We'll never know. But Solbakken wasn't the reason we went down to League One. It was the ownership chopping and changing the direction of the club at whim, and not backing the manager to the extent a complete overhaul of the mess we were in as a club - which when he came in wasn't completely apparent - would have needed.

Agree with everything you say apart from I don’t think we would have stayed up if he’d stayed. We were sinking faster than a comet into a black hole!

 

[The House of Wolves]

Morgan, and even more so Moxey, as a pair of absolute failures were a complete stain on Wolverhampton Wanderers history.

No coincidence that less than two years after the pair of them are gone we are back where we belong. I hope no other football supporter in the land has to endure the pain of seeing either of those chancers at their football club.

 

[WW1963]

The clown is right about Morgan not having a clue how to run a football club - he hired him.

 

[quirky_birky]

He might have done a decent job under different circumstances, but it said it all for me when they asked players what they thought of their new manager and none of them had a clue who he was. He was also following Mick, who was very popular with the players. It was never going to go well (a bit like Moyes following Ferguson).

Some of the players he signed had ability, and may have come good given time, but that was a luxury we didn't have.

I guess the piece shows that Moxey had to do what he was told despite what his own feelings may have been. Still, he was getting paid plenty to cop the flack for doing that.

 

[Honved]

Would have been a good manager for a more stable club, with time to build and owners sticking to a vision. I think if he'd taken over from Hodgson at Albion, for instance, he'd have done a decent job.

Wolves were not that club. He didn't have what was needed for us, and he didn't have the backing to do it. And, while I don't think he would have taken us down, I don't think he could have moved us forward, either. We would have sputtered around the middle of the Championship for another season, and the club would have faded into apathy much sooner than it did.

 

[WonderWolf]

Sold a pup by a man who had no idea what it takes to create and develop something new…..a bit like the ideas of a few clueless posters on here.

Give Nuno and his mate the same bunch of knackered and satisfied dinosuars, sell your real talent and replace it with second-rate euro talent and foreign potential, add a **** load of resistance and inflexibility to a losing mentality and watch the downward curve develop pretty quickly.

Oh the very “idea” it could work out just like that!

Genuinely laughing.

 

[E is for idiot.]

Sold a pup by a man who had no idea what it takes to create and develop something new…..a bit like the ideas of a few clueless posters on here.

Give Nuno and his mate the same bunch of knackered and satisfied dinosuars, sell your real talent and replace it with second-rate euro talent and foreign potential, add a **** load of resistance and inflexibility to a losing mentality and watch the downward curve develop pretty quickly.

Oh the very “idea” it could work out just like that!

Genuinely laughing.

I think Solbakken was on a hiding to nothing coming here, but come on now be sensible. That year we were shocking a lot of it was down to the players but a lot of it was down to Solbakken as well. He wasn't able to get his ideas across in any way shape or form.

Is he the management saviour that was crucified by the Pontius Pilate players that you often protray him to be? No.

Is he the useless moron that some other people portray him to be? No.

The real truth is somewhere in the middle. Wrong bloke at the wrong time and didn't have the charisma, backing from the board or coaching ability to sort out the extreme mess the club was in at the time.

The only real fact is that he was a failure during his time here. Some of that has to land at his feet, regardless of how difficult the situation here was at the time.

 

[WonderWolf]

I think Solbakken was on a hiding to nothing coming here, but come on now be sensible. That year we were shocking a lot of it was down to the players but a lot of it was down to Solbakken as well. He wasn't able to get his ideas across in any way shape or form.

Is he the management saviour that was crucified by the Pontius Pilate players that you often protray him to be? No.

Is he the useless moron that some other people portray him to be? No.

The real truth is somewhere in the middle. Wrong bloke at the wrong time and didn't have the charisma, backing from the board or coaching ability to sort out the extreme mess the club was in at the time.

The only real fact is that he was a failure during his time here. Some of that has to land at his feet, regardless of how difficult the situation here was at the time.

Can't agree as it's much too easy and convenient.

How did it go for Warner at Huddersfield that first season before the successful second....look it up.

Change takes time and considered effort.

 

[OLDGOLD]

I think Solbakken was shafted. I don't think he dropped as many players as he is alluding to, and a lot of the old players were very guilty of not trying and using player power to get him the boot. That said, he tried to implement a plan that the players could not, or would not follow. The irony is, he may have done better than Mick in the premier league, but Mick was infinately better suited to the championship. I don't think he would have kept us up, but I can at least try and see what he was doing, compared to Saunders who made Pavlovs dogs seem like rocket scientists.
In the long term, we may be better of than if he had steadied the ship.

As for Morgan, I was never a fan, but at least he got a lot of Redrow houses built....

 

[E is for idiot.]

Can't agree as it's much too easy and convenient.

How did it go for Warner at Huddersfield that first season before the successful second....look it up.

Change takes time and considered effort.

There needs to be recovery shoots for this to have any kind of parallel. I assume you saw us play that year? There was no sign that he could get any of the players he had signed or any of the old ones to perform how he wanted them to.

Wagner certainly had a better board who were willing to back him better, but by the same token Wagner was showing signs that his ideas were starting to take. Look at the Huddersfield forum from then and you will see plenty of positive posts despite their poor league position. Look at ours and the vast majority is what the **** were we doing out there?

Did Karl Henry and the rest play a part in it? Yes. Did Morgan and Moxey? Yes. But Solbakken is completely blameless? Come off it, your view is the simplistic one. He isn't as bad as a lot make out, but neither is he as good as you make out either.

 

[FinnishWolf]

I feel for Solbakken, I really do. I always thought he was a quality manager but not the right kind of a manager for the job in front of him -- a job that, mind you, was absolutely horrendous, and I doubt there are many managers in the whole world who could have found instant success in it. No one at the time truly understood how absolutely ****ed we were -- how the entire squad built by Mick was now a bunch of overpaid whiny brats who were still sulking over losing their favourite manager and refusing to put in the hard work and find the humility necessary to actually succeed in a league as tough as Championship. Add to that an incompetent owner insistent on putting his fat fingers in every decision and you have an absolute nightmare of a task in front of you.

That all said -- he still failed horribly. He did a really, really **** job. Yes, the task was difficult, but... he still failed horribly. There's no excuses, really. As much as I liked him and would personally have given him more time, I can't really complain about him getting the sack. I just wish we had someone half competent lined up to replace him.

 

[Deleted member 3573J]

Yeah Morgan was a clown but so was Solbakken which is why his only success has come in a Mickey Mouse league, failed in Germany and England so is back in his small pond.

A lot of the players were knobs but Solbakken was too, a truly baffling slaphead who could write an encyclopedia-sized guide in how to run a bath and still forget to tell his readers to put the plug in.

 

[WonderWolf]

There needs to be recovery shoots for this to have any kind of parallel. I assume you saw us play that year? There was no sign that he could get any of the players he had signed or any of the old ones to perform how he wanted them to.

Wagner certainly had a better board who were willing to back him better, but by the same token Wagner was showing signs that his ideas were starting to take. Look at the Huddersfield forum from then and you will see plenty of positive posts despite their poor league position. Look at ours and the vast majority is what the **** were we doing out there?

Did Karl Henry and the rest play a part in it? Yes. Did Morgan and Moxey? Yes. But Solbakken is completely blameless? Come off it, your view is the simplistic one. He isn't as bad as a lot make out, but neither is he as good as you make out either.

Never made him out to be 'good' just not given a proper chance as needed.

To be fair what I do agree with is that in the circumstances mentioned earlier many like yourself would have been consistent with Nuno's removal.

Just the way some see things.

 

[shaygriff]

I remember Ståle saying that in the January window, some were leaving, that would surprise people. I took that to be the likes of Henry. He also had a plan for players to bring in that would fit his style. When he recieved word that he was sacked, he was being interviewed by a Norwegian newspaper. He said excuse me, now I'll see how much I'm getting to spend on transfers and was shocked to see he was fired!

 

[Shergar]

The clown is right about Morgan not having a clue how to run a football club - he hired him.

And Terry Connor before him.

 

[E is for idiot.]

Never made him out to be 'good' just not given a proper chance as needed.

To be fair what I do agree with is that in the circumstances mentioned earlier many like yourself would have been consistent with Nuno's removal.

Just the way some see things.

I actually didn't want him sacked. If you don't want to take my word I am sure the posts are still there, I advocated for him to be given more time.

I think if he was given the January window and still couldn't turn things around then it was time for him to go. He hadn't shown great strides up to that point though. We were not a good team, we were not an improving team and we looked like we were on our way down.

 

[WonderWolf]

I actually didn't want him sacked. If you don't want to take my word I am sure the posts are still there, I advocated for him to be given more time.

I think if he was given the January window and still couldn't turn things around then it was time for him to go. He hadn't shown great strides up to that point though. We were not a good team, we were not an improving team and we looked like we were on our way down.

No we weren't a good team or an improving one at all.....we could see what the players were like on the field.

Took us down with almost half a season to go to change it didn't they??

The cull was inevitable!

 

[shaygriff]

Also, if the culture was bad, as he rightly saw, then why not do as Jackett did and completely bomb out those responsible?
Also, he complaints about lack of funds and loss of key players, but it was him who spend money on Sigurdasson, Doumbia and Margreitter.
Anyway I don't particular care about Solbakken and I'm so glad we've a completely different leadership.
Nuno and Fosun are different class to Morgan and Solbakken.
Just thought I'd share it for those with interest in it.

Could be because he didn't have any others to put in their place. How many of his signings got injured that autumn? Boukari, Peszko are two I remember, sure there where others. I think, if given the january window, he would have kept us up.
He also signed Sako

 

[North West Wanderer]

Sold a pup by a man who had no idea what it takes to create and develop something new…..a bit like the ideas of a few clueless posters on here.

Give Nuno and his mate the same bunch of knackered and satisfied dinosuars, sell your real talent and replace it with second-rate euro talent and foreign potential, add a **** load of resistance and inflexibility to a losing mentality and watch the downward curve develop pretty quickly.

Oh the very “idea” it could work out just like that!

Genuinely laughing.

Ever just thought he wasn’t very good?

 

[WonderWolf]

Ever just thought he wasn’t very good?

No....Not with consideration of the circumstances mentioned.

It could be like calling Nuno the same.

 

[wwbug]

Morgan, Moxey , O'Hara, Johnson and Henry.

Solbakken .

Spot the mismatch !!


My heart went out to the man recommended by Hodgson.
A good man thrown into a sewer.

 

[North West Wanderer]

No....Not with consideration of the circumstances mentioned.

It could be like calling Nuno the same.

It wouldn’t at all. There is no evidence to suggest Solbakken was anything like Nuno
He lacked Nuno’s man management to start with. And his attention to detail.

 

[Honved]

It wouldn’t at all. There is no evidence to suggest Solbakken was anything like Nuno
He lacked Nuno’s man management to start with. And his attention to detail.

I think the latter part is key. Nuno, clearly, drills down into the details.

 

[WonderWolf]

Morgan, Moxey , O'Hara, Johnson and Henry.

Solbakken .

Spot the mismatch !!


My heart went out to the man recommended by Hodgson.
A good man thrown into a sewer.

Told to create an "identity".......very much like Nuno speak.

All about the 'tools' and the support staff to bring about the revolution......took Mick three seasons to bring his about.