Wolfism

[Woodsetton Wolf]

I love reading Johnny Phillips articles, I think this sums up many of our, Wolves fans, journey of supporting the Old Gold and Black!

Johnny Phillips: Walking the path of hope and despair is the definition of Wolfism

What it is to be a Wolves fan?

www.expressandstar.com

 

[Deleted member 9202LYK]

I love reading Johnny Phillips articles, again, I think this sums up many of us, Wolves fans, journey of supporting the Old Gold and Black!

Johnny Phillips: Walking the path of hope and despair is the definition of Wolfism

What it is to be a Wolves fan?

www.expressandstar.com

I installed the e&s app. It wants me to pay! They must think the are the next Athletic. They’ve got another think coming.

 

[Frank Lincoln]

I love reading Johnny Phillips articles, again, I think this sums up many of us, Wolves fans, journey of supporting the Old Gold and Black!

Johnny Phillips: Walking the path of hope and despair is the definition of Wolfism

What it is to be a Wolves fan?

www.expressandstar.com

A good article, and so very true. In my 60 years supporting Wolves, they have put me through every emotion. But no one said it was going to be easy.

For youngsters just starting out following the gold and black path, be wary. It will be a roller coaster of a ride.

But that is Wolfism, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

[Ches78]

Hopefully Jeff will give it a read and (if he doesn't already) understand that a lot of what he reads/hears isn't personal - it's just our love of Wolves tends to be a bit on the manic depressive side...

 

[JadeWolf]

Totally agree with Johnny. I’ve not been supporting Wolves anywhere near as long as lots of you on here but in the years I’ve been a fan it’s been a real emotional mess! Wouldn’t have it any other way though!

 

[wolvesaywe]

Nice article but it could be written about 20 different clubs

We all love to think we're special and unique in some way

 

[rincewind]

Nice article but it could be written about 20 different clubs

We all love to think we're special and unique in some way

Think you'd struggle to find another club who, in my supporting life, have gone from top 6 an European finalists to bottom of the football league via 2 or 3 near bankruptcies to back to roughly the same place. Oh and the giddy optimism of the SJH years, the seemingly innumerable seasons in the middle of the Championship, an England World Cup striker while in the 3rd tier, play off defeats and triumph, cup semi final defeats etc.

 

[wwbug]

There is certainly something special about ’wolfism’
This board highlights how deeply we are all committed to anything Wolves. Many clubs don’t have discussion sites anywhere near as busy.
But once a summit is achieved I think every club has fans that want that next step and fear failure.
All the top clubs have unhappy fans if they aren’t challenging strongly to win the tithe It’s just another level up.
Fan are obsessive and can’t control their obsession, so they worry.

 

[WickedWolfie]

A good article, and so very true. In my 60 years supporting Wolves, they have put me through every emotion. But no one said it was going to be easy.

For youngsters just starting out following the gold and black path, be wary. It will be a roller coaster of a ride.

But that is Wolfism, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

That's your excuse for hairy palms and you are sticking to it huh Frank....

Thankfully it doesn't mention a coat phobia....

 

[SuperGran]

Nice article but it could be written about 20 different clubs

We all love to think we're special and unique in some way

How many other clubs had successive relegations following 6 top six top flight finishes? There’s not many teams that I can think of

 

[SingYourHeartsOut]

Totally agree with Johnny. I’ve not been supporting Wolves anywhere near as long as lots of you on here but in the years I’ve been a fan it’s been a real emotional mess! Wouldn’t have it any other way though!

I think this is true, even the triple and double relegations weren't as depressing as the endless consecutive seasons in the Chump hoping to scrape 6th and screw up the play-offs.

 

[WickedWolfie]

How many other clubs had successive relegations following 6 top six top flight finishes? There’s not many teams that I can think of

To be fair there was a single relegation and promotion prior to the plummet.

 

[Black Country Wanderer]

Nice article but it could be written about 20 different clubs

We all love to think we're special and unique in some way

I dont think we see ourselves as special in any way,but equally i cant think of many, if any, clubs that have had the full spectrum of ups and downs that we have over the years
From being arguably the top club in world football,to triple relegations and promotions and almost back again,going literally to hours from extinction, 20 years of championship football before another period of ups and downs, to today being an almost established Prem team
All that sprinkled with a few Wembley visits makes us a true heartbreaker club,as he says its the hope that kills you
Yet here we all are still supporting the old gold and black through thick and thin,it wouldnt be Wolves if it was any other way

 

[JonahWolf]

Fabulous article. Some of the above comments that the same applies to many clubs, it does in spirit, but the size and regularity of the swings aren’t even close for most.
Take Everton. Their fans have been on the edge of a ‘new dawn’ for 30 years, constantly striving to be genuine contenders again…and ultimately mired in mid-table disappointment.
That’s like us under SJH, but mid-table top flight mediocrity is still a far better rut than similar second tier irrelevance.

 

[Streathamwolf]

He is a real wordsmith, excellent article.

 

[WickedWolfie]

He is a real wordsmith, excellent article.

A veritable cunning linguist....

 

[Woodsetton Wolf]

All the false dawns, have made us what we are. Whichever owners we get, they always promise grandeur, FOSUN have seen this and can’t get their heads around why we are so sceptical.

 

[SA Wolf]

Spot-on Mr Phillips. Doesn't make the downs any easier to endure, though. As has been said, 'it's the hope that kills ya'!

 

[Fenrir_]

Used to play a computer game where one possible route you could take was to create your own religion - I always called it "Wolfism"!

 

[Ned]

It’s a great article. Let’s face it, there’s a tiny part in all of us that thinks the wheels might come off at some stage, even just 1%



But it’s there.

 

[jrpb-3]

Nice article but it could be written about 20 different clubs

We all love to think we're special and unique in some way

certainly we're not the only club to have had many ups and downs, but we've had more than a lot of clubs, Fans of most clubs will probably recognize some time at their club that have felt like that. Maybe for use it's gone on for longer than for many clubs and been more extreme from top to bottom in successive seasons back down to league one not so long ago, all that and the fact that we have also had real success in our past maybe means it's a bit more ingrained in us than in some clubs

 

[oldgolded]

Absolutely brilliant article, especially the bit about false dawns.

 

[Stoichkov]

Nice article but it could be written about 20 different clubs

We all love to think we're special and unique in some way

maybe but bobby charlton said a few years ago that he loved wolves fans because they're either miserable or euphoric, no in between

go and sit with a bunch of leicester fans and there just isn't the same myopic outlook. i think it's the black country pysche

 

[JadeWolf]

maybe but bobby charlton said a few years ago that he wolves fans because they're either miserable or euphoric, no in between

go and sit with a bunch of leicester fans and there just isn't the same myopic outlook. i think it's the black country pysche

Definitely a lot to be said about what being from the Black Country does too, you’re right.

 

[Bill S Preston Esq.]

He's certainly described many of the fans I see around me. This article doesn't describe me though.

I'm more upbeat, more hopeful. I can see the shoots of progress and have the patience to wait for the fruit.

Even without Nuno, we're still on our way back.

 

[Ironfistedmonk]

It's the lows that make the relatively few highs all the more special, you can say other clubs experience the same as we do but I don't think any other club has had anywhere near the scale of ups and downs we have had and that has shaped our mindset, always hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

You can support one of the Sky teams who win something every year, highs all the way and yeah that would be fun for a bit but the novelty would wear off and a year with no success is a disaster, or you could support someone like Rochdale, 36 consecutive years in the basement division, never won a thing and only a handful of ups and downs. I think we are a very unique club and all that history is what makes us what we are.

 

[Streathamwolf]

maybe but bobby charlton said a few years ago that he loved wolves fans because they're either miserable or euphoric, no in between

go and sit with a bunch of leicester fans and there just isn't the same myopic outlook. i think it's the black country pysche

Totally. As a black country son who never lived there for long - RAF father - you can almost taste the slightly downbeat cynicism, always with dry humour.

 

[the 15th Wanderer]

I don't believe any other club has seen the highs and lows that we have. Three clubs have had three successive relegation us, Bristol City and Luton. With the greatest respect neither of them have our history.
We are also on a short list of teams relegated twice on the trot.
This after being arguably 'the most famous club in the world in the fiftys'
No wonder we can be sceptical.

 

[reanswolf]

Sunderland, Sheff Wed, and Forest are clubs who have had it worse than us in recent years at least.

 

[JadeWolf]

Sunderland, Sheff Wed, and Forest are clubs who have had it worse than us in recent years at least.

They’ve not had the highs to go with it either though have they. That’s what Johnny is saying, you get unbelievable highs and crushing lows sometimes in the same week!

 

[Boss Hogg]

The article doesn’t even mention the ‘blow up’ season which for me encapsulates all our pain of the 90s and early 2000s in just one season.

 

[Contrarian]

Nice article but it could be written about 20 different clubs

We all love to think we're special and unique in some way

Yeah, I go along with that. But still... some clubs are consistent winners, most are consistent losers, but is there any that gets so close, so often, as much as Wolves, only to ultimately fail in an often dramatic way? ("And then came the Global Pandemic....") I genuinely don't know, but we must be up there. Has any club lost out on league titles on goal average or failing to win that last match as much as Wolves? Before my time, but didn't we do this 3 or 4 times, back in the 40's and 50's, including before our first title? And losing it to our chief rivals, naturally.

It's not "success or failure" (because 98% of clubs never win anything and don't expect to), it's more a regular knack of "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory". After *that* semi-final, on the radio, they were saying they'd gone back through the records and in over 100 years, didn't find any FA Cup semi-final where a team was 2 goals ahead with 12 minutes to go, yet lost. Timings are sketchy back in the early days..but, is this really the same as 20 other clubs? Losing out on Europe last year on goal difference , well, it's just normal for us, isn't it?

Sometime in the early 2000's I vaguely remember reading something about some statistical analysis to find the club that had disappointed it's supporters the most. They'd measured it by losing semi-finals and finals, runners-up, last day relegations, that kind of thing. Man City were the stand out club - but this was before the takeover, so they've had many successes since then. But we did get an honourable mention! Ad did Notts County, I think. Can't remember the rest, I wish something similar could be done now, my feeling is that on some measure of "dashing supporters hopes" , we would be at the higher end.

 

[Contrarian]

Sunderland, Sheff Wed, and Forest are clubs who have had it worse than us in recent years at least.

They are just rubbish though. The thing with us is how we raise hopes through being very good...then collapse at the end, with success in sight. "It's the hope than kills you". If Sheff Wed were 10 points clear with 6 matches to go, then lost out to Sheff Utd...that's the kind of thing I think Wolves do far more than most. And as it goes back to the 30's possibly, I wonder how much of it is "in our DNA"?

In modern times, Spurs may be worse, though.

 

[Kebab Warrior]

It’s a great article. Let’s face it, there’s a tiny part in all of us that thinks the wheels might come off at some stage, even just 1%



But it’s there.

I constantly feel like that. We could be 8 nil up on the champions league final and I’d probably still feel that. Starting my journey in the 80s scarred me.

 

[Kebab Warrior]

Bloody brilliant article by the way.

I keep having recurring nightmares of Raul missing that pen.

And ****ing Watford.

Weirdly the Palace & Norwich play offs still hurt more.

Most of all the post Play Off final transfer window. The realisation we weren’t going to even try. Still feel the pain.