Cruising Then Losing – An Update On Milestone Man Derek

Derek Mountfield has celebrated a landmark birthday in style – with a long holiday to the distant reaches of the southern hemisphere. The popular former centre-half returned just before Christmas from a 40-day cruise booked to coincide with him turning 60.

Fame Was Fleeting For Winger Unlucky To Miss Out At Wembley

Easter Monday, 1963 was without doubt one of the happiest days of my young life. April 15 that year was the day I made my ‘debut’ at Molineux – not on the pitch, sadly, but as an excited ten-year-old sitting in the Molineux Street wing stand and being thrilled by a 3-1 victory for my heroes against Aston Villa.

It was on the journey home to near Wigan that something happened that I have seldom thought about since. We stopped at Keele Services on the M6 and I was tucking into a jam doughnut, still proudly wearing my gold and black hooped scarf, when a genial man beamed at me.

Unusual Timing For Launch Of Rescue Mission

This is already a season like no other and, in Wolves’ case, it is becoming a little less familiar still. Never before has anyone gone into his first match in charge at the club during Christmas week and been preparing for his first League game amid the height of the festivities, although Mark McGhee pitched up in these parts in mid-December, 1995.

Big Night Looms For Julen

Could the contrast be any greater than this? Yesterday, in the heat of the Gulf, it was all about the best ever World Cup final and adios and possibly au revoir to Messi and Deschamps respectively.

Lure Of The Middle East Took Manager Away

As our World Cup-themed month on Wolves Heroes nears its end, we reflect on the list of ex-Molineux personnel who subsequently decided to go and work in the Gulf – Bill McGarry, Dave Woodfield, Graham Hawkins, Frank Wignall, John Burridge and, of course, Nuno Espirito Santo among them. Wignall, we should not forget, was in charge of the Qatar national team for a year or two in the mid-1970s, having not only his young family by his side but also Woodfield, one of his colleagues in the Wolves dressing room for just under a year from March, 1968.

Outspoken ‘Solution’ That Was Not Adopted

Even as radical suggestions go, we wonder whether this theory from inside Molineux’s corridors of power gained any significant traction.
Arthur Oakley was, at various times, Wolverhampton Wanderers’ vice-chairman and chairman, a club life member, an England selector and a Football League president. He was also clearly a man of strong opinions. Keep reading if you want the proof.