Johnny Phillips: A question of soul for clubs and fans

It is a question often asked today as the game shifts from a local to a global base. Newcastle United is a good place to start. An unpopular owner, a fire sale of players, mounting debts, a renamed stadium and relegation all haunted the club in recent years.

But last Saturday St James’ Park was an awe-inspiring place to watch football. Rafa Benitez’s team swept aside West Ham and the supporters took the roof off, acclaiming a first Premier League win of the season.

Benitez has been credited with unifying supporters and turning around the club’s fortunes, breathing life into the soul of the place; the Rafalution. But had that soul ever gone away?

One of Benitez’s predecessors Sir Bobby Robson articulated this spiritual concept better than anyone. “What is a club in any case? Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes.

“It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city. It’s a small boy clambering up the stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at the hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.”

Wolves’ shift from a club run by a British businessman to one owned by a Chinese conglomerate, under the influence of a global super-agent, has led to some soul-searching.

These are challenging times for supporters, who have been energised by the developments of the past year.

Many have thrown their support behind the new regime, others are content to wait and see what happens before making judgements and some have reservations about the direction the club is moving in.

It was upsetting to learn of the social media abuse Charles Ross (who edited the former fanzine A Load of Bull) came in for this week over his comments in a national tabloid’s piece about the club’s methods. Profoundly disagree with him, absolutely, but seeking to delegitimise his opinions is wrong. Its time has passed, but there was an era when A Load of Bull was the only voice fans had.

Ross articulated concerns on subjects such as Financial Fair Play, the shirt sponsorship and Mendes’ role, but the wider tone of the article – a poorly-constructed case suggesting Fosun’s Wolves had lost their soul – was designed to provoke.

There will likely be many more critical eyes cast over the club in the coming months. If Wolves and their supporters really want to join the big boys then they will be scrutinised like the big boys. Get used to it.

Ross’s comments highlighted a difference of opinion among supporters; fans who care have always disagreed. A Load of Bull’s previous editor, Dave Worton, famously gave away two lapel badges with one of the early editions of the fanzine in the 1990s.

It was at a time when manager Graham Turner’s reign was drawing to a close and supporters were divided about his future.

One badge was emblazoned with ‘Turner Must Go’ and the other with ‘Graham Turner’s Gold and Black Army’, reflecting the two terrace chants of the time. The satirical idea was that fans could easily be identified by which camp they were in.

The joke was on supporters but it went completely over the head of the club’s hierarchy at the time, who tried to get sales of the fanzine banned from outside the ground. Opinion is part of the passion – the soul – that Sir Bobby spoke of.

Liverpool fans were fighting for the soul of Anfield during the tempestuous Hicks and Gillett reign.

The Americans almost took the club into administration with their leveraged buy-out. ‘Built by Shanks, Broke by Yanks’ read the banner on The Kop. Yet the supporter group Spirit of Shankly took the fight to the owners and the protests that followed helped bring about a change in ownership.

Just last year they were at it again, helping mobilise the first ever supporter walk-out at Anfield during a Premier League fixture against Sunderland. Thousands of fans left the ground early in protests at a ticket price hike, with the result that the owners backed down.

Liverpool fans were never tested like Wolves supporters were in the 1980s, when their team dropped through the leagues as the Bhatti brothers took the club into administration. There were times when only a couple of thousand came through the Molineux gates, but they still came. No matter how bad the team, or how dastardly the owners, the soul lived on. It can even survive a club’s demise. Look at Wimbledon, a club that wouldn’t die.

The soul of a club can shine brightly at the most unlikely moments.

As Wolves’ troublesome 2016/17 campaign entered the death throes, there was a March night in West London that transported every fan present to a better place.

Paul Lambert’s relegation-threatened side spent most of the evening trailing to Brentford, but never gave up. In the final few minutes two goals turned it all around and a gleeful band of travelling fans were consumed with euphoria in the dilapidated Griffin Park away end. You see, it doesn’t take much.

It wasn’t Gerrard, Carragher and co rising from the floor to defeat AC Milan in Istanbul and lift a European Cup, but it didn’t have to be.

There will be a time when the players currently pulling on the old gold will have long gone. The owners, too, will have turned their attentions to something else.

But Sir Bobby was right.

As long as somebody walking up those steps for the very first time falls in love then the soul will live on, no question.

* Best wishes to everyone involved in the Cure Leukaemia fundraiser at Molineux’s WV1 bar today.

The event put on by ‘They Wore The Shirt’ author Steve Plant and his band of fundraisers is the latest in a series of events raising funds in support of goalkeeper Carl Ikeme.

If you have an afternoon free, then pop down to show your support.

Plenty of former Wolves stars will be in attendance including Kenny Hibbitt, Steve Daley, John Richards, Phil Parkes, Mel Eves, Garry Pierce, Andy Thompson, Andy Mutch and Sam Ricketts.

They will be taking part in short interviews on stage throughout the afternoon.

There will also be sponsored head shaves, chest waxes, tombola, memorabilia and current first-team shirt auctions plus a large Lego Molineux up for grabs in a raffle – I’ve seen that particular work myself and it is a fantastic construction.

A big shout-out also to Albion’s Gareth Barry for auctioning one of his match-worn shirts from this season, he’s a fantastic ambassador for his new club already.

You can pay on the door – £5 adults, £2 under-16s. Free parking is available around the ground and the bar is open all afternoon.