Former Wolves hero Mike Stowell is looking for a new footballing family
When Mike Stowell was at Wolves, the lack of parking facilities at Molineux meant that the players would leave their cars in the nearby pub – now the Leaping Wolf – on a Friday afternoon before an away game.
‘We’ve got Mickey, Mickey Stowell in our goal, in our goal’. Or should that be ‘Goalpost’. As the pub was then called.
Having travelled back on the team coach after the game, the former keeper and several of his team-mates would then pop in for a quick drink before heading home, joining many Wolves fans who had also made the trip.
On occasions, after a defeat, or a disappointing performance, it could be a lively conversation.
But for Stowell, that relationship with the fans was massively important. Win, lose or draw. Always has been and always will be.
“You have got to connect with fans, they pay their money and they come and support you and without them it’s a struggle,” he explains.
“Coming back from an away game – and sometimes it might be a bit difficult after a bad day – we always felt it was the right thing to do to pop in and see them.
“We were all honest lads at Wolves, and they were honest fans, and, as long as they knew we were giving our all, that was the most important thing.
“Yes, we could make mistakes, we could have an off day, but for me it is always important to make sure everyone is together and it’s not a case of ‘them and us’.
“We were one unit, and any club needs that if they want to be successful.”
Stowell has met and faced similar challenges head-on during his career as both player and coach which spans an almost unbroken 38 years.
Now he has to face another one.
Because, for the first time in 18 years, he is experiencing one of those breaks. And it has come after the start of pre-season.
After a truly incredible time with Leicester City, he finds himself out of work after new Foxes boss Enzo Maresca brought in his own backroom coaching team.
That often happens – and it’s only thanks to Stowell’s coaching acumen, strong sense of loyalty and supportive and enthusiastic personality that he survived so many managerial changes at Leicester – quite possibly 14 in total – up until now.
But the timing, coming when most clubs have staff already in place and preparations well underway for the new season, isn’t the best.
“Football is all I have done for 40 years – I don’t know much else,” says Stowell.
“I am ready to go again, now, and certainly not ready to retire.
“I’d love to be able to say I could go and sit on a beach all day and relax – but that’s not me.
“There’s a buzz about football, as a player and a coach, about feeling that pressure and then the euphoria if you get a result and celebrate with the fans.
“It is a tough game but there is no better game, and I have loved every minute of all my years in football.
“I’ve had my break now, I’ve done all the DIY jobs and the gardening, and I don’t need a sabbatical.
“It has been nice to spend a bit of time with the family, but I think I’m getting under my wife’s feet now – she wants me away and back at work and I’m happy with that.”
If Stowell’s work ethic – at age of 58 - shows no sign of diminishing, no one should really be surprised.
Before landing his big break in football, being signed by all-conquering Everton in late 1985 after impressing for North West Counties side Leyton Motors, Stowell had actually completed a four-year apprenticeship as a telecommunications engineer with BT.
Presumably, a strong and solid grounding and sense of perspective before heading into the rough and tumble of the world of professional football?
“I’d say so,” Stowell replies.
“It does ground you, show you what the real world is like, and is very different to nowadays, when a lot of kids go into academies at eight, nine, ten years-old, and have known nothing other than being looked after and having their boots and kit put out for them.
“Having said that, when I went to Wolves there were a lot of lads like Bully (Steve Bull) who’d had to really graft through the lower leagues to get a break.
“We were a team which appreciated being professional footballers, particularly how hard it is to get into the game and how it makes you more determined to succeed and stay in it once you are there.”
Stowell’s grounding on the football side came at Goodison Park, at an Everton side operating at the top end of English football.
Across five years he would only make one first team appearance, keeping a clean sheet in a Full Members Cup win against Millwall.
But the experience it gave was about far more than a mere statistic.
