Barry’s a real ice-box to box player
FRIDGE engineer Barry Douglas is the coolest man at Molineux while everyone else is getting excited about Wolves’ flying start.
Amid the rash of exotic imports from Portugal, notably £15.8million record signing Ruben Neves, new manager Nuno Espirito Santo has still found room for British grit in the biggest injection of sophistication in the Black Country since the Grand Slam of Darts made Wolverhampton Civic Hall its spiritual home.
Keeper John Ruddy has signed on a free transfer from Norwich, while flying Scotsman Douglas has slotted in at left-back as if he was fitting a new compressor to your refrigerator.
Douglas, 27, arrived in the Black Country via Dundee, Poland and Turkey.
He won the Polish title with Lech Poznan, where that barmy celebration was invented, and the Turkish Cup with underdogs Konyaspor.
Today’s top-of-the-table game with Cardiff will be another test of Wolves’
WOLVES DEFENDER BARRY DOUGLAS
Premier League credentials. Promotion? Douglas will cross that fridge when he comes to it, but he has not forgotten his life before turning professional.
“I did an apprenticeship in refrigeration and airconditioning engineering when I was starting out at Queen’s Park, who were classed as amateur.
“It was the old-school approach, I needed something to fall back on in case football didn’t work out and I don’t regret my taste of the real world – up at 5.30am and grafting for a living.
“That’s why I’ll never take playing football as a career for granted.”
Be that as it may, Douglas has started his Wolves career as if he was back in the old day job. It’s as if he opens the door, the light goes on and he bursts into action.
He scored at Derby last week and old gold fans have already taken to his dynamic shuttles down the left.
Wolves have oozed class so far and Santo’s recruitment looks spot-on after they went shopping for a Scottish full-back who had been plying his trade in some unlikely corners of Europe.
Douglas relished the experience, saying: “When people talk about fans ‘doing the Poznan’, I saw the original ritual at first hand.
“It was a bit of a culture shock after playing at Hampden for Queen’s Park with only a few hundred people dotted around the national stadium and then for Dundee United in front of a few thousand to witness the incredible passion of Poznan.
“You are not just talking about a couple of hundred like-minded supporters gathering behind the goal for a few songs. Every week an entire stand was packed with thousands of fanatics, grown men linking arms and jumping around.
“The fans over there are different gravy. Sometimes they made so much noise you could actually feel the earth move. It was a special atmosphere.
“When the opportunity came to play in Poland, I went with an open mind because I wasn’t sure what to expect – but I would not have missed it for anything.
“Everything was brand new because Poland had just cothe hosted the Euros and it was an ideal environment to take my game to the next level.
“And Poznan won the Ekstraklasa [Polish First Division] two years ago while I was there, so that made it all the more worthwhile.
“It was a case of showing people, myself included, what can be done if you’re prepared to chase your dreams.
“And it was for much the same reasons I joined Konyaspor, where we won the Turkish Cup for the first time in the club’s history.
“It took about 15 minutes for me to reach the tunnel after we won the penalty shoot-out because within a minute the pitch was swamped by 30,000 fans and it took another half an hour before we could be presented with the cup.
“Now I’ve been lucky enough to win a trophy in Poland and Turkey, it would be special to help Wolves achieve some success.
“It’s never easy coming into a team with a lot of new players, but I like to think I’ve got a winning mentality.”