John de Wolf on life at Molineux
The Wolves cult hero was the greatest triumph in the history of nominative determinism – until Wolfsburg appointed Wolfgang Wolf as manager
What do you remember about the day you joined Wolves? Graham Taylor had just been coaching the England national team when he became the new manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1994. I was a big signing for him. I arrived on December 5 that year, and the next day Taylor told the squad, “Guys, he will become our leader.” I was flabbergasted. But I was able to handle that pressure. I came from Feyenoord where I’d achieved a lot. If you have managed to stand firm at De Kuip, you can handle almost everything. What was your first game for the club? It was a home match against Notts County – for the first time in 17 games, Wolves kept a clean sheet. We won 1-0 and moved into 2nd place. Everything felt right. There I was, at 32, in football-mad England, even being the captain of the team. My family was sitting in the stands and there was media over from Holland as well. The shirt was orange and even my name blended in well with the club! Do you have a favourite game during that time at Wolves? That was when I scored three goals at Port Vale. I didn’t remember the exact date of the game, but nowadays you get reminded of the anniversary via social media – ‘hat-trick hero’! If you watch the footage, you’ll see the pitch had become a kind of ploughed land. I scored two times from corners: the first with my left foot, and the second with a header. The third
was a penalty. I believe only the legendary Billy Wright had ever scored a hat-trick for Wolves as a defender, so it meant something. It’s a milestone in the history of a club. That game led to my popularity increasing a lot. Then you had a major injury setback – tell us what happened... Graham Taylor had been given the task to win promotion to the Premier League, and we were on schedule until the moment I tore my cruciate ligament in my right knee against Sunderland in March. That was an incredible blow. I don’t cry often, but I did then. In the dressing room, I phoned my father and he travelled to England the same night. The next day, we flew back for surgery in Rotterdam. Over the years, I had become a big player by overcoming big injuries time and time again, so I did hope to be back for the play-offs. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Mentally, that was my toughest injury. I was in my prime, I felt at home at Wolves and we were convinced we’d compete for prizes. Looking back, it became a fiasco. What was it like for you when you came back into the squad? Wolves had just missed out on promotion, Graham Taylor had to leave and what you often see in England is that the new manager will bring in his own players. After my rehab, I did play a few times under Mark Mcghee, but I was in and out of the team. I’d always been a regular – now every Friday I had to wait and see whether I was in the squad. That was very difficult to accept. But I have to admit that I never reached my old level again. Yes, I still played for three seasons after that on one leg in Holland. There you’re able to do that, but in England that simply doesn’t work. How frustrating was it that you weren’t able to secure promotion to the Premier League during your time there? In all the interviews given by managers from our rivals at the time, you could read that we missed out on promotion because of my absence. In a relatively short amount of time, I’d won quite a bit of respect. That makes me really proud. If I hadn’t sustained that injury, perhaps I would have played in England for a few more seasons. Maybe I would have continued to live there. I actually never ask myself those ‘What if?’ questions. But this time I was often thinking, ‘Damn it, why me?’ That feeling has gnawed at me for years. Are you still glad you signed for Wolves? Apart from the injury, I wouldn’t have missed the adventure for the world. Now and then, I still go back to Wolverhampton, and make it a kind of city tour. I sleep in the hotel where I stayed for three months at the time. I go to the same restaurant where I was always ate Indian food. The man who was looking after the post in the stadium back then is still there. He’s 85 now, but the club cherishes people like that – they’ll never send them away. Do you still get recognised there? Everyone is always happy to see me, then they’ll shout, “Hey, Wolfman!” They open the museum for you, they like to present you to other people. You have to go to the club shop and the business club. During matches, they put you in the directors’ box, not somewhere high up in the stands. Sometimes I have to pinch myself, like when I walk along a corridor and see all the picture frames with legends. I’m among them, too. That always gives me goosebumps. Some people might think I’m exaggerating, but it feels like coming home.
“I TORE MY CRUCIATE LIGAMENT In MY RIGHT KNEE – I DON’T CRY OFTEN, BUT I DID THEN”