By Tom Bason
September 13 2013

On Wednesday 11th September, Wolves held the first Fans’ Parliament meeting of the new season. To start with, the timing was slightly annoying; I was working at Edgbaston during the England v Australia ODI, which I would have had to have left early (basically missing the second innings) to get to Molineux in time for the meeting. I was probably the only person in the ground who wasn’t too bothered when the rain started coming in (although at 59-3 off 15 overs, I’m sure England weren’t unhappy to escape with an abandonment…).

Anyway, enough about the cricket. The meeting was slightly disjointed, with the first half being a live-blogged question and answer session with new head coach Kenny Jackett. This was pure question and answer; no-one had been able to submit questions earlier, so it was a case of raising your hand to get your question in. For those of you who missed the live blog, it can be found here, and David Instone’s minutes are here. The live blog aspect of it had previously been used at the meeting which Steve Morgan attended, and I generally felt it worked well. The club had the blog live on a number of screens around the room, and I didn’t notice any discrepancies between how it was reported and what actually happened.

Kenny Jackett came across very well, taking his time to make sure that he answered every question fully. It was noticeable that when answering, he kept eye-contact with the questioner; this was very good for the person who had asked the question, but those who didn’t, they may have perhaps felt left out. But, he spoke well, always seeming in control of his answers. Everyone at the meeting commented at the end as to how impressed they were with him, although this is very similar to the reaction to when Ståle Solbakken met the fans about 12 months ago…

The issue I have with this part of the meeting was the answer to the Roger Johnson question. Kenny Jackett was directly asked about Johnson (and Jamie O’Hara), and the official minutes and live blog record him as saying there have been tentative enquiries, but nothing concrete. This was at around 8pm on Wednesday evening, yet at lunchtime the following day, it was announced that talks were being held with Sheffield Wednesday:

Now, of course it is perfectly possible that there had been no contact from the Owls at the time of the meeting. But it does leave me to wonder if Jackett had been less than truthful about this situation, what should I be reading into anything else that was said? There was quite a lot spoken in the meeting about Johnson and O’Hara, in fact, Jez Moxey stressed that if there is no interest, we are happy to keep them for the foreseeable. At no point was there any indication, from either Jackett or Moxey, that there was anything imminent in the pipeline. The club probably have good reasons for keeping this quiet (if indeed there was anything to talk about at the time), but it does leave a slightly sour taste in the mouth considering the praise that Jackett received for starting to reconnect the team with the fans.

Once Jackett had left, the live blog was switched off and the actual Fans’ Parliament meeting ensued. Given the positive start to the season (and probably because Jackett had just covered a number of on-the field issues), this wasn’t as intense as it had been in the past. Moxey was able to assure everyone of the club’s financial future, subtly reminding everyone of Morgan’s commitment to the club by stressing that he is underwriting all of the club’s spending. There was a new face behind the panel, with Paul Lakin (Head of Commercial Affairs) attending – he is likely to be at most of the meetings going forward so is someone new that questions can be directed to.

Given that we are generally playing at smaller grounds this season, there were a couple of enquiries about away ticketing, with basically Lynn O’Reardon (Head of Ticketing and Membership) saying that the club will do everything they can to get the maximum amount of away tickets. To get a better idea of what was spoken about, I suggest you read the minutes of the meeting – I don’t think there was particularly anything controversial – and if you have any questions, I will be happy to answer.

Fans' Parliament 11/09/2013

Discussion started by Wolves , 13/09/2013 20:24

Wolves
13/09/2013 20:24

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:10:11:14:37:11 by toomb.

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an angry wolf
13/09/2013 20:35

Valid point about Johnson which confirms what we already know .. we cant trust a thing that comes out of the club so can leave it at that. Its saved me the bother of reading through the minutes of lying spiel masquerading as the fans "parliament" as similar to the real parliament in politics it's full of deceptive weasels just saying what they think people want to hear. I'll make a nice cup of coffee and watch coronation street instead of reading about the latest Morgan Goebbels talking b.ollocks again...not really Jacketts fault but clearly beetroots arm is up the ar.se of the latest victim.

Whats your job incidentally Tom? You have a decent written style , who do you write for with the cricket?

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toomb
13/09/2013 21:05

Quote:

an angry wolf
Valid point about Johnson which confirms what we already know .. we cant trust a thing that comes out of the club so can leave it at that. Its saved me the bother of reading through the minutes of lying spiel masquerading as the fans "parliament" as similar to the real parliament in politics it's full of deceptive weasels just saying what they think people want to hear. I'll make a nice cup of coffee and watch coronation street instead of reading about the latest Morgan Goebbels talking b.ollocks again...not really Jacketts fault but clearly beetroots arm is up the ar.se of the latest victim.
Whats your job incidentally Tom? You have a decent written style , who do you write for with the cricket?

Haha, I don't write unfortunately - nothing that exotic!! I know a guy at Edgbaston who organises the volunteers. You turn up a couple of hours before the match starts, stand around and direct people to their seats and in return get a free ticket to the game up in one of the boxes. Not a bad deal really!



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an angry wolf
13/09/2013 21:19

Fair enough

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janets2803
14/09/2013 11:27

Well done Tom

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