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Neves, Neves & Er, Ruben Neves | A Week Of Wolves

By JPosted on Posted in Championship

It takes a lot to take my breath away. Nonetheless, every once in a while something happens that does just yet. For there to have been two instances since I last put pen to paper (I know it’s typed, shut up) is simply mind-blowing yet such is the wonder of this season we are having.

Greatest Goal I’ve Ever Seen

I’ll give you the shorthand version first: We somehow survived two stoppage time penalties away at Cardiff to come away with a 1-0 win. Then yesterday, Ruben Neves scored the best goal I have ever seen. Period. I’m not sure what it was before that, probably Zidane’s goal in the Champions League final against Bayer Leverkusen all them years ago.

Now for the more detailed account. In the run-up to the game against Neil Warnock’s Cardiff, it was billed as somewhat as a title decider, if we beat them, we’d go clear, if they got all three points, then they would only be a win behind us with a game in hand. Nuno sprung a couple of selection surprises as we lined up with a front three of Bonatini, Jota and Afobe which nobody at all saw coming. Apart from that, it was business as usual as Neves and Doherty returned from suspension.

It wasn’t so much the pulsating match everybody was hoping for, but, it incredibly gripping as the game went off at a hundred miles per hour. To be fair, this game contained a beauty from the Portuguese prince as well and it was ultimately that they gave us the three points; he and Barry Douglas stood over a free-kick and I for one was expecting the Scotsman to hit, Ruben, however, had other ideas.

The One Against Cardiff Wasn’t Bad, Either

Ping. Goal. It was a bit of alright, let’s be honest. Costa could’ve and perhaps should have made it two when he picked up Neves’ delightful through ball, it was agonisingly close and that would’ve been that and my blood pressure could finally return to a normal level. Sometimes though, Wolves decide to see how many emotions they can put you through in a short amount of time.

Firstly, Coady decided to manhandle one of their players in the box and the referee pointed to the penalty spot. It was hard to argue with the award of the penalty, as much as I did try. Typical Wolves. Chuck it away in the last minute. HE’S FUCKING SAVED IT. Pandemonium, we were going to be champions, that was that. Hang on. What? Another penalty? Shit. Typical Wolves. Chuck it away in the last minute. HE’S HIT THE FUCKING BAR. CLEARED. FULL TIME. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an ending to a game quite like it and I don’t think I will again for a very, very long time if ever.

Naturally, the way the win was secured sparked jubilant celebrations by everyone involved with the club which in turn saw Nuno go charging onto the pitch to embrace John Ruddy. Unsurprisingly, this somewhat irked Neil Warnock who was later seen telling Nuno to ‘fuck off’ several times as Nuno tried to shake his hand. Warnock then had the cheek to say about having a bit of class after the game and doing things the British way. Fuck off, Neil. Give me a bit of passion over the ‘British way’ seven days a week.

So, yeah, the night in Cardiff was rather amazing, a real once in a lifetime experience. I was trying to think of a poignant tweet to put out at the time, but at certain times, words really do fail me. Luckily, they don’t fail everyone…

https://twitter.com/___LWilliams/status/982391692178395139

I’m going to put a little disclaimer here and say that at the time of putting the tweet in the post, his name on Twitter was LW, so if it all of a sudden changes to something like ‘Jake’s a prick’, I apologise in advance. Some people can be so childish.

After the Cardiff game, as I’ve touched on, it’s hard to think anything will come close to it. We went one-nil up against Derby through a world-class goal, to begin with that hasn’t got nearly as much attention as it should’ve done due to Neves’ pearler; the opener was Jota breaching the offside trap, controlling it with one foot and finishing the other. Beaut.

Just Admire It

Neves’ goal was amazing, exquisite, delightful, surreal, so on and so forth. I can’t even explain it, let me show you instead.

What is he even doing trying that from there? Absolute wizard. It’s still rather staggering that he’s even playing for us, let alone doing things like that. Part of me wants someone to nobble him between now and the end of the season so he’s out of the World Cup. That’s such a selfish way of looking at it, but I’m scared to death of losing him. Genuinely. I don’t think we’ll ever have another player like him at Molineux, saying that, I thought the same about Costa, so maybe we will.

While I was lying awake last night panicking about whether Neves was going to stay or not, I tried to put a positive spin on it and I’ve come to a conclusion that may seem a little outlandish to some, but it helped me get back to sleep, so it’s what I’m sticking with until something different happens.

I hope you’re sitting down. Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid has created somewhat of a dynasty in Madrid’s second club and Gabi has been his skipper and stalwart for years to come. So what’s stopping Nuno and Neves doing the same thing at Wolves? Imagine. Nuno and Neves lead us to glory and we build everything about them. That’ll be Jeff Shi’s dream, but Neves and Nuno will have their own aspirations and it’s all going to be about whether we can keep ours in line with what they want.

On The Pitch!

Nuno will be here for a few years yet, Neves, I’m not sure. I think we’ll get at least one season out of him in the Premier League and then a lot of it will depend on how well we do. If we win a cup and qualify for the Europa League then we would stand a good chance of keeping hold of him, if we don’t, then I can see him moving on to pastures new.

In closing, it’s been a right good week and now if we beat Blues on Sunday, we’re up and if Cardiff drop points away at Norwich, we can be crowned champions on Sunday as well which would be special. It’s going to be hilarious watching everyone go mad when we go on the pitch on Sunday and people begin to call for points deductions and what have you. In particular, I’m looking forward to the commentators going “These aren’t the scenes people want to see” when that’s exactly what they are.

I’ll be back on Monday if I’m still in one piece following our promotion party. Part of me thinks we’ll draw and we’ll end up sealing it in Bolton the week after, nevertheless, the next weeks promise to be something special.

Until the next time.   

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