How Dean Saunders will approach life at Wolves

The new manager arrives at Molineux as an avowed opponent of anyone making the game complicated.

The 48-year-old Welshman has proved a contentious choice for fans expecting Solbakken's successor to bring with him a more substantial managerial CV.

But Saunders breezed through his opening day as Wolves' fourth manager in 11 months in confident form and with a message of stark simplicity for the players doubtless relieved to work with a man who speaks their language.

He begins: "All the players will have a clear job description. I will say to my right back 'right, what's your first job? If that left winger is getting crosses in, you've got to stop them.

"That's the first priority. Stop those crosses coming in. Second, see what you can give us at the other end of the pitch. Third, when you pass the ball, pass it to a player who's wearing the shirt of Wolverhampton Wanderers.

"And fourth, defend the back post when crosses are coming in from the other side. Do those things, and you will be good for me.'"

After a six-month dalliance with a manager who tried but failed to change the dimensions of a playing squad drilled to the requirements of former gaffer Mick McCarthy, the players now have a boss who will keep it plain and simple.

This, of course, will lead to charges of a back-flip by the club to precisely how it got into this mess in the first place. That Wolves slumbered under McCarthy and became too work-orientated, too predictable, too one-dimensional.

But the revolution has been put on hold while Wolves and Saunders deal with the imminent threat at their gates.

For now, the new Molineux boss is concentrating solely on reviving a playing squad rendered dormant by changes they clearly never understood; the quest for a more advanced and technical game can wait for later.

Solbakken's successor has no time for what he clearly feels is the manual of coaching gobbledegook masquerading as a re-invention of the game for which he still holds an undimming passion and enthusiasm.

The manager didn't namecheck Brendan Rodgers but you suspect he had in mind the current boss of one of his old clubs and his talk of "reverse forwards" and "7.5 wingers", when he made his pitch for simplicity on the training pitches.

Saunders said: "I watch these managers on Sky Sports today and, I don't know, it's like you've got to be a car dealer these days. Don't get me wrong. I'm tactically up to date.

"I'm old school but I also played against Gerrard and Henry - I saw the changes. I'm not a dinosaur. But football is straightforward tactically. You get good players working hard for each other. But the basics seem to have been lost.

"If you have 250 passes in your own half and say you are playing great football – as a striker that drives you mad. When I was playing, I wanted the ball as quickly as possible.

"Sometimes players are more concerned with how they look, their boots, their tattoos and their cars – how about doing your job week in week out?

"Put in a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. And do the basics. It's not about backheels and flicks. It's not about how many Cruyff back-heels you can do."

"Berbatov's at Fulham for a reason, there's a team ethic at Manchester United and if you don't fit into it then you're gone.

"Liverpool was the same, everybody was a little cog inside a big one and, if the little one doesn't work, the big one won't. There were no egos, people thinking they are better than they are.

"You have to fit into the team and that's the way I'll run this club. All the teams I played in that were any good were hard working with no passengers."

This return to old virtues was just one element of an impressive first day. The age of the "personality manager" may be over, their power diminished by the financial and contractual advantages enjoyed by today's footballers.

But it's the fizz and fire of this enduring footballing livewire that drew Steve Morgan to another surprise choice. He has been recruited precisely because Molineux wants an injection of his famed personality.

No, said Saunders, the two men are not neighbours, though both live in Cheshire.

No, he continued, they don't play cosy rounds of golf together or spend their time harking back to a shared interest in Liverpool.

He said: "I had had a couple of conversations with the chairman down the years but that was it until we sat down to discuss the Wolves job."

Saunders, Morgan insisted, had been recruited because he has paid his dues and earned his chance.

And it is difficult not to admire the career the former striker has forged for himself for it reveals a determination to fulfil the advice of his father and former Swansea pro Roy: "Hard work will always bring its rewards."

As a 17-year-old at the same club, Saunders ruptured cruciate ligaments, had two years out of the game and returned to find a new manager in John Bond waiting to give him a free transfer. He took up an offer from Brighton.

He recalled: "First day there for pre-season, the manager Chris Cattlin tells me its seven days of fitness without a ball. But I made sure I was first in all the running, because I had to make my mark."

Saunders was fifth-choice forward behind some senior figures, including a certain Terry Connor, but injury gave him a chance and six months later he had been so successful he was picked for Wales.

He said: "I turned up at the hotel and saw Ian Rush and Neville Southall coming down the corridor. I had only seen them on TV before.

"I couldn't speak to them so I phoned my dad and said 'I've just seen Rushey – what do I do?' He said: 'Go and speak to him – you're better than he is.' That's when I knew dads lie to you!"

But that tenacity and determination does reveal the substance of Saunders not necessarily obvious when you engage the bubbly enthusiast. It would be wrong to interpret his livewire persona as the mark of a footballing lightweight.

His playing career went on to scale the heights but what is really fascinating – and perhaps most heartening for Wolves fans at this juncture – is his determination to abandon the high terrain of his goalscoring feats.

Saunders instead learned the nuts and bolts of his job amid the muck and nettles. First at Wrexham. Then at Doncaster. Why?

He said: "I can't understand why anyone wouldn't do it that way. How else do you learn? I went to Wrexham and 75 per cent of my day was nothing to do with football.

"I went in one morning to be greeted by two women fighting each other – I had to break that up. It's problems, problems, problems, staff coming to you saying they want to quit because they are suffering from depression.

"You are dealing with that while thinking 'I have got training in half an hour.' But I know I made good decisions at Doncaster this summer, precisely because of the lessons I learned at Wrexham."

And a funny co-incidence. The first time Saunders was brought to the Midlands, as a record signing for Villa, he found himself unwittingly attached to some critical baggage for his chairman.

Doug Ellis infuriated Villa fans by nearly cocking up the £2.5million deal, so much so that the manager signing him – Ron Atkinson – had to go on to the pitch and appease supporters before kick-off.

Now he arrives with Morgan under fire for - well, for just about everything. His managerial appointments, the stadium plan, a perceived lack of investment in the team.

Saunders will either be his salvation or another chip at the owner's damaged reputation.

Morgan was feisty at the suggestion his choice lacked the managerial experience to be anything other than an underwhelming appointment for fans.

He said: "Lack of experience? He's played and coached all over Europe. He's coached Shearer and Owen and worked on the international stage.

"He's had the courage to go and learn his job at the sharp end. I built a company but I started out digging in the sewers, with rats around my ankles.

"Inexperience? Steve Clarke was inexperienced when he took the job down the road and I don't see anyone talking about that now – and rightly so.

"He's doing a great job and I have every confidence we have the man to do the same for us."

By Martin Swain