Is there a 'disconnect' between fans and players?

[BBC]

[Getty Images]

Last week, I attended an evening with Mick McCarthy, joined on stage by George Elokobi, Matt Jarvis and Michael Kightly. The atmosphere was full of love. When the old chants of "Super Mick" filled the hall, it took me straight back. Nearly 20 years on, people were still singing with real feeling for players who gave them memories, pride and joy.

That is what football is supposed to feel like.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon, and I saw something very different.

The fans were still there in good numbers. They still care. They still support the club. But there is a growing apathy, and more importantly, a disconnect with this current group of players.

Wolves supporters are not asking for miracles every week. They work hard all week, pay their money and turn up hoping to see effort, commitment and pride in the badge. They want to feel something when they walk through the turnstiles. They want to believe the team feels the same way they do.

That is why Wolves' first goal in 47 days should have lifted the place. Instead, the reaction was flat. Many fans did not even rise from their seats. There was polite applause, but no roar, no surge of joy, no real belief. It was more like applause at a village fete than a long-awaited goal at Molineux.

That is the apathy I witnessed. Not anger, not rejection, but something perhaps more worrying. A sense that fans and players are drifting apart.