Neil Emblen

Neil Emblen became our honorary member following on from Don Goodman.  Neil was recommended as a suitable successor as our man in the dressing room, and also won our Player of the Year around the same time. He was pleased to come along to the Dinner at Staverton accepting his award with a speech that saw him getting our initials right first time!

Neil had been signed by Graham Taylor from Milwall for a £600,000. Unheard of by the majority of Wolves fans at the time of his signing he quickly became a firm favourite with the fans. The old fashioned term of utility player certainly applied to him as he played for Wolves in just about all outfield positions, always in a determined and committed style never giving less than 100% for the club.

Neil took on his role with the DDCWWFCSC as he did playing on the pitch, with great enthusiasm.

The first time Coxy met him was in unusual circumstances. It was at Carrow Road in 1997 for the first game of the season; the day that Robbie Keane made his league debut. Neil was not playing – which was a major surprise, in fact he’d been given a ticket to watch the game in with the Wolves fans. Coxy spotted him in the crowd near the pies zeroed in on him and demanded to know why he wasn’t playing. It turned out that there was an offer in for him (from Crystal Palace as it turned out) and so he was not playing.

Neil did join the then Premier side Crystal Palace for £2m but was to return to Molineux after only a few months and just 13 games, as Palace were running out of cash.  In the 2 spells at Molineux he played over 200 league games scoring 16 goals.

Neil took on his role with the DDCWWFCSC as he did playing on the pitch, with great enthusiasm.  He spoke regularly by phone with Coxy and Coxy recalls one epic conversation that lasted for over 2 hours! He brought Northampton boy Darren Bazeley along to the dinner when he collected his award, and later was to emigrate to play football down under in New Zealand with Darren.

Neil left Wolves for Norwich City and was quickly appointed Captain Canary, but unfortunately he suffered a bad knee injury early in his Norwich career so they never saw Neil at his best or for very long. He then returned to West Midlands football with Walsall where he played with Darren Bazeley again before heading down under.

Neil’s story does not end there though, he keeps in touch with Coxy from New Zealand where he still lives with his family and as last season’s championship came to a head he was keeping a very close eye on events at Molineux.  He is still playing currently with Waitakere United and says he will continue to do so while they still want him!