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Karl Henry loves to tackle and chase the opposition for Wolves
Wolverhampton Wanderers host Queens Park Rangers on Saturday afternoon, a fixture that hardly leaps out of the listings, but is billed as a rematch between Karl Henry and Joey Barton. When Newcastle visited Molineux early last season the Wolves defensive midfielder appeared to put extra bite into a series of tackles on the most combative of his opponents, leading to speculation a grudge may be about to resurface."I hate to spoil a good story," Henry says with a relaxed smile. "But I don't have a feud on with Joey Barton. I don't want to build one up either, because the story hasn't done me any favours. I joked to a reporter the other day that I had never heard of him and he made a big deal out of even that, but the simple truth is that in that particular game last season there were several 50-50 balls for the two of us to contest."You can often go two or three games without that sort of thing happening once, but the way football works, you sometimes find the ball keeps dropping between you and the same player. Let's just say we both went wholeheartedly into the challenges. I didn't set out to kick him or intimidate him and I think he gave as good as he got. I don't mind physical challenges and I enjoyed the game. I didn't enjoy it so much when we went to Newcastle later in the season and lost 4-1. We got battered that day, never mind Joey Barton."A ВЈ100,000 signing from Stoke who has just completed 200 games for Mick McCarthy, Henry is not only a value-buy but <a href="http://newerahatstock.com/bape-hat-c-10.html"><strong>bape hat</strong></a> a player very much in his manager's image. "I'm a no-nonsense sort of footballer, I suppose," he says. "I love tackling and my job is to win the ball back. I let other people score the goals and make the defence-splitting passes."The 28-year-old almost scored his first Premier League goal last week against Spurs, only for Brad Friedel to save at the last moment. "I barely get a shot these days, so I wasn't too happy," he says. "I'm just so defensive, I only really come alive when the other team get the ball. Then, according to one of my mates, I'm like a greyhound chasing a hare. I'm definitely faster trying to get the ball back than I am when we have it. That's when I work the hardest."Henry has even perfected the knack of talking like his manager. "I know it sounds boring, but the main thing for us each season is to reach 40 points," he says, in response to being asked about his old club's exploits in Europe. "I'm glad Stoke are doing well. They have signed some fantastic players recently, but Tony Pulis has always had a knack of doing that. They are an example to the so-called smaller clubs of what can be achieved, but I prefer to err on the side of caution."First and foremost let's stay in this league. Birmingham are in Europe as well, but look what happened to them last season, and what it's done to them as a club. That shows the danger, because they finished top-half the season before. Our priority has to be staying in this league. I have lots of friends in the game, good players too, who are still trying to get where we are. For some it might never happen. The gaffer is constantly saying the same. I know how he can come across in the media but he's not really that negative; he just wants to keep our feet on the ground. Maybe after about five or six seasons we could start to think of ourselves as a Premier League fixture, but I'm not even sure even that would be a good idea."A son of Wolverhampton, Henry has a natural pride in playing for his hometown club in one of its happier eras. He is aware that in its time the team have been much more successful, though compared to where Wolves have been more recently the Premier League feels like a destination reached. "It means a hell of a lot to play for Wolverhampton, and I'm sure when I finish it will mean even more," he says. "My stepdad is an avid Wolves fan, has been all his life, and he's forever telling me about Derek Dougan and Dave Wagstaffe and what an honour it is to be at this club. Not that I need telling. When I was made captain I must have been the proudest man in the Midlands."Therein lies a tale, for Henry is no longer captain of Wolves. McCarthy has given the job to the new signing Roger Johnson, leaving Henry feeling hurt and deflated. "Being captain for the last three years was a great time for me. I must be honest, I'm disappointed that I'm not captain <a href="http://newerahatstock.com/rock-star-hat-c-16.html"><strong>rock star hat</strong></a> any more," he admits. "When the gaffer first told <a href="http://newerahatstock.com/ed-hardy-hatscaps-c-5.html"><strong>ed hardy hat</strong></a> me I was angry as well, as anyone would be. He gave me his reasons, I discussed it with my family, and I knew things could go one of two ways from there. Either I could sulk, mope around the place, not train well and probably sit in the stands for most of the season, or I could get my head down and work hard."What mattered most was that I still wanted to enjoy my football. I don't necessarily agree with the gaffer's thinking and it was a bitter blow, but I've seen players go about things the wrong way and I didn't want to do that. I loved being captain, as I think you can tell, but some things are out of your hands and I wasn't going to spoil everything else in my life by moaning and making enemies. This is still a great time to be playing for Wolves."Henry is waiting to do a promotional video for the Show Racism the Red Card campaign while this interview is taking place, so it seems natural to ask him whether he has any first-hand experience of prejudice. Pleasingly, he has little to report. "I haven't come up against too much of that in my career," he says. "There was only one occasion, ages ago when I was a youngster at Stoke. I was warming up as a substitute at a ground in the north-west and I got a bit of abuse, got called a few racist names. I was shocked, I had never experienced anything like that in any area of my life before."I was very inexperienced then, I hadn't actually been to many football grounds, and it suddenly struck me that this might be what people had to put up with all the time. But it didn't turn out that way, I'm glad to say. It was a one-off, and only a small number of people were involved, but it was still horrible. Thankfully, in a multicultural society it seems to be happening less and less."Eligible to play for Jamaica, Henry has never expressed any desire to do so, and after being briefly named in a provisional England squad last season clings rather touchingly to the hope of being called up again. "England would be huge, fantastic," he says. "Matt Jarvis has done it and I really envy him, I must admit. He's only played the one game so far but he can hold his head high."
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