PARLIAMENT MINUTES

New owner Steve Morgan outlined his visions and ambitions at the sixth meeting of the Wolves Fans' Parliament at Molineux last night.

Questioned by Bob Adams about medium and long-term strategy, Steve said: "I'm not one for false promises but I think we're bigger than at least half of the Premiership clubs and we all think our rightful place is in the Premiership.

"It has to be our number one aim to get back there. And when we get in, to stay there. We've had a couple of shaky results recently but the aim is to be challenging for promotion this season."

He reassured Peter Bagley that the production of home-grown players was vital despite his promised £30m investment. "I'm a very strong advocate of having the strongest Academy possible," he added.

"There won't be a penny cut from that area. The Liverpool backbone is Steve Gerrard and Jamie Carragher - local lads who will die for the club. I'm not a fan of spending on mercenaries. Over and above the money side is heart - and lads who come through the Academy and who in some cases are Wolverhampton lads will go out and give you that last ounce, so I'm very much on that wavelength.

"What we won't do is buy fancy dans who don't want to go out and give everything for the club. We want people who want to play for Wolves."

Steve said he had already spent £4.5m on new players (up to last night) and cleared some debt, with the rest to be spent as seen fit by the board. "Mick feels the squad is stronger than at any time in his control," he said. "If he feels strongly we need to strengthen, we will." And there was an insight into his thinking on ground redevelopment: "Good as Molineux is, it's not a Premiership ground. We would need to make improvements.

"Maybe in a year or two, I'd also very much like to bring a museum to the ground and maybe a Hall of Fame. But, to me, the team comes first, the team comes second and the team comes third. Please don't ever say the ground comes first."

Asked what his motivation was for choosing the club, he added: "I'm not quite a stranger to Wolves. I used to enjoy coming here when the South Bank was the same size as The Kop at Liverpool and you needed binoculars to see from the back. Everyone has a second favourite club and mine when I was growing up was Wolves.

"I was approached by 14 other clubs after my approach to Liverpool fell through. One I was quite interested in because it was close but I had more heart in Wolves than in that club. The one thing I'm not coming here for is to make money. Anybody who thinks they can do that in football is off his head. You do it because you love the game. I see it as a great opportunity for me to do something that I've always wanted to do but I'm a very good businessman and I don't let sentiment get in the way of business decisions."

Chris Cox quizzed Steve on what would happen with the £30m 'war chest' and was told: "I don't know. Mick tells me he's comfortable with this squad. It would be lovely to think this squad will take us up. We will respond to what happens. I've paid my £10 and I'll do my best to lead from the front."

James Fielden raised the possibility of something lasting being done for Sir Jack Hayward, to which Parliament chairman Stuart Cain responded: "There are a number of facilities in Wolverhampton that already bear his name and we shouldn't forget that he's still very much alive, kicking and vocal."

Chief executive Jez Moxey asked the members for their thoughts and Roger Fellows suggested there was no rush to do anything as he had such a large aura in Wolverhampton and well beyond.

Steve described Sir Jack as 'a wonderful man' whose legacy 'has not been matched by anyone in the football world ever.' "The club will forever be in his debt."

On a similar subject, Jon Lockley asked if there was any chance of a permanent tribute to the late Derek Dougan - a man Chris Cox described as having no equal over the last 40 years for being close to the fans.

Jez replied: "There's a danger that a club with a history like ours could be doing memorials for a heck of a lot of people." The earlier point about a possible future museum and Hall of Fame was again discussed.

To a question from Kulbinder Kular about improving the club's PR, Steve said: "I think the Fans' Parliament is a great idea. It's important to have a dialogue so everybody understands everybody. I want a full stadium here and that means treating the fans right."

Jez said the recent hand-over had left the club superbly placed. "We couldn't be in a better position, he said. "It's fabulous. A lot of people questioned Sir Jack's motives and I hope they now say they were wrong to do so. Whilst he is no longer a director or shareholder and therefore no longer has any formal powers, he will always be held in very high esteem.I'm sure that he and Steve will continue to chat informally over an occasional glass of wine about all things Wolves, as they have done already."

The new owner said he regarded himself as a custodian; 'the guy with the baton at this time,' although he hoped to stay for many, many years as his heart was now in Wolverhampton."

Jez qualified comments he made at an earlier meeting by saying he wouldn't have found it unreasonable if the new owner had wanted to bring his own people into positions such as his. "I said back then that I was simply trying to deliver what my boss (Sir Jack) wanted by finding a new owner. I was getting a bit of stick and thought I'd say that so people didn't think I was stopping any deal going through in order to protect my job."

Kulbinder suggested Steve explained his reasoning for retaining his senior staff and was told: "When I had a look, there was nothing I didn't like here, so don't throw the baby out with the bath water. I'm part of a management team and any decision to make changes will be made by the team in order to strengthen the club"

In response to Jon Lockley's question, though, he said partial fan ownership was unlikely. "Fan ownership would come from a flotation and every club who have gone down that that route have quickly gone back again," he added. "At no club I can think of who has tried it, has it worked, so at this stage I don't think it's appropriate."

Phil Kay and Dan Lavelle asked, respectively, about how often Steve envisaged being at the club and how media-friendly he would be. "I intend to be at most matches, maybe 90 per cent," they were told. "I'm a hands-on type and ring Jez ten times a day but he runs the club day to day. I gave one interview to the Express & Star and said I expected it to be one of my last. I'm not someone who likes being in the media. I'm quite private and don't want my kids subjected to seeing their Dad all over the paper. But I'm not reclusive. I know I'll sometimes have to speak publicly but most of what I say will be to Jez and Mick and it will be behind closed doors."

The second half of the session kicked off with lengthy clarification of facilities on Travel Club coaches - and confirmation in the face of suggestions to the contrary that all stewards still received free travel and £10 payment as they did last season.

Ticketing and Membership manager Lynne O'Reardon explained that the provision of hot drinks had been suspended over worries about liability in the event of scalding and because coach companies discouraged anyone from walking up and down the coach.

Jez Moxey said: "It's just a shame we're in this litigious world. It's madness and we'll ask our insurers what the situation is." Georgina Savage said it would have been nice to be warned of the changes before the trip to Sheffield Wednesday as she went from 8.30am to 6.30pm without a hot drink.

Stuart Cain said leaflets outlining the situation would be left on coach seats for the visit to Sheffield United on September 15 and ticket office staff would also spread the word.

Stuart said the playing of videos on supporters' coaches was another problem as different fans had different ideas of what was appropriate, although the club insisted that anything shown should be suitable for 15-year-olds or below. In addition, one fan had threatened to report the club to the authorities for showing DVDs without an appropriate license which would cost £275 a year per coach."Faced with that kind of action, we don't want to take risks," Stuart added. "But it's nonsense to say we're trying to do away with the Travel Club."

Pledge: To make the enquiries necessary to satisfactorily resolve the issues surrounding hot drinks and the playing of DVDs.

On the subject of fan loyalty, Carolyn Skitt suggested that points be awarded for each year a supporter continued as a season ticket holder. But Jez felt the present scheme was relatively simple and transparent, and asked: "Where do you stop? If we introduce another strand, it makes it even more complicated. We are so much more sophisticated than most clubs but the more you do, the more you create other issues.My advice is to sign up to one of the categories of the cup tie scheme. It's an absolute no-brainer."

Jez asked members how they would feel if all concessions were scrapped for the sake of simplicity and everybody in the same stand paid the same considerably reduced price. Jon Lockley felt it would be a bit of a u-turn and Roger Fellows said: "It's a non-starter because there would be a massive increase for some people."

In reply to James Fielden's questions about the introduction of 0871 phone numbers for various club departments, Stuart said the price of calls from landlines had hardly changed, although the club couldn't be held accountable for what mobile operators might charge.He said it also meant callers could ring the ticket office direct without going through a switchboard and Jez added: "The new system was introduced because the whole system had previously been known to crash."

David Bissell said he had been told to take the top off a drinks bottle at Sheffield Wednesday recently and asked what Wolves' policy was. Stuart responded: "There are two issues - one is people throwing the bottles with the cap on and the other is if you tread on a bottle with a top on, there is more likelihood of a fall and a health and safety issue."

Action: Tops are being allowed on bottles in certain areas of the ground for the Hull, Norwich and Coventry home games as an experiment and if there are no problems, the rules may be relaxed elsewhere, too.

There was substantial criticism from members about the sponsoring of match-day tannoy announcements but Stuart Cain said it was an increasingly popular revenue stream and Jez admitted: "It's my fault! But more clubs are doing it. Not everyone in the club is a fan and we realise it can be irksome. We don't want to upset fans but we have to balance it because it brings a good five-figure sum. However, its long-term future is up for debate."

Actions and decisions arising from the previous meeting:

Wolves have worked extensively with their software provider and will make the Leicester game on October 2 an on-line trial as the first away match for which tickets can be bought via the Internet. Fans have been asked to give feedback.

The club agrees with the idea of allocating loyalty points to corporate customers and are therefore working with software providers to launch the plan for next season. Jez warned, though: "There are so many more rank-and-file fans than corporate fans, so we must try to get the balance right."

Stuart Cain said the idea of holding an open day at the Sir Jack Hayward Training Ground was flawed as the terms of the lease prohibited large crowds there. But he said there had been considerable fan presence at the first-team photo call at Molineux this summer as well as a Beacon Radio forum attended by around 80 fans at Compton last season.

Pictured: Steve Morgan chatting with Parliament members Georgina Savage and Judy Williams at last night's meeting.