Havard Flo sure Jorgen Strand Larsen will be a Wolves star
The last Norwegian to wear the number nine shirt for Wolves certainly hit the ground running – or heading – by finding the net against Arsenal.
Granted it wasn’t on his debut, and was at Molineux rather than in North London, where Saturday’s Premier League curtain-raiser will play out. But it remains a special memory for Håvard Flo.
The Gunners were coming off a season where they had won the Premier League and FA Cup double, and this was the fourth round of the famous competition.
Goalkeeper Alex Manninger charged out of his goal and didn’t make it as Flo headed home Kevin Muscat’s crossfield ball into the top corner.
The Austrian international gloveman was the last line of an Arsenal team littered with illustrious personnel: Adams, Dixon, Winterburn, Overmars, Petit, Bergkamp, Anelka to name but seven.
And Wolves, still a full four-and-a-half years away from reaching the Premier League themselves, ran them close.
Flo’s 37th-minute effort cancelled out Marc Overmars’ 10th-minute opener before Dennis Bergkamp popped up on 69 minutes to shoot the Gunners through.
“That was a nice goal and a nice way to start for me at Wolves in what was my second game,” Flo recalled this week. “I think we did well in that game and were unlucky not to get a draw in the end.
“We were trying to get to the Premier League at that time and I remember playing against Arsenal in the cup and also Liverpool in a pre-season friendly.
“Those games gave us an idea of the quality and intensity of teams from the Premier League and it was nice to experience that challenge.
“It was just a shame and disappointing that we didn’t get there ourselves.”
Flo was the first Norwegian to represent Wolves, with Gunner Halle and Steffen Iversen numbers two and three.
The next and current Nordic incumbent, Jørgen Strand Larsen, is coming into a Wolves squad far stronger than his three Norwegian predecessors were able to be a part of.
But Flo is also aware that the demands of a centre forward are perhaps even bigger than when he was plying his trade in several different leagues across Europe.
“When I think back to my time at Wolves, I don’t think I could deliver everything that was expected of me, and although I made a good start, it was difficult,” he says.
“Even more so now, I think with strikers you have to have power, and be strong in the link-up play, and I think I could do that.
“You also have to be smart and clever in the box, and have pace, and press defenders, and I certainly didn’t have the best pace!
“I know a bit about Strand Larsen, and I hope he has some of that DNA that Wolves and football in the Premier League is looking for.
“I think he certainly has the qualities which can make him a good striker for Wolves, and it will be really nice to see how he adapts in the team.“It will be a big transfer fee when it goes through after the loan, and I hope he can also make a good start because the pressure is always on to perform in the Premier League.
