Transfer rumours – like a good curry – are always best served with an extra touch of spice for good measure, in my opinion.
It’s all well and good being linked with Dave Kitson, Jelle van Damme and Stephen Hunt, but they must amount to the chicken Kormas of the transfer world, particularly when there’s a tantalizing Madras or Vindaloo on the other page?
This curious time of the year allows us fans to be what we’re best at…Opinionated, judgmental and utterly unrealistic as we salivate over who we should be buying.
I love it! Hypothesising about a Fletcher and a Keane is far more fun than predicting who our starting line-up should be once the season starts – even if it isn’t half as important.
The most fun of all though, arrives when there’s a name linked which splits opinion and turns your local boozer into a battleground. It’s usually a name with a little bit of baggage, a whole heap of controversy and quite possibly, a bad attitude.
Take Stan Collymore as a case in point. When Dave Jones was snapping up Denis Irwin from Man Utd, I barely batted an eyelid as I was utterly consumed by talk of Stan the Man returning to the club he once thieved from as a boy. This, despite Irwin being a million times more important to our immediate prospects.
With that, I’d like to throw a slightly less contentious name into the melting pot, but one that will surely get you all talking one way or another.
Robert Koren. Surely we should be going for the Slovenia skipper, for a whole host of reasons?
He would be a tasty little piece of business to get in the doggie bag nice and early, and would be a dish best served cold on our arch rivals.
Albion can’t afford his wages and have today allowed to let him go. Either that or him and di Matteo really didn’t get on as most people thought. Who cares.
I suggest we bring him in, because a) there’s no fee involved b) he can play on the right or the middle, offering us a new option or two, and most importantly c) it will majorly piss off all WBA fans who are already gutted he’s leaving, cue obligatory ‘goal against his former club’ to boot.
Oh, and finally d) because I can be completely whimsical about it all, as it’s the silly season.
What do you think?
Nice article ben 🙂
Should we sign him? In a word, yes.
What I’ve seen of him he looks brilliant and I have for one always rated him. But speaking to a few Baggies fans they say he’s inconsistent.
Certainly worth a punt provided the wages aren’t too high.
He’ll be playing like a player possessed in the World Cup trying to attract clubs so if we are to, I’d like to see a done deal before the WC.
Cheers Hallam! The Boggies are already venting their spleen about it, and we have been linked before, so I think its a win-win. Unless he’s crap!
For free, I’d take him.
The general consensus seems to be that he’s been let go because he doesn’t get on with Di Matteo rather than not being up to the required standard.
He can play out wide on the right and I think ideally we need at least two players for that position. He would fit the bill as one of them.
I would only take him if the Baggies are prepared to throw in Graham Dorrans free of charge as well. Then I think we should go for it.
The reason he is seen as stroppy is that he hates playing wide. I’m sure he would want assurances he would be playing a) in the middle and b) regularly. I couldn’t see MM taking this sort of character on board. He wants one for all and all for one lemmings. I think he could be accomodated in a 4-5-1 but I think he’d create more problems than he’d solve. MM still hasn’t got the best out of Milijas and we don’t need another player Mick will see as a luxury whether it’s a free transfer or not.
Yeah sign him. We need something to piss em off….
I remember the links with Stan the Man too Ben! I too was consumed with the very possibility of him coming to the Wolves – when the reallity was the only time stan was coming anywher close was up the side of a car on Cannock Chase!
And I remember that Denis Bergkamp was seen in an estate agents in Wolverhampton – we ended up with Silas!
No….we ended up with Luhzny
Let’s get him free, like we did Bully, almost, ….that bloke who Ron Saunders said would never be a goal scorer.
Bet he has that graffiteed on his headstone!!!!
How many times does a player who is “crap” change clubs and become a superstar??
Lots, so let’s give him a one year contract, at our wage limit, and see what transpires. We will lose less than on players like Hoff, Surman et al.
And, as said above, it will royally piss off the shit.
Up the side of a car on Cannock Chase?? Stourbridge, that was extremely rude and vulgar……………….and I take offense to anyone being ruder and vulgarer than me!!!
Nice one
FOWB
A big thank you to Mr. Boateng of Portsmouth for his tackle on arrogant Ballack. Looks like he will not be playing in South Africa.
Serves him right for his grandparents bombing our chip shop.
FOWB
What makes it even funnier is that Boateng is German born but chose to play for Ghana.
Kitson and Fletcher? Really?? They’re the sort of players that probably will end up here.
As for Koren, after all Albion’s failed survival attempts you would think they’d try to hold onto key players. He’s clearly not worth the hassle, though i’ve seen glimpses of class. Didn’t Moxey say ‘young and hungry’? Can’t see it myself, would be good though, if not just for a bit of local controversy
Seeing that he is free, I am sure we would be interested. So far we have been shopping at Aldi again regarding incoming “quality”. Seems like we are going for quantity again, instead of just buying 2 or 3 quality players. McCarthy’s idea is to buy as many players as possible an dthen hope 1 or 2 come good. For every Doyle and Kightly, we have had a Friend, Halford, Surman, Hoff, Hill and a Shackell. Not good.
Agree Dazza – Our transfer policy seems to come from the Barry Fry school of signings…
Throw enough sh*te and some will stick to the wall (eg Ricky Otto!)
In your short list of disasters there must be enough in transfer fees and wages to sign another Kevin Doyle and a half!
Well done Taff – great scouting!
We dont need the sh*t fan!
Thinking of ‘sh*t fans’ , can anyone explain to me why David Kelly was given such a hard time when Don Goodman’s Albion links were never mentioned?
Ideas on a postcard please…
I see southampton are being linked with a move to buy Surman back!
Show me the money – I’ll even help him pack his car!
1.2mill apparemtly, throw in halford for 50 pence too
Get Fletcher, for someone to score more than our top scorer in a sh*t team he must be good, he is also young, aggressive and hungry all the atributes that MM loves.
As for Koren he might be worth a shot just so long as he brings his old shirt with him and burns it in front of the South Bank
I wouldn’t be upset if we signed Fletcher, but not if the sums quoted of £7 million are anywhere near accurate. He seems a decent player, but no thanks for that kind of money.
He did score 12 goals in the season, but only 8 came in the Premiership. Doyle only got 9 but all of them were in the league. And considering Burnley played attacking football all season and we left Doyle to fend for himself, to still score more goals shows the difference in class for me.
I don’t recall Ned Kelly ever getting stick. Is he an albyun fan? He never played for them.
Doyle going to Arsenal? Hardly likely, but if we do sell, it would show exactly where our priorities lie. Just think, we can have Blake and Keogh up front next season , ably supported by Halford, Edwards , Foley and Ward….. oh dear
Looks like Arsenal are going to lose Cesc! They will have plenty of cash to throw around,
No disrespect to Doyle (as he is great for us) but I dont see him as an Arsenal first team player
I could play first team for anyone. Barcelona included. End of
Zut Alors! If ‘zat is ze case Kevin, come and mit me at ze Emerates. I shall say this only once: I want you in ze Arsenal team. Don’t say ‘non’ to me.
Being as you are so ace I look forward to seeing you in action at the world cup then… Oh maybe not!
PS – Wenger I havent forgiven you for your comments about Wolves after the Man Utd ‘tea lady eleven’!
Glad Cesc has decided to leave you! We have a ready made replacement in ‘Greg Halford-gas’ you can buy for £15million – and the boy has a decent throw on him.
Mibbie Cesc will lieve me, but I still sold yeuw Oleg Luzhny. Ha ha ha ha (chomp on an onion) ha ha ha.
Fair point well made Arsene, fair point well made!
But, while you are on… Can I interest you in a new striker Hoff-kamp? The lad must be great in the air as he is nearly 7ft!
Seems a certain Monsieur Henry is surplus to requirements at Barcelona. Talk about him going to Red Bulls in New York. Perhaps we could get him to play up front for us??
Also, making the front page of he sporting pages here in Houston, is the exciting news that the MLS all star game will be played in Houston, against Manchester United. Wonderful opportunity for me to wear my Wolves kit, and get close to Fergie to tell him what a pratt he looks in a stetson and wearing cowboy boots!!
The stadium will be full of 70,000 messycans, waving and eating burritos, so should be fun in 100 degree heat and 100% humidity!!
FOWB
My guess is he wouldnt fit in with Morgans wage structure of £25,000 per week!
Plus he’s a cheating b*stard that robbed Super Kev Doyle (above) of his chance to play in the world cup! Which in turn allowed me to take the p*ss about it!
I remember Tony Hateley scoring with his hand, against us, also Duggie Woodfield doing the same thing for us, both of them getting away with it.
If we can get someone to do it on a regular basis, like every game, and get away with it, how is it any different than getting away with bad tackles etc?
Bollocks to all the whiney arses, lets win by tooth and by nail, and get our manager to shout and scream at every injustice, real or perceived, like the rest of them do……………….are you reading this Mr Wenger, Mr. Ferguson, etc??, and divert attention away from the players.
Lets have 10 minutes of McCarthy time BEFORE the match kicks off, so we can score a goal or two, just like there seems to be 10 minutes of Fergie time added on until United score.
Kmowing our lot, we would probably miss the goal, even with no one else on the pitch!!!
It’s boring today, 90 degrees and it’s still only the middle of May.
Roll on June 12th, I’m having great fun telling the Yanks how Rooney is gonna stuff ’em in the first match!!
FOWB
I admit to being quite pleased with the links with Dindane until around 5 mins ago when I read four words on the E&S website…
“His agent Willie McKay”
I’m sure this is the tw@t that represented Henri Camara, and seems to bring trouble with him where ever he goes. He also represents Joey Barton – and defends his clients despicable actions regularly.
It’s no wonder he is off to Bolton, then Greece and now Qatar – its all b*llocks to increase his players wages and his big fat fee. The thought of any of the hard earned cash I put into the club going to this nobhead fills me with despair.
He represents all that is bad about modern football – a true cancer on the game (with a tiny c*ck probably)!
I think Dindane is exactly what we DON’T need. He look fat, overweight, lazy, cumbersome, one paced, and selfish….. perhaps he could fit in after all?
If we sign any expensive quality players will MM pick them though, or will he continue to pick his championship favourites.
In football management you have to be brutal when improving the squad, yet sadly Foley (who I like) and one paced Ward still appear to have a place.
Foley could have sat in a deckchair most games at right back after Reading and every other team decided Ward was a liability at left back and played down our right hand side last season.
Players in the prem need pace, its no surprise that Jarvis, Zubar, Henry, Doyle and Stearman (when played), were excellent as they had pace. Foley sadly isn`t quick enough, or physical enough to play midfield or fullback, and Ward is a passenger at this level.
Remember Man City & Arsenal at home, thats why we need pace particularly at centre half, and fullback if we have pretentions of reverting to 442 next year. If we do get these extra few quality players its highly likely surely that Foley and Ward won`t and shouldn`t get a sniff of a game.
But Foley and Ward WILL… and that’s the problem. Foley is crap in midfiled, and Ward is half arsed and no pace.. baffles me
Here, here Mark – totally agree.
Pace is everything in this league (that’s why I dont expect Kites to have a major impact next season)
You aren’t THAT Mark Davies are you? You do sound suitably bitter 😉
There is only ONE Mark Davies, he’s the one who saved the life of a vicar in 1972.
FOWB
As I remember, Mark saved his life by removing your hands from the Right Reverands throat!!
Wolves Blog’s most highly rated player Sam Vokes has extended his contract.
Is this another one of the 4 or 5 signings?
PS… Van Damme was subbed toniht playing from Belgium, apparently, he was absolute pants
don’t tar everybody who contributes here with the same brush!
As dear Pauline Hanson once said….”please explain”
Meant as a reply to Hallam’s comment that Sam Vokes is Wolves Blog’s most highly rated player. I for one don’t rate him all that highly. Think the comment came up out of sequence, Tom, sort it out!
I`m not bitter – much prefer lager actually, and if its Peroni even better.
Hi Clive and scooped, and call me old fashioned if you must, but realism comes with maturity and experience. Some of our squad are better than others, some are fine in the prem and some not, its the managers call, thats the crux of it, lets hope he gets it mostly right again this year.
I predict urine extraction to the nth degree will now follow, as the 3 muskertiers have finally joined up on this blog.
Sharpen your pencils and your wits, Benny Boy, Big Mark, Bald John and Skinny Clive are back!!!!
As there are no Wolves games to worry about for a few months, anything and anyone will be fair game.
For starters, where did you get that haircut, Ben?
FOWB
Anyone else getting twitchy about signings?
The Albion are being linked with a £4million deal for Hunt, a £2million deal for Beattie and so far our only strong link is this Van Damme (who I have never heard of!).
Hope we are not heading for another summer of signings discontent!
One thing I do know is that I hate the end of the footy season! Missing it already, the world cup is better than no football at all – but I find it hard to get excited. Having watched 9 world cups in my life time I am now really cynical about being told it’s Englands ‘best team in years’ and they have a great ‘chance of winning it’ every four years! We’ll make it through the qualifiers and get knocked out in the quarter/semi finals dependending on who we get in the draw!
Beat you, I’ve watched 11, the first being 1966, but I agree, the only chance we had was in Italy, but Bobby Robson blew it by not playing Bully, coz that big eared little fucker Lineker was the golded boy, and cried when Bully decked him for taking the piss out of his accent, and now he’s resigned his position at The Mail coz of spying, or something.
He’s another pratt I can’t stand, and deserves another smack in the gob!!!
FOWB
Beat you too Clive.. I was around for the 58 one 🙂
Totally agree about Lineker…twa@t
How fuckin’ old are you???????????????
FOWB
Van Damme was subbed the other night playing for Belgium, apparently he was piss poor. Another Halford? Yes, we will be running with Dodos and not soaring with eagles again