News of a rejected £10 million bid from Sunderland for Steven Fletcher comes as little surprise and it’s now surely a case of ‘when’ and not ‘if’ our prize asset heads for the exit.
Jez Moxey was quick to roll out the tried and tested company line, insisting our best players wouldn’t be leaving, but I think we’ve all been around the block enough times to know Fletch will be packing his bags the minute someone stumps up a decent wad of cash.
Funnily enough, when we signed the Scot two years ago, it followed our CEO stating only days previously that we had no interest in the player. And then voila!
I’m not having a dig by any means, this is how negotiations work. We had to keep other interested parties at bay back then and now we have to play all the same cloak and dagger games to get the asking price.
A stack of people on the BBC website seemed to think £10 million was a lot of money for Fletch, but I think when you look at his goals to game ratio in the Premier League, particularly when you consider the teams he’s played in, you can understand why Wolves are holding out for more.
In the right team, I have no doubt in my mind Fletch would easily surpass the 20 goal mark. My gut feeling is that he’ll eventually leave for a fee of £12-14 million with add-ons. Both Sunderland and Villa could feasibly find this cash and if Fulham allow Clint Dempsey to leave (probably to Liverpool when Carroll shifts) then I think they’ll also show their hand.
These are of course just my personal theories.
Meanwhile, new players continue to arrive. Welcome Tongo Doumbia.
Like all of you (I’m guessing) I know nothing of the midfielder, but if he can get up and down the pitch and put his foot in, then he’s a welcome addition to the squad.
We saw the impact Frimpong had last year in a short run of games and I’m assuming Doumbia is a player in the same mould. Looking forward to seeing what he’s about.
There’s no doubting we’re overloaded in the middle of the park at present. I count seven central midfielders (Henry, Milijas, O’Hara, Jonnson, Edwards, Davis and Dioumba). Even with Guedioura gone, surely at least one of these players will make way? It’ll be interesting to see who.
One player definitely on his way out is Sam Vokes. It looks like the striker is off to Burnley. Good luck to him there. He did fantastically well for us in the Championship winning season and he’ll always be fondly remembered for that.
But again, we’re overloaded up front and someone had to make way. He was always the likeliest candidate.
We are overloaded in almost every position; Fletcher, Kightly and Jarvis will go and bring in some money, although someone is going to get a bargain with Kightly as he is in his final year. On the central midfielders I would hope and pray that we can move Edwards on (I would give him away frankly) and Milijas may be sold. I would like to see Jonsson go out on loan if possible, to have any idea if he’ll be of any use in the future we needs games. Also don’t forget Anthony Forde is more than capable of playing central midfield.
Still concerned we are going to be left with Elokobi and Stearman on the books next season, we really need to ship them out.
Good luck to Vokes hope it works out for him at Burnley, still struggle to believe we brought Marcus Bent in on loan rather than give him a shot.
Agree about Kightly, would be horrid to lose him, particularly as we’ve waited so long to see him back in form.
It’s been reported we’ve rejected an offer of a few million quid, so there seems a commitment to keep him. Additionally, Solbakken has used him in a different role pre-season, suggesting he’s very much central to his plans.
On this basis, I’m hoping he’ll stay.
I think he owes us some loyalty given his long stint on the sidelines, but by the same token, he’ll know he needs to grab any chance to play in the top flight, particularly given his propensity for picking up injuries.
I agree that given his injury problems it would be refreshing to see a player return the favour. Moxey does have a good record of using handshake agreements to get players to sign another deal and if we don’t go up agree to sell them e.g. Olifinjana and Lescott. I think theres only really been Miller and Mark Davies who we have wanted to keep who’s contracts have run out.
The link to the Phillips quote’s are below:
http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/transfer-rumours/120731/exclusive-phillips-backs-fletcher-be-hit-sunderland-177672
It might come down to Fletch wether he goes or not it is difficult to keep a player who wants to leave.He will be missed but the change in style thats been talked about might mean less high balls into the box a service he thrives on.
I think Fletch is a decent enough bloke. If the deal doesn’t come, I’m sure he’ll get his head down and play. Seems to get along with everyone in the squad. That said, I have no doubt in my mind he’ll be off once an offer is accepted. He wants and deserves Premier League football.
If he does stay, I don’t think a lack of crosses will hinder him. He can score all sorts of goals. He just had no choice but to use his head in the Wolves setup.
I believe Fletch has a soft spot for the club but he’s a Premiership striker and that’s where he will want to play,leaving aside the fact he will earn far more money,though I appreciate footballers aren’t motivated by money ! And there’s no doubt where his agent stands. He is quoted in a Sunderland rag as saying “Sunderland will be a great fit for Steven”.
I endorse your comments about Fletch, Thomas. He’s a fantastic striker. Living off scraps for the last two seasons he has still scored more than most Premiership strikers. On another site Kevin Phillips,our nemisis,was singing his praises. He reckons 10-12 million would be a bargain. I would stick out for 15 million as a minimum. Like you I believe in a a good side he would guarantee 20 goals a season.
Nice, would like to read the Phillips quotes. Post a link mate if you’ve got one to hand.
I suppose the question is, would he get 20 goals for the likes of Villa, Sunderland, Fulham?
At the moment, do any of those clubs represent ‘good sides’? At the moment, arguably only Fulham I’d say.
Thomas. It’s on the Talksport website.
Ah yeah, here it is:
http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/transfer-rumours/120731/exclusive-phillips-backs-fletcher-be-hit-sunderland-177672
Nice one. Interesting to hear his thoughts.
I think that Fletcher, Jarvis, De Vires and possibly Kightly will go, possibly more. The worry in this is that we do lose the game makers and are left with the injury prone, light weights and simply not good enoughs.
There is no way that we can keep players who want to go and we shouldn’t try to hold onto them as motivation is so much of the performance. Assuming we do lose the above we are looking at +£20m in so we should be looking at reinvesting a good portion of that back in new talent-which in fairness appears to be happening already.
I believe that it will be more about “team”, work ethics, application, motivation and the manager this season rather than having star players but there is only so much we can do, even in the Championship if we are left with the likes Stearman, Elokobi, Hunt etc.
All indications are that Solbakken has the measure of this and that he will turn out to be by far the best signing we will have made! But don’t automatically expect to go back up as that is very far from certain as the focus seems to be on sustainable growth rather than instant remedy and I for one applaud that if it means a more enjoyable stint in the PL next time!!
For now let’s support the lads and enjoy the journey..Up The Wolves!
Would be a shame to see Fletch go and he is still young enough to at least give us one more season before heading back for the big bucks if we don’t get up.
As for (Henry, Milijas, O’Hara, Jonnson, Edwards, Davis and Dioumba)
I would like to see Edwards make way as I have always felt he is way too hot and cold in performances more cold than hot.
Henry I think may lack in certain departments but at Championship level is more than good enough and his effort will see him through
O’Hara needs to come out fighting and if he is fit which he never seemed to be last season can do a good job for us
Davis has promise and Jonnson will be finished if he cannot turn the fans around which to be fair to the fans he has a lot to live up to but I do think he could be a revelation for us with less pressure on him at this level and really provide us with a surprisingly good season but his is probably the hardest task brought on by his own attitude last season
Milijas I have always liked but we only ever see glimpses of his talent and for too many minutes on the pitch he is AWOL so probably best to let him move on
Are you confusing Johnson with Jonnson re attitude ?
The board is demanding 15 million, which reflects the mentality that everyone is for sale at the right price, i.e over market price. I hope he’s staying. But personally I believe we could manage to cope with Championship without Fletcher also. Nouble has played well, Doyle is looking sharp again and Sigurdarson is quality. And if he’s leaving for 15 I assume he’ll be replaced by a decent attacker.
Jarvis leaving would weaken the team more than Fletcher, in my opinion. And Kightly is an important piece of our promotion jigzaw because of his versatility.
Dioumba is an welcomed addition. From the midfielders lined up above by Thomas only Edwards is a box to box player. While both O’Hara and Kightly could cloth an attacking midfielder role or play on the wings. Henry, Eggert and Davies fits into a defensive midfield role while Milijas is a typical midfielder, playmaker. So I don’t think it’s overkill at all.
The most important one for me is Kights. If he goes he will fetch a paltry 2 or 3 million and an in-form Kights is worth his weight in gold.
I don’t see the point of selling Fletcher, Jarvis et al. Our aim is to become an established premier league team, we are financially sound and dont need to sell. Unless we do get a ridiculous offer that can’t be refused, I’m thinking £15 million as a minimum, then isn’t more beneficial to wolves to try get promoted and get the £40 million tv rights that come with it.
Jez needs to look at Newcastle two years ago and see where they are now. If we sell Fletch and Jarvis and still get promoted then great but when we are back in the premier league we’ll be looking to buy players of their standard again. Why not just keep them, if we get promoted the team can be built with them already established, if we don’t get promoted then maybe it will be time to sell.
Our situation is a bit different to Newcastle’s though. I may be wrong, but i’m pretty sure Newcastle didn’t have relegation clauses in their contracts, so would still have been on big money. Newcastle probably couldn’t have got rid of many of their players even if they’d tried to.
There has been some talk of giving Fletcher and Jarvis improved deals, so they don’t drop in wages as much as the rest of the squad. I think it’s worth exploring this option, can’t imagine any of the other players would have a massive problem with it, those two are clearly our best players by some distance.
True. But both Jarvis and Fletcher are internationals, and no one wants to hold them back into championship. So it’s a balance. We don’t exactly lose on it as a club IF we get a lot of money to reinvest into the club. And our manager has been fairly effective on the transfer market so far :=) with the exception of Demidov who chose Germany because of bonuses, finances.
Looking at Fletchers goal record was surprised to see last seasons 12 is his best ever league total.
True – but he was playing in the least creative team in living memory
Not really my thing but i think the count for corners and crosses was relatively high.
Fletcher is definitely worth 12-15m, and I think Moxey can get that for him. Same with Jarvis, aorund the 10m mark would be fair if you ask me.
One player we must keep though is Kightly. 2/3m isn’t enough for him, I’d rather see him run out his contract and give us another season. Potentially the best player in this league.
The Doumbia signing is exciting! I can’t wait to see what he is about, can see Edwards being sold, and maybe Milijas.
The other thing to consider is that Fletcher is a fairly loyal player (as far as loyalty goes in these crazy times), one of the sticking points in his transfer to Wolves was the fact that he didn’t want to leave Burnley. In the end the club decided the offer was to good to refuse not Fletch. He’s also ruled himself out of internationals for the moment so he doesn’t have the pressure to play in the top league like Jarvis. I’m not saying he won’t go just that I feel it will probably be Jarvis who will leave the quickest.
Jarvis wants to get back into the England set up and he’s never going to do that playing in the Championship (or arguably for a newly promoted club. How the hell did Downing get in ahead of Scott Sinclair?).
Kights is a difficult one we’ve lost the manager who he was loyal to and he is at the stage in his career as a winger that he needs to be on the top stage lighting it up. That said we were the club that gave him his big chance and stuck by him through his injuries so there could be some loyalty there.
Good article first of all, but secondly i want to ask a question that could possibly make me look like a fool so feel free to answer it or just insult me if u thinks its a stupid question. Here it goes, If we really wanted to keep fletcher under our contract and he wanted prem football could we just loan him out to a epl side for a season possibely for a sum of cash and fletch making full wages, then when we get promoted he comes back to us. I know this comes with the risk of not getting promoted then selling him on the cheap because i believe he will only have a year left after this season.
Thanks Kieran.
In terms of your question about loaning out Fletch, I think you’ve got to ask yourself ‘what do Wolves get in that scenario?’.
We might get a decent fee for a loan, but we’d be without him for a season and when he comes back next year his value will be significantly less than it was when he left, probably dwarfing the loan fee when you consider he’ll be another year closer to the end of his contract and also another year older.
He could also get injured in that time, so that’s a massive risk on the future value of our biggest asset.
Added to that, our chances of promotion are significantly hampered because we not only deny ourselves the services of a top class striker, we also don’t have the big money to reinvest in the team.
Therefore I think the club are doing the right thing in holding out for decent money or keeping the player.
Just my thoughts of course.
Thanks for replying its great to have the head of the blog so interested and friendly with the visitors to the site. all of what your saying makes alot of sense and it just wouldnt be worth it for us, and i now understand we have to sell or keep him. I guess i was just trying to come up with a magical scenario where everybody was happy at the end of the day and we still had fletch. Thanks for clarifying.
Here’s another scenario: http://www.footballfancast.com/2012/07/football-news/sunderland-ready-to-up-12m-bid-for-striker
If we got 10 or 12 millions plus Wickham I’ve would have celebrated the whole night long. Wickhams potential is vast. A complete striker, not yet fully developed but capable of making havoc in championship at the age of 19.
It seems to me the picture is becoming much clearer now. I also think I am comfortable with it.
Having said this I now expect it to blow up in my face.
I think SM has his hand firmly on the wheel.
As I read it Wolves are holding good on their intent to hold on to best players, unless some one makes an offer that can not be refused.
Ironically this is consistent with what Jez has been saying all along, unfortunatley based on history we have not really belieived him.
I think they have also been honest with the players who clearly know the score. Historically we do have a good record of being straight with players and honoring handshakes to let them move on if we do not go up. I beleive Morgans take on it is that the players that took him down owe us one season to get us back up.
I do think we are going to lose a couple of big ones, but it will be for serious money once the real market gets going.
I really do not want to lose them but when we talk of Kightly loyality, dont forget Man U tried to highjack him when we were signing him, and as far as I know it was to his credit that he would not renege on the deal.
I have to admit that so far I am thinking its going exactly the way Jez told us.
Things seem to be developing quickly it sounds as if Sunderland might up there offer and possibly throw in Wickam !? The more i think about it i would take the money.Wont get another offer like this and i would rather keep Jarvis and Kightly.
If we got 10 or 12 millions plus Wickham I would have celebrated the whole night long. Wickhams potential is vast. A complete striker, not yet fully developed but capable of making havoc in championship at the age of 19. And we could have spent the money on an experienced striker and maybe a quality defender.
Is it just my imagination or does Fletcher remind anyone of the younger Doog.
All arms legs, elbows and knees. If he stays fit he can only get better and better.
Dont know much about Wickham but his career seems to have slowed down in the Prem.
It woould seem that Sunderland are going to come back for him do they have any good left backs up there. We will find another spot for Wardy.
If we do sell the crown jewels i hope its for the club to buy new and better up and coming
players and NOT Moxey’s pocket.but i would really like to keep the best player’s like West Ham
did and look where they are back in the premiership if only through the back door,so imo i would try my upmost to keep them…
Why are you obsessed with Jez Moxey ? Why do you think that everything and anything that happens is designed to line his pockets ?
I hope the above falls into the category of “fair comment ” and not “personal abuse”. Fingers crossed !
Well short and simple its not obsession its abhorrence,why do i think so because i blame him for the lack of proper investment.Thats why imo we are in this division.He’s only interested in filling his own pockets and does’nt give a shite about the club or the fans.
we already have lots of strikers so I don’t expect the club to ‘replace’ Fletcher when he goes. I should think the club are planning to end up with a big surplus in the transfer market over the summer, mainly to boost the bank balance to make up for the loss of premiership earmings.
But Solbakken is building a strong squad and I reckon 9-1 is great odds to win the league.
And then there’s the “war chest” that was promised to the new manager . . . . . .
On tonight’s performance Tongo looks the testicules du chien ou les genoux d’abielle
Stop showing off. I can speak German too !
I will probably be shot down in flames for this comment but if someone offered £3m for Kightly I’d let him go, as opposed to selling Jarvis for 3 times that. I have brilliantly fond memories of him from the Championship when we first signed him but he has spent the 5 years since battling for fitness and therefore form. If he could get back to 100% fitness and top form he’d be a massive asset but his record in doing so over the last 5 years doesn’t fill me with great confidence.
I’ve got a suggestion for a few new players that would put some heart, skill and commitment into the Wolves side.
Houghton – overlapping left back, a perfect replacement for Ward.
Smith – centre forward, a bit dicky on penalties but strong, skillful and holds the ball up well. That’s Fletcher’s replacement.
Little – hard working and creative midfielder. Just what we need!
Carney – speedy and tricksy winger. You can go now Jarvis.
A slightly tongue-in-cheek list but I would just like to put on record how impressed I have been with Team GB ladies!
I would imagine that I wasn’t alone in thinking women’s football was a bit naff, but I have been well and truly converted over the last few days.
GIRLS ARE GO!!!!!!!
Having lived many years in US where Girls Soccer is as common and popular as boys. You got to believe it. I live in Abby Wambachs home area and saw her many times playing high school soccer, she ran riot and could just as easily been in the boys team.
Reading the latest E & S make news report, I am becoming resigned to us losing the big three. For me it is going to be all bout what we get for them, good money, good loans or players being included will be the difference for me. Funnily enough I really think keeping Fletch and Kightly is more important than Jarvo. Love the guy to bits but as we saw last year running riot on the wings doesnt do that much for you unless someone sticks em away. If Jarvo has a weakness it is that last touch and cross sometimes. I also suspect he is going to get hacked to bits in the Champ. My preference of course is to keep all, but STS already sounds like he is looking for Fletch replacement.
I do like his resolve not to weaken the team so lets see.