Following on from Ben’s post yesterday regarding the pantomime of the January transfer window, I thought it might be fun to look at all of the players Wolves have been linked with (so far) and assess what chance we realistically have of getting them. Here goes:
Matthew Kilgallon – Before yesterday he seemed a pretty decent bet as a possible new signing for Wolves. With his contract up in the summer, I thought he’d certainly be moving in January, but he’s decided to stay with United until the end of the season. Shame.
Molineux Bound Rating: 0/10
Rob Hulse – A £3 million move to Wolves has been widely talked about, but many fans (including myself) aren’t too keen on the idea of the striker sporting the old gold. A good target man, with a decent scoring record, but I don’t believe he’d add anything we don’t already have. With Iwelumo and The Hoff already on the books, I’d be surprised if Mick spent big money on another battering ram.
Molineux Bound Rating: 3/10
Craig Gardner – The versatile Villa man has been linked with Wolves ever since we got promoted. He’s got decent Premiership experience and the fact that he can play almost anywhere in defence or midfield would make him a great signing for Mick McCarthy. But unfortunately, Blues seem to be in the driving seat and this just smacks of another case of being muscled out by our neighbours.
Molineux Bound Rating: 4/10
Jamie O’Hara – Without doubt, if Wolves could get the Spurs man, either on loan or permanently, he’d be a good signing. He’s been playing consistently for Pompey and by all accounts, done very well. I think he’d add something to our midfield and make a significant impact on the first team. I’ve heard Fulham are interested too and they have the geographical advantage, which is probably key because I’m not sure he’ll be keen on a move up north to the Midlands. Still, there’s a chance and I’ve got to believe we’re interested.
Molineux Bound Rating: 5/10
Jermaine Beckford – I must admit I’m warming to the idea of seeing Beckford at Wolves. He seems to have a bit of an attitude and I’d worry that he could have a negative influence on the squad, but he’s got all the attributes you need to do very well at the highest level. And his pace would give us another dimension in our attacking play. We were mentioned a while back as one interested party, but Newcastle appear to be in the driving seat. He’s handed in a transfer request and his contract is up at the end of the season, so I’d wager he’s moving on in January. Could Wolves nip in and take a gamble on the feisty forward? Possibly.
Molineux Bound Rating: 5/10
Fode Mansare – The tricky winger from Toulouse has been linked with a move to Wolves in the last few days. I know nothing about him or his situation at the French club, so it’s impossible to say whether he’s Molineux bound or not. What I’m certain of though is that Mick will be looking for another wide man and it really wouldn’t surprise me if he invested in foreign talent.
Molineux Bound Rating: 6/10
Kris Commons – Until yesterday he would have been the signing I was most confident of securing. He’s a natural winger and has shown that he has good ability, but whether or not he can cut it in the Premiership is another question. I think he’d be a good signing as a squad player to challenge the likes of Jarvis and Kightly, but don’t believe he’d add significant quality to our first team. I could be wrong. Regardless, I think Mick might take the gamble on him and pay the reported £2 million fee.
Molineux Bound Rating: 7/10
Kevin Kilbane: I immediately read this rumour and thought ‘yep, he’ll be a Wolves player by the end of January’. Let’s examine the facts. He’s Irish (well, he’s plays for the Rep. Ireland), he’s got Premiership experience, he can play in a number of positions and he’ll cost next to nothing. I’d be very surprised if our manager isn’t licking his lips at this one and even more surprised if he doesn’t end up in a Wolves shirt sooner rather than later.
Molineux Bound Rating: 9/10
Anyone heard different rumours? Surely someone’s spotted Lionel Messi chomping down on a Dairylea Dunker on the ASDA car park?
I’m guessing not everyone agrees with my ratings too. I wouldn’t blame you, I’m quite often wrong. In the summer I was certain Kevin Doyle wouldn’t sign for us and was convinced we’d get Ledley from Cardiff. Shows what I know hey?
I think Commons would be a poor signing. He’s clearly talented but not quick enough to make the step up. I think he’s been very mediocre at Derby and it smacks of them trying to make a few quid seeing as they got him on a Bosman. Also Thomas i disagree with him being a natural winger, whenever i’ve seen him he’s done his best stuff as a No.10, playing off the front man. Maybe this is because his pace isn’t as much of an issue in this position.
I think O’Hara is a quality player, however i think he’s very much in the mould of Milijas. Great set-piece delivery, eye for a pass and dangerous when shooting from distance. If we got O’Hara in i don’t see how Mick would/could play both. I think Milijas would be the player to make way as O’Hara has a bit more of an engine and bite to his play. This would be a shame and surely it wouldn’t improve the 1st XI enough to warrant the fee or wages.
Signing Zinedine Kilbane wouldn’t be the end of the world as he can play virtually anywhere. I’ve seen him play CB,LB,CM and LM over the last few years. Considering the years he spent at Everton and Wigan i imagine he’s probably still based in the North-West somewhere and considering he has a down-syndrome daughter he may not have up-rooted his family when he went to Hull. So from a logistical point of view we would be a good move for him. Also he owes his entire International career to Mick so i imagine he’d walk over broke glass to play for him again. If Mick wants him this will happen. I would give him a Molineux Bound Rating of 9/10.
Kwolf, surley you get rid of some dead weight to free up the wages for O’Hara??
I think it is short sighted not to bring him to the Wolves because he is simalar to Milijas and would not warrent the wage.
He would easaly improve our squads quality and competition for a places.
EmeraldPete, true, but he would be ‘fixing’ a problem that’s well down the pecking order in terms of priority. If we was one of 4-5 players then brilliant but i don’t see us bringing in more than 3.
I’m sure I’ve just driven past van nistelrooy and his wife being shown round a house in Whitmore Reans and my mate tells me he saw Ronaldinho carrying a crate of Banks’ on ASDA car park!
Can’t help but think whoever we sign it will be a let down – the Tesco bags being linked with £9million moves for dutch internationals and we have to argue over whether a £2million signing from Derby makes sense! (a signing from a team that were in fact relegated from the Premier League with the lowest ever points total!)
All we can hope is the chinese owners are just bluffing or pull out this time next year creating a Leeds/Portsmouth situation for Small Heath Utd!
Come on Morgan – show me the money! You got the club for ten quid, promised to invest £30million. If anyone can provide a breakdown of where that has gone I’d be very interested as I cant see it myself – and what about the payments we got for promotion?
Maybe he could use his special relationship with his ‘beloved Liverpool’ to get some of their fringe players on loan. Probably too tight to pay the wages!
StourbridgeWolf, before the start of last season there was £28mil of the £30mil left according to the offical accounts and was sitting in a seperate high interest account. I doubt that much of that was dipped into last summer. Who did we buy? Iwelumo, Jones, Shackell and Berra? Hill was a swop, can’t think of anyone else off hand. So that’s at the most £5mil of the £28mil even if all the fees were taken out of the nest-egg which i doubt they were. We should still have had at least £25mil left this summer when you factor in the money brought in by the sale of Olifinjana, Davies etc. The big, currently unaswerable question is how much of the £25mil was dipped into this summer? You would expect the TV income would’ve covered most if not all our transfer dealings. I genuinely believe we are sitting on at least £20mil if not more which is why i’m becoming increasingly annoyed by our reluctance to spend sufficiently on fees or wages to bring in the few players that would establish us this season. I fear if we miss our chance this season it’ll be much more difficult over the next few years. I know it’s become a cliche but the league genuinely is weaker this season and we need to take advantage of that.
I agree Kwolf, wingers are our priority. The doyle transferr should be used as best practice by MM and the board. Spend £6m and you get quality, spend £2m and get just another body to put in the wall in training sessions.
All I seem to see is our imedeate rivals linked with £8m this and big name that.
However, as stated in previous threads, these clubs could just be trying to look bigger than they are and our manager and board are (at the risk of being a bit short sighted) nothing if not realistic with their targets.
As a fan, ask yourself this. Would you rather succeed in signing most of your roumored, lets say “average” targets or have your club constantly linked with “fantastic” player only ner to sign them???
Kwolf – thanks for the stats, it’s all very interesting and something you have obviously studied.
I agree that we should go for it now as there will never be a better time to retain our Premiership status. Lets face it there are some poor teams (Wolves included if we are honest) in the league this season – it tells you something when the entire lower half of the table is only seperated by only a few points. Invest now in quality rather than £2million gambles to secure a second season.
I just worry Mr Morgan is sat in Merseyside counting the money his involvement with the club has made him already. But it could be worse we could be Portsmouth fans!
Anyway my mate Jamal just said he saw Rooney and Coleen coming out of the family planning clinic behind ASDA!
I agree with what you’re all saying, now is definately the time to invest. We are in with a fighting chance with the squad we’ve got but imagine the difference it could make if we were able to make a couple of quality signings. Thing is, apart from Gardner and O’Hara, everyone else listed in the article are distinctly average and wouldn’t be any better than what we’ve already got. I’m not saying I have the answers but to any of the names we are linked to above I’d seriously be unhappy if we landed any of them!!!!!!
I would leave Hulse and Commons well alone. I’m not convinced they are any better than what we have and it’s not as if they’ve been setting the world alight in the championship
O’Hara and Kilbane would be two good signings for us.
Oh and Craig Gardner too, i think he’s a good player. If we could get those three i’d be happy
Rich and Edward – totally agree guys.
Gardner and O’hara would add Prem league experience all the rest are the same as what we already have. Some of the present squad looked great in the CCC (Kites & SEB especially) but look ordinary in this league – so lets not make the mistake of just buying players on the same level that might not cut it.
It’s time for less quantity and more quality – like the signing of Doyle!
Looks like there will be no deal for Fode Mansare either – too cold to watch him train!
Hulse …nooooooooooooo Kilbane….nooooooooooooo mind you he fits all the criteria for Mick. Agreed Gardner and O’Hara would be good signings. On a different note hasn;t it got quiet about all the “stars” in the Academy? Not long ago, we were touting Mendez Laing and Ismael to make their bows…. now, I hardly see anything about them. Wonder why?
I think Ismail is only 15/16. Hope he gets his chance in the next couple of years. Mendez-Laing played in the cup against Swindon before and had a good game. I wish Daniel Jones had been given more of a chance. Good player and good left back. Shame about Gobern too.
In Mick’s first season Little played full back for nearly all of the season. Two and a half seasons on how many game shas he played. He looked like he was gonna be a bit of a star to me too.
Personally I can’t see us signing Kilbane. The board have consistently said that we will not invest heavily in players in their late twenties or older and although there has been the odd budget exception (Iwelumo and Hahneman) they have stuck by this. Kilbane would add nothing and seeing as he has been involved in more relegations than Jan Aage Fjortoft I would steer well queer . All this talk about experience is a massive red herring. We need quality players who fit within the structure that the club has built up both in terms of wages and in terms of age.
Personally I would love to see us sign Adam Johnson but I just don’t think it will happen. O’Hara maybe though I think he is overrated simply because he plays for Spurs. Gardener would be good and with Blues now buying Michel maybe they will back off. Maybe someone like Gary O’Neil from Boro would add something or possibly Mark Wilson from Pompey.
Blues have also bid 8mill for Babel and 11mill for Kenwyne Jones . They have had a good season so far and stregthening further.Must be nice to support a club with some semblance of ambition. Blues will laso be able to play Michel this weekend whilst we faff around with our unknown best team
Great, blues could have Babel, Jones and Migel/Michel (whatever!) in their line up when we play thm 7 Feb! While Wolves could have Kilbane on a free and a couple of players from Derby. Roll on death!
Could be another monday full of p*ss taking from the bllues fans I work for!
There was talk of us signing Stephen Hunt from Hull on Radio WM this week although as we are big rivals this season I can’t see it happening and is he better than Jarvis? We need to add better quality ala Doyle and Milijas who have provided most of the real quality this season.
Martin, I’ve read that Stephen Hunt rumour today as well. £3 million apparently.
Perhaps not the most glamorous of signings but I’d take him. Decent player we can deploy either side of midfield.
Also, if Hull need to offload for financial reasons, I think he could possibly strengthen us and weaken their cause, which has to be a good thing.
I seriously hope Blues do sign Babel. What a waste of money that’ll be. £8m is way over the top for him and hopefully Liverpool will hold out to take a few more of their millions of them if they’ve turned down their first offer! Jones would be a good signing for them but would be surprised if Sunderland would be happy to let him go so easily. Wouldn’t class it so much as their board showing more ambition than ours though. I think our board would love to go out and spend £8/9/10m on a single player, we just haven’t got the funding to do that. I’d guess the maximum we’d have is that for 2/3 players, and i’m probably even being optimistic by saying that. Buts thats all it would take, two £4/5m players added to our squad and i’d be feeling alot happier about our chances
I regards to Hunt, whatever his attitiude i think he’s been one of hulls best players this season and he can be credited for a lot of the results Hulls have achieved so far. he’s fast, willing to run at defenders, can cross the ball well and is willing to have a shot.
I doubt it will go through but if it does i’d be very happy!
I would like Hunt too – I’ve banged on about him since Hull signed him in the summer. We should have done a double swoop for him and Doyle as I am sure he would have come to Wolves rather than Hull given MM’s god like status amongst the irish!
I’m not sure if he is better than Jarvis – but I think he is better than Kites (time to put my tin hat on for that comment!) and far less injury prone.
He’s also quite handy at taking out goalkeepers and we havent had anyone who could do that since Bully!
If we sign Kilbane AND Hunt (I think we have a chance of getting just one of these players) then that will effectively condemn Hull to Championship football next season.
What concerns be about Hunt is that are Hull likely to want to sell their best player this season and a relatively recent signing?
THe reason we are linked with him is because their chairman has said all this stuff about selling players to reduce wage (by £9m too). Hunt will be one of the highest earners too. Be an ace signing, can’t he play full back too?