So Wolves have already concluded their first piece of business of the January transfer window, by bringing Hearts midfielder Eggert Jonsson to Molineux for a (you guessed it) undisclosed fee.
However, the BBC are reporting that the amount paid is around the £200,000 mark, so perhaps the bigger bucks are being held-back for other areas of the squad.
Read the story on the official site here.
Does anyone know a single thing about this guy? I certainly don’t.
Naturally, we all need to give him a chance to show what he can do before passing judgement but after being linked with more established Premier League names, I can’t help but feel a little disappointed.
Perhaps more worrying is the fact that a lot of Hearts supporters don’t seem that bothered that he’s leaving.
Still, the likes of Guedioura and Hammill have come in over the last two seasons and made contributions, so whose to say Jonsson won’t be another?
I think we can all be in agreement that Wolves need to do serious business in January, so this really should be the first of a few signings.
Well, apparently he can do ‘the Pong’ …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8aXdrIAWW8
Found a quote from bbc sport
“The 23-year-old successfully negotiated terms after a fee believed to be around £200,000 was agreed between the clubs.”
Forgive me for not jumping up and down at this one…
He adds height to our squad and is perhaps a contender to the Defensive midfielder position. When that is said, we need to prioritize other positiones, as our midfield is well covered otherwise. He’s a versatile player that also can play as a defender.
And Icelandic players, like Helguson and Gudjonson, have showed them self as valuable assets in english football. If he’s a flop we’ll sell him – as we do with Griffiths – so it’s a win win situation.
This one has got my pulse racing almost as much as when we purchased Denes Rosa. Where is that early bird renewal form – I’m having two!!
I honestly can’t take the excitement.
I didn’t think Rosa was that bad. Just wasn’t given much time. I remember him being a fast, hastling type of player.
Could be a smart signing, has been Hearts player of the year before, hes young and despite the lack of coverage he has been watched by a few premier league clubs. More importantly though he’s a risk signed at the right price (next to nothing) and he adds a number of options to the team because he can play in midfield, centre defence and full back. So he adds competition for Henry’s place and hopefully can cover for Ward.
That said I won’t be happy if this signing isn’t the first of a few, Frimpong and Onuha would be my favourites to start with and Kenwyn Jones another big plus if we could persuade him to join us.
I’m inclined to trust MM on this one – look how he built up the team in his first season as manager!
I know that was Championship level but Mick obviously sees something in Jonsson – and if not then we haven’t wasted too much!
He saw something in Hammill, Mujangi, Mairhofer, van Damme, Mouyokolo, Halford and Surman too, to name but seven.
Speaking of Surman, didn’t he look far more mobile and athletic than, say, Hunt? Its a shame we never saw him play down here as he looked decent enough to me last night!
Versatile too.
Yeah, he did – as for Hunt, he was easily our worst player yesterday!
I think Surman was a victim of us going up too soon, I think if he had joined us in the Championship he would have had time to bed in and settle in the team As it was he never really got a chance, Jarvis was more effective down the left and he never really fit in at left back. Its funny but I can remember when we signed him thinking he was a decent player waiting to happen!
As for the others you mention: Hammil is good and will get his chance but is learning his trade and doesn’t offer the defensive (harrassing) qualities that Hunt usually does.
Mujanji was a risk but didn’t cost much and never really showed anything.
Maierhoffer was meant to be in the mould of John Carew but couldn’t cope with the pace of English football wasn’t cheap by any means but wasn’t overly expensive in the long run because we got most of our money back.
Van Damme was quality unfortunately couldn’t settle at Wolves (could have been MM fault?). Still don’t see him as bad signing though, just unfortunately didn’t work out.
Mouyokolo was another unfortunate. Looked quality for Hull but never recovered from an early injury and so was sold. Bad luck?
Halford Signed as a cover player never really had the quality for this level. Championship player with a Premier League ego. Again signed relatively cheaply and filled a lot of holes, unfortunately lacked quality.
I think Johnson apart when MM has money to throw at a problem he has come up with quality (O’hara, Fletcher, Doyle and Ebanks-Blake before that) and his record with limited funds isn’t bad (Kightly, Jarvis, Ward and Iwelumo) its just that searching for quality premiership players in the bargain bucket is extremely difficult. For all the talk of 49 million that doesn’t buy you 4 established premiership players these days when you consider wages and bonuses. His transfers have been hit and miss precisely because there calculated risks on cheaper players.
Jonsson may turn out to be crap but we have only spent £200,000 on him, Blackpool spent more than that in wages on James Beattie last year and look what it got them a fat has been striker!
You make Steve Kean look like a pessimist with some of these unconvincing defences of appalling signings!
I’m not trying to defend them, some of them especially Maierhoffer and Halford were absolute crap. But at the time you could see the logic in them (the Hoff – tall physical striker to replace the ageing Iwelumo, Halford – Utility player who could provide cover at centre back and full back as well as being fairly comfortable on the ball in midfield) and they didn’t cost the earth. Like it or not Wolves are a team on a budget and weren’t able to stuff the team full of premiership experience and wages as soon as we came up ala QPR as such we end up hunting through the bargain bucket and if you do that you end up taking on some donkeys. In his defence MM has been fairly quick to clear out a lot of the ones even he thinks are crap (which is saying something!) and usually clawed back a fair amount of the money we paid for them.
Jonsson is a risk, same as Griffiths but hes not taken a lot of the budget and offers cover positions we’ve been short in (Defensive mid and Full back). If he doesn’t make it we should easily manage to sell him to an SPL or Championship club for what we’ve paid, if he does we’ve got a bargain. That said I won’t be happy unless we get some quality in as well as I’ve said before Frimpong and Onhua for me.
Fair enough, I just thought some of the explaining away of disastrous buys was a bit weak. Writing off Mouyokolo as ‘bad luck’ and van Damme as ‘not a bad signing’? That was the entire £5m he spent on trying to sort out our limited defence that summer!
I think the point is that:
– We look like a team that needs a lot of help if we are to stay up.
– McCarthy has spent more than £40m in the past two and a half years.
– About £11m of that was on players he’s already got rid of.
– The remainder includes nearly £5m on Milijas & Guedioura who aren’t in his first team.
– We’ve even seen £12m of talent (Johnson and Doyle) had to be dropped recently because neither are delivering.
Therefore, it’s difficult to convince yourself we should have faith that £4.5m is going to make a huge difference?
I agree on the point that 4.5m isn’t a lot but used creatively to get in some quality loans or loan to buys along with the odd bargain basement pick up it could be enough to tip the balance in our favour for this season.
In answer to your point about Van Damme, Mouyokolo I am willing to give MM a break on those two. Van Damme was a quality signing, the guy has bags of experience and looked good when he played. If its true, he couldn’t settle here then its unfortunate, if it wasn’t that then the club needs to take a serious look at themselves. Mouyokolo was disapointing purely for the fact that he looked the real deal at Hull, pacey, strong in the tackle and good in the air all qualities we could do with in defence. His injury curtailed his career at Wolves.
On the others:
-We do but fortunately for us so do at least 4 other teams, which is why January is so important, if we don’t recruit quality we can be damn sure that Sunderland, Bolton, Wigan and Blackburn will.
-McCarthy has spent 40 million but some of that has been raised by clearing out players (see below) and nobody was arguing that the squad we had was good enough for this level. 29 million net spend (based on your figures) is small fry at this level, especially when you consider our strict wage budget. It is arguable whether the squad has improved enough considering the money spent but we haven’t lost the crucial never say die attitude that has characterised the team since MM takeover which would have been at risk had we bought in too many big time charlies.
– £11m for players that weren’t good enough isn’t a bad return really. In our position were scraping the bargain bucket so getting a return has to be a plus.
– Milijas may go in the transfer window or summer and I’d be surprised if we don’t get back a fair portion of what we paid (as he heads to sunnier climbs where they play snails pace football). He is undoubtably good but he lacks the work rate we need, we simply can’t carry a player, but that said his guile has played a part in keeping us up these past two years so the money we spent hasn’t been wasted. Guediera is an enigma sometimes he’s brilliant sometimes he’s not, I still think he has a part to play this season and it’s to early to judge whether or not he’s been a decent investment.
– Johnson and Doyle are quality players in poor form. Doyle’s part in keeping us up the past two seasons has more than repaid the fee paid and the man will come good once he has his mojo back! Johnson is harder to read precisely because we expected so much from him. I still maintain that the single biggest problem with our defence this year has been that Johnson and Berra are two very similar players and as a result cannot play together. They both benefit from having someone with a bit more pace and turning ability next to them. I’d personally love to see Stearman alongside Johnson for once, I’d think it would improve Johnsons form no end. As it is though recently Berra has been playing out of his skin and so would deserve the nod ahead of Johnson.
I agree, Surman was one of the best players on the pitch and an example of how ‘our’ players might improve, given a different managerial/training set up.
‘I am a bit surprised an EPL side seems to want him’ says one Hearts fan. Ah, but this is Mick McCarthy..
……”can play in a number of positions”…..? Mick wouldn’t have it any other way ! Did someone mention Steven Ward ?
If the club/owner have let MM sign this player – does this signal MM`s tenure will continue. Or has a new manager suggested we buy him. If we play him as the holding midfield player, that will leave one midfield player and two isolated wide men to be overrun by the opposition. Mind you for £200k at least there is no great financial risk.
Maybe we are getting ready for the championship by buying on the cheap, it saves a bit of money for a big on loan striker which MM and our winger`s crosses need.
Maybe Tevez next eh – lets show some ambition. I bet if we had won yesterday this story would not have gone live, but saved for the day after the next defeat.
And as for those bastards who closed the A38 north last night and meant I didn`t get home until 12.30am…………
Always wary when you sign a player and fans of the previous club aren’t raving about him. Have to give him a chance though – I’m just relieved to hear he’s only 200k… makes me think this is one to file under “Leigh Griffiths – worth a punt”.
Another Jonsson!!!
Is this McDickwad’s new policy?
He’s got the full Irish team, now anyone with the letter J?
It’s as good as any for picking a player, I suppose, according to the logic of Mick!!
He certainly doesn’t appear to watch any of them before they sign, does he???
FOMM
Anyone with the letter J, eh? Well, it worked for Jarvis! 😛
I think we should get an O’something-or-other in our team next to replicate Jamie’s success of the second half of last season! 🙂
Jarvis has only played well in a couple of games this season, and since he played for England, his form has not been brilliant.
More importantly, we now need some cover for O’Hara who is out for at least 6 weeks, according to the propoganda site, with a double hernia.
Another case of being “over trained”?
FOMM
He looks back to his best now Clive. (Jarvis that is)
Good, perhaps some of his good form will rub off on some other players, who need to get back to their best……Mr. Johnson, Mr. Doyle etc etc
FOMM
Problem is every other team knows our only real attacking outlet is Jarvis.
It is too predictable especially when the mirror image, Hunt, is not of the same standard.
Damn… well, in a way it came at the right time – McCarthy has the January transfer window to find a replacement, though he should be looking for one anyway!
Just read McDickwad’s comment, which appears on the sanitized site, about this new guy playing alonside better players……………….is he going to sign someone else as well?????
FOMM
Hopefully……
He is an above average player in the SPL…a bit hot headed at times worryingly! At 200k I would see him as worth a try…but not really a solution to any of our problems this year…I would only expect to see him in cameo roles this season…maybe like Ward he too has the potential to mature into an EPL player or reasonable quality…
It’s nice to have cover and if he’s an SPL player that means he should be a good enough standard for the Championship at least like so many of our other players.
Let’s see what he can do before we pass judgement, he was a good price for sure.
That is presupposing McDickwad actually plays him, or will he warm the bench like so many other “supersaver signings”???
FOMM
Clive I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up on the bench, judging by MM comments he’s bought him to add depth to the squad and as one for the future.
I just want to know can he play left back? So he can be competition or cover for Ward. Sorry big George, it pains me to say it, your just not good enough for this level.
Some nice comments by Sheff Wed fans about Danny Batth extending his loan here, if you scroll down a little bit. They seem to rate him very highly
http://www.facebook.com/sheffieldwednesday
I’ve heard Bournemouth fans raving about Malone too. It’s immaterial of course, cos they’ll never get near the first team.
Agree. Malone one baffles me as we are so short of quality at left back. We know what George brings to the table. A trier and a great chap but a liability. And we only got George from League 1 Colchester.
The same league that Malone is getting rave reviews.
Rules for one, rules for another.
MM`s ambition must be to saddle the club with around 25 utility players, and prior to every game he puts all the names in the hat he already uses (except for the keeper,) and the first eleven names out play that day.
Imagine that every player could perform in 4 or 5 positions, we could even have Ward playing centre half. Don`t fancy Sylvan at right back though. The shirt sponsor would be really pissed off though with every squad member needing five or six free shirts.
Out of these 25 utility players to MM`s surprise maybe at least two of them will be good enough for the premiership, the other 23 perfect for the championship. Nothing like hedging your bets. Moxey could loan them all out and like our academy players, none of them would ever actually play for the first team. Another record breaking statistic – the club with the most players out on loan in living memory. Unfortunatley like Keogh, nobody else actually thinks they are good enough or wants to sign them.
If he can pass to a gold shirt and is any good at defending then he could be a welcome addition. Read somewhere he can be at times hot-headed so should get on with MM. Lets give him a chance.
I’m hoping that the squad get a real big shake up-if Jody had been fit would Johnson have started. I know Jody is past his best but when he played he was so assured against Black Cats. This is the kind of signing our club needs-again!
Any news on Foley?
So Arsene has postponed the game for 24 hours coz of the tube drivers supposed strike.
How come?
Chelsea haven’t postponed their game.
Aren’t teams supposed to have contingency plans in place?
What about all the travelling fans who’ve already booked tickets etc for getting there?
What about us poor sods in USA who have the mother in law for Christmas, and were planning on a two hour escape period to watch the game?
Eh, Arsene?
Always thinking about yourself, and moaning about the injustices done to you. What about me?
Have you no sympathy or decency?
Why do I have to suffer an extra day, just coz your little fans might have to walk or drive to the ground?
Wait until your mother in law comes to visit you, then see how much sympathy I give you!
Clive-is she an A****n supporter?!
Nah, she’s from St Louis, Missourri, follows baseball and the current “world” champions, The Cardinals.
Could be worse, she could be from Dallas!!
……..FOAW? 😛
No, wish we had him, moans and all.
At least he knows a little bit about football, more than the moron we have now.
I’m sure any club outside the top 6 would wish that they had Arsene Wegner!