Yet again, Mick!

[evergold]

Now it's Anthony Pilkington from Huddersfield in Diviion 1. Or would have been if the player had not preferred Norwich!

What the hell is Mick playing at? According to Moxey, the aim this summer was to recruit quality rather than quantity - to try and bring in the bit of genuine Premiership class necessary if Wolves are ever to escape the perennial relegation dogfight. Yet here is Mick trying to get a player from two divisions lower who has not long got over a broken leg and dislocated ankle! Unbelievable!

We've already got Halford, Maierhofer, Edwards, Ward, Vokes, Mouyokolo, Mujangi Bia, Keogh and the ageing Craddock (offered a free and then a contract extension, in a complete turnabout) who all have little, if any, relevance to a team aspiring to a mid-Premiership place, without bringing in more players totally unproven at anything even remotely like Premiership level. I just don't care how cheap they are - they still draw wages and added together the wages of the nine players above would easily fund two or three decent ones.

Is Mick dreaming? Quite apart from the above, Stearman, Zubar, Berra, Foley and Henry hardly set the Prem. alight with their error-strewn defending last season. And these are supposed to be Mick's better players!

Mercifully, we've been spared Pilkington but I shudder at the thought of who Mick will go after next. If it was so easy to uncover potential "gems" of players who cost next to nothing in transfer fees and will accept wages which are rock bottom by Prem. standards, why don't all the proven, top Prem. managers do it? Or is it only Mick who has the divining rod?

No one is suggesting for one moment that Wolves risk financial stability by throwing around big bucks unwisely in the transfer market. What I am suggesting, though, is that Mick focuses his mind on clearing out all the wage-drawing dross at the club (if anyone will take them) and putting whatever funds he gets towards two or three genuine Premiership players in key positions.

And that he stops buying yet more unproven players from lower divisions in the wild (and invariably vain) hope that they'll magically transform from ugly ducklings into majestic swans.

 

[Another Salisbury Wolf]

Why not just shut up and wait?? It's early in to the 'window'. Mick (and the players) have kept us in this division......I feel he'll come good again this season, although, no doubt, we will again 'flirt' with the relegation zone!!!!

 

[evergold]

Why not just shut up and wait?? It's early in to the 'window'. Mick (and the players) have kept us in this division......I feel he'll come good again this season, although, no doubt, we will again 'flirt' with the relegation zone!!!!

So that's it then, is it? You're quite content to "flirt with relegation" for a third successive year in the Premiership. With that being the height of your ambition, I'd say you don't deserve success. Instead, just place your blind faith in a manager who has one of the worst Premiership win percentages of all time (around 20%, don't believe me - check it out) because you will be forever grateful to him for getting us out of the Championship.

He's now allegedly looking at a centre back who was part of West Ham's relegated squad and was even shipped out of that for 5 weeks on loan to Derby! Some credentials for the Premiership!!! But never mind that, he's cheap, or maybe free and Mick will have high hopes of developing him into a world class player, I'm sure. Won't happen!!!

Finally, you say that it's early in the transfer window. I've got news for you - early in the transfer window is the time to bring in new players, so that they have time to form a coherent team before the start of the new season. Unlike Mick, who before today has brought in loads of cheap buys at the last minute and then wondered why he doesn't have a team.

You are right about one thing though - Wolves might, and almost certainly will, "flirt" with relegation this season but even if they get away with it this year, the season after will require much more, with the Championship looking stronger than ever, and some clubs acquiring decent funding from new owners. One potential Wolves player has recently turned McCarthy down in favour of joining Leicester. I wonder why?

 

[gotcoffee]

£7Million bid accepted for Roger Johnson today .. not a done deal .. but would be a quality signing evergold seems to be crying out for, definitely one of the better players that Brum had last year and would be a top purchase for Wolves ..

 

[hedgeworth]

yeah plenty of time, Johnson and A N Other defender and we will be in a half decent shape for next season

 

[Neilynotquite]

Evergold, not seen a response to the Johnson signing yet. I'm really pleased with the business we've done so far; surely you must be as well, or are you looking to spend more? I'll be nervous until the transfer window closes in case we receive a big offer for Doyle, Jarvis or Fletcher, but so far, so good. I'd still like to find another defender, but the transfer budget must be running low; we were warned not to expect as many signings as last summer.

 

[hedgeworth]

I would not expect much more money to be spent. maybe a few million but would expect any other decent names to be free transfers or something similar.

 

[evergold]

Am I glad Mick has got a quality central defender? Yes, if he proves to be that. His former playing relationship with Dann makes him harder to evaluate on his own merits. As a pairing, they did well enough for much of last season, although I thought their performances tapered off somewhat towards season end. But then, the whole team they were in struggled. Again, this makes assessment of any one individual player harder.

In all, I guess I'm hopeful, rather than confident, that Johnson will make it at Wolves and that he will show the class and steadiness ineeded in defence. We'll just have to see if he can form a new partnership in a new environment. The big question is "with who"? I think further defensive support is still needed.

Milijas apart, the lack of creativity and imagination in midfield worries me too. Doyle, Fletcher and co. need better service than they had last season and, as yet, I don't see where that is going to come from. Service makes chances makes goals. And Wolves need to score more per game over the season.

Maybe Mick and the other Ms are addressing this. Maybe not. Maybe the purse strings have been pulled shut. If the latter, I fear Wolves will struggle greatly again. A club cannot make ad hoc signings, no matter how good, and expect significant improvement on the pitch unless there is a coherency about the plan. Just signing one defender doesn't make a whole defence, nor does even a class striker necessarily make more goals for the club. Play must flow from defence, through midfield to the forwards throughout each game, and this process will founder if there is a weak link (e.g. no creative midfielder). Closing the purse before at least some line(s) of coherency have been established could be just an expensive excursion into the transfer market for little benefit.

So, it's up to the 3Ms to complete this process, which I personally think will require another defender and the aforesaid midfielder as an absolute minimum.

Losses to Crewe and Shrewsbury, with zero goals scored, don't bode well. OK, OK, I know you can't judge on pre-season friendlies but surely the team must be looking to score goals irrespective of the game results? But, seemingly, couldn't - even against opposition very modest in comparison with Premiership teams.

Some ongoing worries and deficiencies still to be addressed I fear. Hopefully they will be. And this will cost some more money, at least of a semi-serious level in Premiership terms. That's the way of the world, I'm afraid.

 

[atcham jack]

there is nothing modest about the shrews, we hammered man utd 2-1 last week, we are unbeaten against premier clubs this year. floreat salopia

 

[Neilynotquite]

I'm afraid you are going to be disappointed because there just isn't any more money in the pot. That includes for free signings until we can get players like Andy Keogh and The Hof off the wage bill. I don't think the signings are ad hoc though; O'Hara is a better replacement for Dave Jones and Roger Johnson is a better replacement for Mouyokolo. I don't know how De Vries compares to Hahnemann, but I did think he was beginning to show his age a bit last season, which is why Hennessey got his chance; so by and large they are like for like. I don't know how old you are, but I'm old enough to have suffered through the 1980s, and over-borrowing just isn't the way to go. Our owner isn't Sheikh Mansour or Roman Abramovic, so the only chance we have is to build gradually. Last season Fulham finished 8th and were only 10 points ahead of Blackpool, so it doesn't need a massive improvement to start moving up the table, which would increase income and finance gradually more investment. It may not work. I think we'll finish somewhere between 9th and 20th, but for me anywhere above 17th would represent progress. Sorry if that's not exciting enough for you. If we can build for another couple of years we can start to get a bit more ambitious.