The coming season is just over one day away and Wolves are in a state of flux...The much vaunted tight dressing room appears to be a thing of the past.Unrest seems to rule at the moment within a squad relegated from the Premiership last term...Ironically this may not be a bad thing for new manager Stale Solbakken. As he has the remit to change the whole club's playing style and ethos this will be more easily achieved by bringing in his own players rather than attempt to re-programme existing incumbents schooled in the previous managers image...
Partly this will be by design and partly by necessity.SS(As he'll have to be know despite the unfortunate connotation those letters have) Has already placed the popular but largely ineffective Hammil & Guedioura on the list with Guedioura leaving for Nottingham Forest.He's also put ex Serbian Captain Nenad Milijas on the transfer list...
I'm sad Milijas will be leaving as i think he's the most naturally gifted player at the club.His ability to spot a pass and also execute said pass is second to none.Also superb from set pieces.Unfortunately he has been used wrongly since being here,being asked to track back and tackle--He's useless at tackling---He should have had others win the ball,give it to him and let him do his stuff.Personally i would have built the team around him.I hope he goes abroad and not to another English club...
Top goalscorer Stephen Fletcher and winger Matt Jarvis have put in transfer requests.These two are our most saleable assets and many Wolves fans knew they'd move but what sticks in the craw is them leaving it very late in the day to make their desire to leave official.There have been bids for both but neither reach the club's valuation...
We're lucky at Wolves that we can play hardball with any prospective buyers of our players---Our CEO Jez Moxey comes in for a lot of abuse but nobody gets the better of him when it comes to negotiation---We are a well run club who're in the black financially.That gives us the luxury of dictating the terms of an outgoing transfer.Nobody pushes us around on that front...
Scottish centre back Christophe Berra has also put in a transfer request,citing his desire to play in a higher league.As yet there have been no offers,not even from WWF where his grappling skills would seem more appropriate...
Probably the biggest talking point so far has been the sale of Michael Kightly to local rivals Stoke City.He has just come back from two years injury and was our best player near the end of last season and even stated he wanted to stay to help the club after relegation, but he went up the road last week.Many Wolves fans were understandably upset at this but if we take a step back and see it from the point of SS the sale makes sense...
What SS will have seen is a player who'd spent two years on the treatment table who had only a year to go on his contract.He was also the previous manager's golden boy,which may not be important but could've lead to divided loyalty...SS was offered £3Million for a player that cost £25,000.He also had a ready made replacement waiting in the wings once the deal was done...When it's put that way it's not a bad bit of business...
So who's coming in?
The first two players bought were a bit of a surprise. Jamie Tank, a young defender from Walsall who i imagine our scouts had been tracking for a while.Nothing is known about him apart from him being a local lad with a great name...
Frank Nouble is a striker we got from West Ham.Again this was a bit left field but he's made himself popular with the fans already both on the pitch and via his Twitter account.He spent five years at Chelsea before going East to join the Hammers.He never really got much of a run there so hopefully he'll do better at Wolves.Still only about twenty two so got time to learn too...
Bjorn Sigurdsson. This was the longest protected incoming transfer so far of the season for us.SS clearly made Sigurdsson his first priority.We had to fight off some higher placed clubs to secure his services.Looks like SS has pulled off a bit of a coup with this one...
Tongo Doumbia. Potentially another great signing.An all action box to box midfielder.A sort of Karl Henry with knobs on...Could be our hit of the season,even sweeter that he turned down a move to hated rivals WBA barely a week before joining us...
Slawomir "Hey" Peszko. A Polish winger and the immediate replacement for Kightly.Supposedly very fast with good ability.Also his surname is a sub editors dream...
I doubt if that is the end of the coming and going as SS tries to make his mark on the club.Hopefully a few of the youth team players will also get a better chance to shine too...
As for the season ahead a lot of fans are now having a reality check after all the upheaval at the club and many are thinking securing a Play Off place would be a good showing...I can't argue with that assessment...
Up The Wolves!
/\_/\ /\_/\
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