Stoke and Hull are leading the chase for £3m-rated wantaway midfielder Seyi Olofinjana – who admits his ‘hurt’ at failing to win promotion with Wolves.
The newly-promoted Premier League duo are two of four or five teams who have expressed an interest in the transfer-listed Nigerian.
Wigan, where boss Steve Bruce is a long-time admirer of the 28-year-old, are also believed to be in the hunt, while there is at least one more top flight club keen on taking the player.
Blackburn, where Olofinjana’s former Wolves team-mate Paul Ince has recently taken charge, have also been mentioned but it is not thought they have the 6ft 4ins midfielder among their top targets.
Relegated Reading are another possible destination if they lose James Harper, but their new Championship status counts against them being favourites to sign him.
Wolves have yet to receive any bids for Olofinjana, yet remain confident of receiving the full £3m asking price for the player they signed for £1.7m from Brann Bergen four years ago.
Olofinjana said: “The reason I came to this club was to play in the Premier League.
“This is a great club and to be honest, I didn’t think it was going to take this long to get to the Premier League.
“If you look around, I’m one of the very few Africans playing in the Championship and that hurts me.”
Contractually, Wolves are in a healthy position in get their money as Olofinjana is only a year into a new four-year deal.
Apart from the Freddy Eastwood saga, Wolves appear no closer to shedding any of the players transfer-listed at the end of last season.
The full squad reported back for the start of pre-season training yesterday without released skipper Gary Breen, who is without a club.
Transfer-listed quintet Darren Ward, Darren Potter, Eastwood, Jay Bothroyd and Stephen Elliott are all present.
Early interest in Bothroyd from newly-promoted League One duo Nottingham Forest and Swansea appears to have fizzled out.
Elliott and Potter would have been makeweights in the Kyle Lafferty deal which fell through.
Ward has already stated his desire to fight for his place.
28 Comments
Strange how all these wonderful buys of Micks last year and no wants them. Wonder if we’ll be here next year trying to get rid of this seasons.
At this rate we’ll have the biggest squad again and half the players unhappy at not being in the team. Well done Mick.
A potential £1.3m profit on a guy who is so hit-and-miss it’s untrue? Folk can criticise Jez Moxey as much as they want but no-one can deny he is one of the best around when it comes to negotiating financial deals - they almost always work out to the benefit of Wolves (Frankowski a notable exception lol!). How Seyi’s value could have virtually doubled over four years is a mystery to us all, but if someone like Stoke or Wigan is willing to take a £3m punt on him then fair play to them. He cannot do the business on a consistent basis in the Championship, so whether or not he can make the grade in the Premier League remains to be seen. One thing is for certain though - we are surely going to be better off without him.
aint he gone yet??? what a waste of time and space you would have been in the premier league by now if you hadnt jus played well for 1 game out of 6!!! sooner we get rid the better go to hull or stoke and this time next season you will want to leave again when your back in the championship!!!!! close the door behind you!!!
Don’t worry Seyi you’ll soon get over the hurt. GO TO HULL/HELL
go to stoke sunshine and u will be back in the championship next season!maybe if you had played abit better last season we may have been up there,you can be replaced.
Greg (2). Selective memoryitis is alive and well - Silas, Okoronkwo, Eastwood, Cort - pure genius. What a negotiator eh!
Remind me exactly who we’ve made a profit on in recent years other than Camara and a hundred grand here and there on unwanted youth players???
I am dissapointed at us losing one of our better players.
I wish him good luck for the future
Hurt eh?
Well shut up and put it right this season - or just clear off.
Hurt, my foot!
Sorry to hear Seyi’s hurt about non-premiership football - I’m hurt as well - It’s hurt me how he’s contributed to our championship status by his non-performances. A pity he didn’t hurt some of his opponents with a tackle or two, or even with a goal or two. Mind you, he’s only 6ft 4″ !!
Re Andy - does the name Seol Ki-Hyeon mean anything to you? Silas - I’ll give you that one. Okoronkwo came and went on a free transfer. We should recoup what we paid for that waste of space Eastwood. And I think that the large profit we made on Henri Camara is the best testament to Jez’s abilities in negotiating a good financial package to the benefit of the club. It’s just my opinion mate, I never said you have to agree with it.
And I did say ALMOST always! lol
greg cooper, the 3m valuation is Jez’s valuation, no-one has actually put in an offer yet, I very much dought we will see 3m being the sale price.
Yeah go to a smaller club for one season in the Prem.
No but really, Seyi is a good MF for championship, would he cut it in the Prem?
I used to live in Hull and Seyi is welcome to that club. Hull need an African Nations player like they need a nrw coastline.
Mind you a lot of midlanders may remember Hednesford Town going to Hull about 6 years ago and beating them in the cup. Look how they have prospered since compared with us..
Oh well … if we get 3 million for him it’ll be a good deal but maybe we could get a player plus cash instead
If he’s thinking long term surely it makes sense to stick with us. Stoke and Hull will be in the prem to make up the numbers and offer target practice for every other club then come tumbling back into the fizzy pop league with a huge thud
Greg - yes I remember Seol well. We bought him for £1.2m and sold him for £1m. It could have risen to £1.5m - but didn’t since they fobbed him off to Fulham before any of these were triggered.
So - profits made from transfers in recent years = Naylor (youth), Lescott (youth), Camara.
Profit on Camara was £2.5m (£1.5m from Celtic for loan + £1m profit on original deal when sold to Wigan).
Meaningful losses since 2000 when Moxey arrived:
Al-Jaber
Kevin Cooper
Carl Cort
Ketsbaia
Kenny Miller
Alex Rae
Cedric Roussel
Silas
Robert Taylor
Not quite the ALMOST always you make it out to be.
As I said on an earlier post, its a good job you lot aint got a reputation for turning against your own players aint it……
I particularly liked No 4 - “go to Hull/Hell”. Quality.
…yeah , I know - “get lost tesco”, “get a job Saggy” blah blah…..
If he stays now will he be the “Vierra of the championship” again ?
LMAO !!
are those empty seats i see behind him,aye boing boing
15 - meaningful losses - Alex Rae??? He is one the best signings we have made since i can remember! What we paid for him was more than worth it! £3mill for Olofinjana would be great business - in fact just getting our money back would be good!
Akinbiyi cost 3.5m and was sold for 5m. All the players you list andy were wanted by the managers at the time and moxey got them for the best price possible. Its not moxeys fault if a player is no good. How much would we make on Kightley and Ebanks blake if we sold them today?
14 - ‘If he’s thinking long term surely it makes sense to stick with us. Stoke and Hull will be in the prem to make up the numbers and offer target practice for every other club then come tumbling back into the fizzy pop league with a huge thud’.
So, he’s better off staying in the Championship, hoping against all hope that you lot get up (no offence, but I don’t think you will) then IF you get up, you’ll be much better poised as a newly promoted team than the majority of newly promoted teams who struggle to stay up will you?! Please explain how?
(Yes, I include the Albion in the newly promoted teams who will struggle to stay up category as I am a realist).
Minty - my response was to take issue with Greg Cooper’s comment that Moxey almost always negotiates financial deals to the benefit of Wolves. I was reminding him that this is not the case. The reason for omitting Akinbiyi was that Moxey wasn’t at the club at the time we bought him but he was when he was sold so fair play on that.
Danwolf - since we signed Rae for £1m and he went on a free to Rangers, I think he falls into the category that I was highlighting - as did trying to find a replacement centre half when Moxey refused to talk about a new contract with Butler until his old one expired and he went to Leeds.
I certainly agree with you though in terms of influence on the team etc. and I haven’t tried to include a value in terms of impact etc. (In the same way I didn’t include Iverssen despite the fact that we paid his seven-figure Tottenham loyalty bonus and met his 40K a week demands for a season) before he went to Norway - and the champions league QF’s - on a free.
What I’d give now for a Rae-esque player in our midfield in terms of committment, effort and rapport with fans. A very well spent million pounds in my opinion but a meaningful loss in terms of the fact he cost a million and went on a free. If that isn’t too contradictary
just get rid! £1m plus would do fine
20 Nedball. In terms of getting promoted next season we have as good a chance as any other team in the division and you’re point about staying up could be valid but unlike the Boggies and other teams recently promoted we have serious financial backing which they cannot boast! I may get shot down for saying that but it’s a fact. Moving to a newly promoted team who are going to get ripped to shreds week in, week out will not help his career in any way, shape or form
Why would he go to relegation favourites, he may as well stay at Wolves…unless he only wants one year in the Prem. Anyway, good luck to him. He’ll probably incur a pay cut tho
terryOXYMORONbaggie still using the same old post again you idiot.
terry moron boggie cant wait till next year bong bong down the mowbray way.
Domnt blame hin for wanting to go- if we are honest we know we will never go up so if i was him i would be also looking at moving onto better things at a bigger club
The reason why you are one of the few to be playing in the Championship? Because you are totally inconsistant and tackle like a fairy. 3 million would be a fantastic price to sell him, i just hope it comes off. George believes too much in his own hype and for me, was the biggest disappointment of last season.