Chief Sports Writer Martin Swain gives his take on a day that made history at Molineux with the club-record signing of Kevin Doyle.

So well done Wolves. Against some serious competition, against the odds and against all predicted outcomes, they have claimed the signature of Reading’s Kevin Doyle in a transfer which should not be underestimated in so many ways.

For a start, the fee. The club has doubled its previous biggest transfer outlays for Kenny Miller and Ade Akinbiyi, strikers who went on to earn mixed reviews at Molineux which we can reasonably hope Doyle will improve upon.

In a summer which has seen a footballer Wolves might otherwise have expected to play against move to Real Madrid for £80m, a £6.5m outlay may seem small beer.

But it is a serious chunk of cash for clubs living in the real world; Wolves are tucking into the Morgan war chest with an intent promised by the owner as he supped his promotion-winning champagne back in May.

The player himself is no ‘last pick in the Premier League playground’, the usual recruiting area for promoted clubs. Sunderland, Fulham, Bolton and even West Ham were nibbling at him while reports of a late move from Everton must have had Molineux’s 3Ms fearing the worst (David Moyes had tried his luck with a joint £7m bid for Doyle and Stephen Hunt). And all this a year after Aston Villa ‘ummed and arred’ about signing Doyle before Tottenham tried to nab him on transfer deadline day.

The Irish international may have found himself entangled in a Reading side which played two thirds of last season as if it were running through treacle – on the wretched Madejski Stadium pitch – but this is a seriously decent acquisition for Wolves, a player whose presence alone will perk up his new team-mates as well as the fan base.

But even above these optimistic signals, it is Doyle’s reasoning, even as managers were ringing to throw him career curve balls with the prospect of alternative employment, in choosing Molineux which should really excite the gold and black clan.

Not for the first time, Wolves’ past has resonated to the present and given the club a positive shove to its future. And not in an oppressive way either; the legendary deeds of a bygone age provided inspiration and not a burden.

It has emerged that Doyle’s tour of Molineux was no routine, lip service account of where he might find the dressing rooms and the players’ lounge. Instead, he took in the ancient symbols of the club’s place in the story of football, pausing to gaze at Billy running out to face the foe and that memorable “you have one life and I gave mine to Wolves” inscription on the Cullis statue.

More significantly, he has bought into – totally – the quest of the current regime to build something of substance and significance as befits its heritage and traditions and which, the current owner memorably declared, may see parts of the stadium named after today’s players in the future.

Undoubtedly, the Irish connection has helped with this. It is easy to imagine Messrs Ward and Keogh chipping away at Doyle in the last couple of weeks. Even more, the impact of having the former Irish national manager purring over him should not be forgotten on a young boy whose early years growing up in the village of Adamstown – two pubs, two schools, one pitch, one church and cemetery – would have seen Mick McCarthy established as one step down from sainthood.

But most of all, Wolves have achieved a breakthrough signing which has cut across the face of the usual pattern of these affairs. So often the new boys are used as ‘stalking horses’ to flush out interest from more established clubs.

For once, one has gone out front from the off and stayed there and it can only be regarded as another significant step in a rebuild which grows more impressive by the week.

So yes, well done Wolves.