Van Damme’s Wolves move held up
Wednesday 26th May 2010, 2:15PM BST.
Jelle van Damme’s arrival as Wolves’ first big summer signing is being held up by haggling over the final fee.
Personal terms have already been agreed with the 26-year-old Anderlecht utility man, who sources claim will sign a four-year contract earning around £16,500 a week.
But the clubs are still trying to get the best deal for the 6ft 4ins tall player, with agreement still to be reached on what is expected to be a fee of £2.5million.
Belgian sources say that of the £2.5million Anderlecht are seeking, between 10 and 15 per cent is due to his former club Southampton, as part of the deal that took him to the Belgian champions in 2006, with five per cent – around £128,000 – also due to the player.
As a result, it is thought Anderlecht want the £2.5million themselves to help fund a replacement, so want a higher price.
Having gone so far, both parties expect an agreement to be reached and Wolves are confident they will get their man for the right price.
Anderlecht also do not want to have to keep an unhappy player who has got his heart set on a return to the Premier League and someone who has been impressed with Wolves.
But the relatively minor problem has caused the deal to become more drawn out than at first expected.
Van Damme visited Molineux for the final game of the season against Sunderland and seemed unconcerned about the hold-up when speaking recently about moving to Molineux.
He said: “I’ve already visited the club and the city of Wolverhampton and everything was OK. We’ll start looking for a house soon.
“The club is ambitious and plans to invest in its squad. Club bosses told me they intend investing to have a better showing next season.
“The fact that they are prepared to pay this much for me is proof of this.”
Van Damme, who is married to Elke Clijsters, younger sister of Belgian tennis star Kim Clijsters, joined Southampton from Ajax in 2004.
But the 24-cap Belgium international left on loan after a year and just six games for the Saints, joining Werder Bremen on loan for a season before switching to Anderlecht.
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First of the ‘big’signings,oh well we live in hope for more.I see Birmingham getting busy and spending big.Hope Joe Ledley is our next one.We should be able to afford him,he’s out of contract.Maybe its all sorted and the club is keeping things close to its chest about 4 or 5 big signings,it was said that due to reaching safety in the Prem early we would have a head start on transfers???.I can see some of these going down to the wire again.Up the Wolves.
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First BIG summer signing????
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Wages £16,500 – now I understand.
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I know he plays a lot of games at left back, but would prefer to see him at CB for wolves.
Not too keen on having a giant like that at left back, can see him getting skinned by premiership wingers.
Would give us a decent spine down the middle of the team, and useful for set pieces, certainly knows how to use his head.
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I can see Joe Ledley going elsewhere, hes on a free contract, so that means he can get big wages from Blues, Everton etc…..we wont pay the £35k+ a week he would be looking for I think.
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I see Moxey is at it again,the fee is always more important than the footballer.I will be surprised if this player makes it in the Prem,simply because it appears no one else is really pushing to sign him.We have been messing around so long on this deal that surely if the likes of the Baggies or Fulham wanted him they would have nipped in whilst we haggle over £128,000.If you are buying a car then by all means haggle,but this is supposed to be a footballer that will make a difference to our side.
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lets hope this gets sorted ,jvd looks useful and could cause alot of problems to opposing teams in the new season.
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I hope we can start getting some players in soon before the world cup starts. After this signing i would settle for a winger and a striker, and a few loan signings.
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He’s that big, nobody’s even heard of him.
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Yes the first ‘big’ signing.It was a bad attempt on my part to be sarcastic.
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Van Damme deal delayed? Never! It’s only taken three weeks of “Van Damme deal imminent” headlines for the boneheads at the B&S office to work that one out!
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1) Yes Blues have spent £6 million on Ben Foster. Wow!!! He is nowhere near as good as Matt Murray and USA was solid in any case. Our reserve keepers are probably as good as he is!
We have money but it does not mean that we will attract the big stars. Personally I reckon that this player will be a good signing. Very experienced in Holland, Germany, Belgium and a regular international!
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Well i suspose he will be a useful player to have, i have every confidence in wolves signing some good players i just wish they would share a little bit of the info with us. the dispense is killing me. i can see Birmingham going the same way as pompy at this rate, apparently the owner is skint and they have just spent 12 mill on two players and i dont think there even close to being finished yet.
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Once again people like Captain Nemo writing players off before they come.
just trust Mick, he’s done everything he’s promised so far
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well he’s big (tall)
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Jelle will be a good signing for us and is a very versitle player. Joe Ledley? I cant make my mind up about him, watching him in the play off’s he looked average to me, dont know if he is prem league though. I heard a rumour that QPR are up for siging Darren Ambrose, Palace have accepted a bid of £750,000 – we should snap him up!
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It would give me more optimism if Wolves were to stop pussyfooting around and go and buy the players that are needed.
I realise it not as easy as that but Wolves always seem to take an eternity to sign a single player whilst other clubs appear to do the business much more quickly.
In saying that I don’t want Wolves to become a Portsmouth but the season ended some weeks ago and we have yet to sign anyone.
The World Cup is just around the corner and surely we are not going to sign someone from there particularly a top player, so I cannot see why Wolves are taking so much time to announce new signings – that is, if there will be any – including Van Damme!
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Why are people so obsessed with Joe Ledley? He’s got a massive reputation but his goal in the play off game the other day was the first telling contribution i’ve seen from him. I didn’t even realise he was playing last time i saw us play Cardiff !
Lets the leave the overrated average players for blues to waste their money on shall we
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must be slow news month , nothing on skysports, wwfc club site or national press regarding transfers only rumours. as for the doom and gloom merchants im sure they’ll be along soon. oh well utw.
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If Van Damme is one of the 4-5 “quality” signings we were promised, I’m a little worried.
What is telling is the fact he is on £16,500, suggesting we’re not going to pay over the odds on salaries, hence missing out on the best players again – probably to Blues!
Is a new stadium with better corporate and hospitality facilities considered a higher priority over the team on the pitch? I guess yes.
Sort it out Morgan and give the fans what they deserve! Ideally we want the players in before the world cup and back in time for the first day of pre-season training.
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Some good points made above. The signing of new players over the last few weeks has all the hallmarks of Moxey’s work! As i have said before don’t be taken in by his spin n bull. We should be used to it by now. I have never heard of this Van Damme bloke but as others report he aint half bad. The stumbling block is Moxey with his fat fingers in the mix!! We will not reach the heights we want to achieve as long as that man sits behind a desk at the Mol!It will be interesting to read the reports on here when we miss out on quality prem players due to that mans tightfisted dithering over the coming weeks! We need 4-5 quality players and they are out there and the board are well aware it costs money. If they are not willing to put up what is required then we will get what is coming to us next season. It will take a lot of living it down should the baggies beat us twice.
Lets hope we sign some quality.
UTW.
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Looks like deja vu all over again Moxey promises quality and delivers average.
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well done Jez… at last we are not rolling over like years ago paying over the odds for players..
I wouldn’t believe the 16k a week also, he would be on more than that..
just wait and see, as Wolves pay good wages, do you think Doyle would have come here instead of teams like sunderland or Everton if we paid him half what they were offering?
He’s not stupid and it’s only a job to these guys..
it’s not rocket science…
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Why are people slating this signing? Just because its not a £5m+ deal? At the end of the day, most people on here havent even seen him play recently and dont know how well he will do if he was to come to us, unless all the commenters on this page are professional scouts?
Its funny because most the people slating this deal were probably the same people slating the kevin doyle deal last season stating he wasnt as good as Blake, and we should be looking at more expensive players. Look how wrong you were then.
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No real shock there then, we will end up signing no one
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Come on and get the Jelly deal set (sorry) then we can look at other targets but please not Liam Lawrence we don’t want a Stokie cast off! He’s no better than what we already have and would not represent quality or ambition on our part. These though would greatly improve our golascoring:
1) Eagles
2) O’Hara
3) Maynard
4) Ledley
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I think there is another reason why the deal is delayed as well. The Negotiations will be done in euros I would have thought, and the strength of the euro has dropped significantly in the last 2weeks. Moxey is not stupid, he has probably just saved the club about £175,000 by delaying this deal 2weeks.
I also agree with sevlow, Darren Ambrose is prem quality, he has prem experience, and if it doesn’t work out then it doesn’t matter for 750k. I Also wouldn’t mind either jamie o’hara or zoran tosic.
And all these people that are banging on about how much money b’ham are spending, is Ben foster really any better than any of the keepers we have and we haven’t paid a penny for any of them. Also Zigic’s goal scoring record isn’t any better than the Hoff’s was and he’s a hell of alot more expensive. Plus the majority of his goals came in serbia, which as milijas has shown, means nothing in the prem.
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I can see our ambition now, 13K a week this is not premier league wages, I know they dont want to do a portsmouth, but where does all the money go, we dont buy good players (doyle excluded) we just buy run of the mill, utillities players.
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Hunt Quiet!
STRIKER?
come on 3 micks lets get on the case!!!
lets see class signings please!!!
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Maybe if we paid 5M for Yelly instead of 2.5M, and paid him 35K instead of 16.5K…then this would show the ambition that would satisfy everybody!
As for Liam Lawrence. If he’s not good enough to get off the bench into the worst performing side I’ve ever seen… when Stoke let Chelsea walk 7 passed them, then why would we want him?
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Once again, the imminent signing is dragging on, and on, and on, and on,……….yawn!!!!
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Quite right Jez Moxey, why should we fund Anderlect’s sell on clauses or player’s ‘loyalty’ bonuses ? Steve Morgan has the right to expect his Chief Executive to hammer out the best deal for the club.
The other thing is the size of the transfer fee and wages. It ain’t Monopoly money and £2.5m/£16.5k is a lot of cash. Big (fees) doesn’t necessarily mean better. Tescos got Dorrans for £100k, was it? and we paid £100k for Karl Henry who IMO had a superb first Premiership season (Wait for Bob Woof’s reaction to that !).
…..and Birmingham City have paid £6m for ManU’s third string goalkeeper. Mind you they should recoup a lot of that in sales of his Bloopers DVD at Christmas.
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Don’t know why everyones moaning about not signing anyone – the window isn’t open yet so no-one else is signing – Blouses may have agreed the deal with butter fingers foster but it may not yet be signed & sealed
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My mate cleans karl henry’s windows and the rumour is that wolves are going to spend 7 million on a striker!!!!!
Any thoughts?
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Isn’t it typical. Wolves Fans are already complaining about lack of players coming into the Molly, Get off the Boards back and be patient, these players will come.
OUT OF DARKNESS COMETH LIGHT
greg
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SORRY JOHN DE WOLF BUT WE NEED MORE PEOPLE IN THE GROUND SPENDING GOOD MONEY BEFORE WE CAN EVEN THINK OF PAYING TOP PLAYERS.
DONT BE SURPRISED IS DOYLE LEAVES IN THE SUMMER THEN WHAT WILL WE DO?
YOU CANT KEEP FINDING QUALITY, NOT ALL NEW PLAYERS WORK OUT LIKE YOU HOPE THEN YOU GO DOWN.
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so how many of you had heard of kightly when we signed him then, or of jarvis? when hennesey stood in nets for his debut in the play offs how many of you were bracing yourselves for a cricket score?
mick knows what he’s doing. he might not get it right all the time, but neither does alex ferguson. he couldn’t even get forlan to score and look how good he is now. sometimes a player fits a club and overacheives, and visa versa. you can’t legislate for that, you can only trust mick’s judgement, which i personally do.
and if moxey was splashing the cash and getting him in quick for top dollar, the nay sayers would simply moan that it was a shotgun deal and we got ripped off. never happy are you?
anybody else remember the 90s? at least we aren’t paying massively inflated fees for has beens and never could have beens anymore.
sing your heart out for the lads.
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Bluenoses need a targetman and take a week to buy Zigic. We need a targetman, and spend the whole summer, ending up with The Hoff….
Now, we take 4 weeks to finish a deal for Van Damme, while they will probably reveal Puyol in a week or so..
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Don’t know mate, so long as its not Fletcher, Kenwyn Jones would be better for that sort of loot, but I don’t think so.
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Eastwood’s Rubbish, Yes I bet Liverpool really regret spending all that money on Torres when instead they could have picked someone up for a hundred grand,and when United paid all that money for young Ronaldo they could have gone for someone cheaper,maybe Freddie was available at the time.Clearly we are not in that League but we should be aspiring to do better.For every decent cheap signing you can quote,I am sure we can all quote two poor signings.Nevertheless,I do agree with you about Karl Henry.Also before we signed Eastwood would it not have been better to ask if the guy can actually play rather than are the terms right.
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Sorry, for last post forgot to put no.34, my apologies.
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37. Yeh Sleachy, I remember them days, which is why we went broke. Christ, I remember the 80′s and the 70′s and (help me with my zimmer frame) the LATE 60′s!
You’re right, Mick knows what he’s doing. OK, sometimes you have to take a gamble. They pay off (Kightly) or they don’t (Hoff), but I would back him.
Love to find another Mike Bailey and Derek Dougan but who fits the bill these days?
p.s. (Derek Dougan is still the only player I have seen getting away with taking a free kick for off side in the opponents half of the pitch)!
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Moxey,get hold of a dictionary and look up the word “imminent”.You will find it doesn`t mean-to drag on.Once again the deciet and lies are coming out of Moxey.Stop the haggle and get him signed,The world cup is almost upon us and Mick will be off to further his career as a TV Star so,what happens to our improvemets to the playing staff?.Go get Joe Ledley or Charlie Adam,O Hara,Piquionne and Darren Ambrose or,dare I say Keane?Stop hoodwinking everyone Moxey and move,preferrably away from Wolverhampton.
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37. Sleachy
Yeh, I remember the 90′s, we went bust (nearly).
I also remember the 80′s, 70′s and (where’s me zimmer frame) the late 60′s.
I’m a Mick supporter. Sometimes he has to take a gamble, sometimes it pays off (Kightly) sometimes not (Hoff).
Wouldn’t it be great to find another Mike Bailey and Derek Dougan! Joy!
Who fits the bill these days and is available? Buggered if I know. But I’m willing to bet Mick and his scouts know. Mr Moxey (Ebeneza Scrooge) must open his purse strings, bite the bullitt, and splash the cash when it’s needed.
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14 Happy Wanderer
I wasn’t writing off the Jelle man but was taking issue with the word “big”.
Whether he turns out to be a brilliant or rubbish signing, a fee of £2.5M is not a big fee for a Premiership club.
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well said sleachy, i agree with most of what you say.
Whilst chasing promotion we did pay ridiculous fees for over the hill, or under acheiving players in the 90′s, and we learnt from that.
The big dilemma is that now were a premiership side, we need to attract a better quality player with the same work and team ethic to stay competitive.
Anyway you look at it this costs money, either to pay competitive wages or for a extensive scouting system to find bargain buys all over the world.We also need to keep the players who have done well and this means improved contracts for them too.
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I think we desparately need a winger, striker, centre back, and centre midfielder after we hopefully tie up this signing. the winger HAS to be Ambrose/whittingham/sigurdsson-in my opinion, 3 prem class wingers, all of whom are in the championship, all of whom should be gettable at a good price. Still not heard many names in the other positions that particuarly excite me, but in Mick we trust!
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Chris Hoggard. Not sure what you’re trying to say. Of course there are very expensive players who we all love and admire but are well out of our league at the moment (albeit maybe your comment about Torres was ill timed following David Moores’ letter in the Times).
The point I was making was many fans at many clubs seem to judge players and how good they are going to be on the size of the wad…and we have all learned it ain’t necessarily so (Berbatov ?)
I must have missed something ref you Eastwood comment, sorry…unless it’s connected to him dumping his rubbish in a quiet Warwickshire country lane.
and talking of rubbish….
Spanish Ray. Knew we could rely on you for a good helping
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Browsing through the internet for possible targets found this list:
Wolves rumours in
Jelle van damme- Taking the pee !
Michael johnson Injury prone
Steven fletcher- under 5mil yes
Robbie keane- we can dream:)
Adam lallana- – NO
Joe ledley- Gamble injury prone
Peter whittingham- Gamble not proven
Bel hadj- Decent cover but zubar is good.
Kevin prince boateng- FLUKE NO
Darren gibson- YES! grab him on loan!
Nedum onua- Cheeky 1mil bid?
Giovani dos santos- Decent game against england?
Calos vela – CANNOT SCORE England match proved it!
Also squads have to be reduced to 25 next season correct? so we need a tidy out and get some money GET RID OF QUANTITY TO BUY SOME QUALITY!
Ebanks-Blake- Linked with moves to newcastle for 1.5mil also Leeds, but should be more than 1.5 in championship guaranteed 20+goals worth more.
Richard Stearman- £2million-Liverpool interested
Andy Keogh- £1.5 mil – Ipswich Keen
Andrew Surman- back to southampton for at least 1mil still a quality player
Greg Halford- Stoke maybe join the long throw brigade?;)
Chris iwelumo- Bristol city interested in him and the Hoff for next season slap 2mil on them.
The hoff – Easy sale for 2mil height not quality
Extra 8 mil to add to the proposed 20mil for spending 28million to spend!!
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Cannot believe it Ambrose sold for 750K?!
come on wolves
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Here we go again, fannying around , wasting time whilst other decent players are getting snapped up by other clubs. Last year it was Milijas and all teh time wasting with work permit problems, now its this unknown bloke from Belgina who will probably turn out to be another Hoff classic. For goodness sake… sort it out
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That’s right JIWAL, go down the Molineux kick the door down and sort the 3 Ms out. We need your vast knowledge in the transfer market. You can go to the other 100 odd clubs in the country, who haven’t signed anyone, and give them a kick up the backside as well. JIWAL just sort it out.
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Eastwood, You know as well as me that by and large you get what you pay for.When we signed the Doog at the time some people said for his age he waS too expensive.But look at the pleasure he gave on the pitch for the next 8 years.A point completely lost on the likes of Moxey who would still be negotiating to get get the fee down.As for Freddie just remind me who signed him for the Wolves.
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I agree that there is quality available this summer, Id ove us to bring 6-7 quality players and push ourselves into mid-table like Stoke have done.
Shorey
Sidwell
De Santos (loan)
Keano
Van Damme
Michael Mancienne (loan)
Jamie O’Hara
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Didn’t he fail at Southampton?
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breaking news from skysports, wolves to sign scottish international steven fletcher from burnley 7.5 million. just wait till wolvesmod/bobwolf/sbba get hold of this story and watch them turn it into another hate filled dig at wwfc and the three ms. utw.
8 goals in a struggling burnley team . strong striking partner for doyle. iwelumo and hennesy to go to burnley on loan as part of deal.
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53 CH. Chris, I go back a long way with the Wolves and have seen all sorts of successful signings and miserable failures for all sizes of cheques.(Ranging from Bully to Dick Le Flem, whom we’ve discussed before)
I think the point we disagree on here is Jez Moxey. He’s a bit like Marmite, there are fans who hate him and fans who love him (maybe love is a bit strong). I believe he does a good job for Wolves. I sometimes feel he’s taken a stronger stance after the money that was wasted by McGhee and Co. Okay a different regime, but, as Chief Executive he wouldn’t be doing his job correctly if he allowed the Golden Tit era to continue.
That’s my opinion anyway.
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57 Have to agree with Chris Hoggard on the Moxey viewpoint – When Moxey attempted to bid for Clyne and Moses at Palace he made derisory bids and failed miserably – In short, whilst other clubs were bidding £3m for Moses alone; Moxey was bidding the same for BOTH???
As the then Palace manager (Warnock) was quoted ‘Moxey loves a bargain – but tends to talk himself out of deals’
Whilst not paying over the odds is good – the overkilling of deals is beyond a joke and leads to wastefull spending imv – just look at the £12m wasted last season on players who barely got a game – I think that proves a massive point
It would have been far better to have not wasted the money on players who are nothing better than what we had and in reality ‘wishfull thinking’
Personally, If I was Mr Morgan I would want a review of why £12m was spent/ wasted on these players and again I cant see what real reasons can be given – as I suspect that this money was spent in haste when we were found wanting at the negotiating table – James McCarthy was also qouted as ‘one that got away’ – a young and hungry talented player who was at Molineux – about to sign and chose Wigan due to Wolves apparent lack of ambition
In short, when we cant bring in Option A we then desperately go to lists B, C or D
Amongst the other gaffs this latest one shows arrogance more than shrewdness – and Warnocks comments highlights why we tend to be continually over haggling fees in every deal
EG 2.5m is not a huge fee (Championship players are often bought and sold around this figure) and as Terry Cooper has been quoted that he feels that Wolves should buy this player because he will be a good bet to develope further and hold a much higher value
Finally, Moxey and Marmite – hmmm – Well again I dont think so – We all have a choice of whether we purchase Marmite or not – It would be interesting if we as club fans could vote in our CEO – personally I dont think Mr Moxey would be very comfortable with the outcome
The ‘Golden Tit and bankruptcy’ quotes are imv massive ‘overkill’ from Mr Moxey – Just ask yourself if Mr Warnock knows that Moxey loves a ‘bargain’ – How many other clubs know this??? and again – Does that not tell you that other clubs, players and their agents will go elsewhere FIRST??? So does that explain the waste of £12m last season???
I think the answer is obvious!
We hope for far better
Up the Wolves!!!
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58 My reference to Terry Cooper is about the latest transfer saga bid for Van Damme from Anderlecht
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