Wolves set for Craig Gardner blow
Saturday 25th June 2011, 11:30AM BST.
Sunderland are set to deal a major blow to Wolves summer transfer plans by winning the fight for Craig Gardner’s signature.
The Birmingham City midfielder had been one of the prime targets for Wolves boss Mick McCarthy in the club’s ‘cherry-pick’ of players from their relegated neighbours.
But Sunderland boss Steve Bruce is understood to have now lodged a £5m bid which has been accepted by Blues and, with the Black Cats offering the biggest financial package in the scramble for Gardner’s services, look set to land the signing.
It would be the second time McCarthy has suffered frustration in trying to recruit Gardner having originally wanted the player when he left his first club Aston Villa 18 months ago.
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higher fee more wages we wont sign any of em
watch for lower league players for the future
that sums it up
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Hope they sign somebody soon, reading between the lines Steve Morgan doesn’t sound too optimistic though.
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Centre midfield wasn’t the position that we needed to fill, we’ve got o’hara now, guardiola should be starting over henry. Lets get the centre halves sorted before we look at the midfield
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It’s the defence that needs sorting out and not the midfield.
Let’s get some quality defenders in quick before we lose out to other clubs!
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Surely you don`t believe that the 3M`S had any intention of signing any of these big name players.Look at thier record of signings,apart from O`Hara and Fletcher oh and maybe Hunt they always look for” bargains” from the lower divisions.I`m sorry but you have to pay that little bit extra thesedays,I`m not saying throw money about but pay sensible prices.You need the likes of Johnson and with such as Jonny Evans you may have a reasonable defense.When you buy you push for a player ,when you sell you have more influence and can demand that bit extra.So come on 3M`s lets get sorted sooner rather than later.
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Don’t worry about this over priced player, he’s not a world beater and we can and will buy better…
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this is not even a blow, why are E and S stirring this up we had not even made an official bid for Gardner
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“Injuries restricted the pair to 15 and 14 Premier League starts respectively” – that and McCarthys (at times) ridiculous team selections / sunday league tactics….. With egards to Mat Mills and Roger Johnson, if its the difference between finishing 17th and 15th, without even considering relegation its self funding to pay £10m & £4m. Its a no brainer – if they are the players that will make the difference.
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If he doesnt want to come then clear off to the mackems we r the better club financially and history wise. defence defence defence is what we need blow the budget there
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I dont think we need any more central midfielders anyway. We have O’hara, Milijas, Guedioura, Henry and Edwards all vying for 2, possibly 3 positions in the middle.
Lets face it we need to sort out the defence. Once thats done we should in theory finnish comfortably mid table. The reason for this is because, with a decent defence we could play with 2 up front. Correct me if im wrong but last season we put more balls into the box than any other team, but with Doyle up front on his own, that stat is no good to us, as hes rarely in the box, but if we had Doyle and Fletcher up front, im sure our crosses into the box would have more end product, meaning more goals and more wins.
I pointed out Doyle and Fletcher up front, but i honestly dont mind any combination of our 3 main strikers, as they are all top quality prem strikers capable of getting into double figures.
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This sums it up really! and is why we are going to find it difficult to improve on the field (rather than off it) 5m for gardner by todays ridiculous pricing id say is pretty fair, if we are not going to pay this price for a young player who would improve us then im sorry but we will just stay still! yes wages comes into it, ofcourse they do, but surely the first step is to get a price accepted! but moxey i guess was talking to them about peanuts! wages could have been upped instead of the stadium rebuild (as nice as that is). We can bank on us getting another couple of cheap options that are untried & turn out to be useless i.e george friend, jason shackell, berra, elokobi the list goes on!
Its simple! buy proven quality to improve on pitch!
as with all walks of life “you get what you pay for” especially at this level!
Just think after 2 seasons, the time surely is now to look upwards!
dont break the bank but break the habit of buying mediocreness on the cheap! its a false economy!
one final thought, not sure where gardner would fit in mm’s plans as there is not a cat in hells chance he would drop henry for him!
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No great loss if he joins Sunderland he has never had his heart on a move to us still would like to see us go for Karl Henry’s mate Joey Barton who would cost alot less than Gardner and his more proven at this level or if we could meet his wage demands Reo Coker but not to bothered about the midfield area just need a quality left back and two centre halfs i think Warnock Dunne and Cuellar would be great signings up the Wolves
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Theres to much messin about once again .we should have brought players like gardner n ohara last season but went for qauntity over qaulity again.id love to see evans or johnson i dont mind witch one.and as for mills he is a class player but its likly wolves wont pueh the boat oit and hell probaly go to stoke and be worth 10 million next summer.now we look to have missed out on gardner.maybe go go for noble from west ham.
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1 webbie, 2 players signed this week, from Spurs & Swansea. Premier League teams I understand.
Gardener is not a priority now we have O’Hara.
Centre Half and LB are more important and I’m sure we will get the right players in.
We continue to progress each season, why the doubts?
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Jez won’t pay the wages, simple as.
Low wages = Championship players e.g. Halford, Surman, Fletcher, Zubar, Milijas, Van Damme, Doyle, Hunt, Hammell (aka Championship man), Keogh, Ward, Moyokolo etc.
Ship out some of these players and sign some quality.
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Pure speculation yet again, have the club confirmed we were ever after him? Good player, but would rather have some real quality additions in defence and perhaps look to a loan signing for midield/striker. Its going to cost big money for the defensive signings required (Bassong/Warnock calibre) and as a statement of intent it will be interesting to see who the club gets in the next couple of weeks. For £750,000 for each place higher we finish up the table, surely a bit of punt on signings/wages might be worthwhile?
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He has turned us down before so who cares he is a bluenose is he that bothered about wolves? i would much prefer a player with the attitude like o’hara who gave is all for us last season and kept his word and signed for us,he could of easily waited and got a higher wage packet.
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£5m for Gardner???
Not prayer!!!
Let Sunderland have him, I agree with the poster who mentioned Noble, now he is quality, but I don’t think he will leave London
My concern is that we haven’t signed a left back yet, it should be the biggest priority in the squad, as big George wouldn’t get into our village pub team!!!
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We wont sign anyone any good only poor class irish players like ward
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so according to the express and star sunderland paying 5 million for gardner is a blow to wwfc????, trust me guys wwfc will splash out big time after july the 1ST thats when all the contracts end. and better players become available.
most clubs apart from man utd,chelski,man city, miss out on some targets, so its not really a loss for wwfc.
just have some patience……utw
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Gardner can go where he wants and money always talks.
Sunderland was a club that was going into receivership not long ago,yet with some astute signings they are getting stronger,the only thing “GUARANTEED” for Gardner will be the fact he wont be getting relegated.
I would certainly ask the question of Mr.Morgan “Why are we not able too sign one or two players from europe or further a field?”
We are constantly linked with british players that are being chased by clubs who are willing to spend the neccessary pounds.
I would also like to ask how many players in recent years have we purchased and have sold them on for a profit?
Yes Sunderland buy and spend big but the players seem to increase in value when bigger clubs come in for them…So yes they are paying higher salaries and higher fees but it results in the player being sold on at a much higher fee…so considering the buying and selling of Sunderland they tend to make “MONEY”.How many players have we had an “OFFICIAL” bid for?
Therfore does it really show that the club are in the best “HANDS” with Moxey and Micko?
If we were to be relagated everything will become pear shaped and stall the “tortoise” progress being made.
So I am not one for asking why we are not spending this that and the other.I would however like the search for players to spread out a little across “EUROPE” wigan do it constantly by players for 3 million and sell them on for 10million…The players they purchase look more than just handy….So it is been done,for example we bought “HAMMIL” will he sell for 1 million profit?Did we need to buy him as he wont get to play,so the 500,000 spent on him could have been used for a better players wages who will “PLAY” along with the salary he is on….Arsenal do it regular buy some great technically gifted players for 2-3 million!!! who then are sold when they move on for a much higher return!
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10 Mick Will Save Us
Yes, I think most of us will agree we need to play 4-4-2 to score more goals and to do that we need to strengthen the defence. I would rather see us spend the majority of the budget on the back line and maybe missing out on Gardiner could be a blessing in disguise.
Don’t get me wrong, I rate Gardiner and did so when he was at Villa, but, if MM thinks Johnson and/or Mills are the solution to a leaky defence then up the offers and forget midfield/striker
But it must realistic.
I reckon Blues are undervaluing Gardiner at £5m. However, they are being ridiculous with some of their other asking prices. Ridgewell £4m, Jerome £8m (Wot !) and Johnson £10m.
Some fans on here are good at throwing other people’s millions at the problem, which is where all this lunacy started.
Abramovich has taken over the asylum
£13m for a MANAGER ? and a novice manager at that ! With his track record for managers, why doesn’t he just do the job himself ?
It has to be him unsettling Modic.
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lets stop the bitching twice gardner has turned us down for more money does that really sound like a player that wants to play for wolves?Yes we should be going for quality players but should we pay over the odds?would any wolves fan pay £10k for a car you believe to be worth £7k its very easy spending someone elses money lets get players in who really want to play for wolves like o hara im sure he could of gone elsewhere but he really wants to play for our football club
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Disappointing as he’s an all action midfielder who scores goals. However, given a CHANCE Milijas and Guedioura alongside O’Hara could do the same.
Henry isn’t good enough to take us to the next level. If he keeps getting picked next season ahead of those players and Ward/Berra/Stearman et al get picked too, we will always be in and around the bottom three.
We have to show ambition and get in another 2 or 3 players of the same ilk as O’Hara or we will struggle again.
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I don’t believe Gardner was a major target for Wolves. We only need to add one midfield player this summer and I think Gardner was the man we would have turned to if the O’Hara deal had fallen through
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How anyone can say we are in a better financial position and a more attractive outfit than sunderland is beyond me.
theyve just got 20m for one player, theyre by far a more attractive looking club than ours for todays money hungry player.
plus we’ve never come out and said yes gardner is a target!!!
replace Henry with Guedioura and we have a strong midfield with o’hara hunt and jarvis anyway.
johnson, konchesky and bassong are the priority for me personally.
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Early days yet, plenty of time for signings so no need to panic buy.How can you call Zubar,Fletcher championship players, Zubar makes such a big fifeerence to our defence, and Fletchers goal per full game ratio in struggling Prem teams is superb.
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The article is in my view rather misleading.
Gardener may well have been a player that interested McCarthy, but that could apply to a whole host of players. Until I hear it from the manager himself, I would treat this as pure newspaper speculation. As we have just signed O’Hara, midfield is not the most urgent position to address.
I would have thought “prime targets” would be more applicable to Johnson and Mills, (where bids have been made), and maybe Evans.
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moxey is trying to stay in the prem on the cheap
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No loss at all, we need 2 CB and a LB and then i am happy.
wanderer in eire
Go and support Wigan then! Who cares what Wigan do? why you so interested in buying players to make a profit?
Sell Hamill? i wouldnt as i think hes quality, its called a squad! who plays if Jarvo/Hunt cant?
Nugget
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To Johnboy since when were u lot a better club financially and what history have u got u can’t buy players from the premiership 1 u can’t afford them. 2they wouldn’t come anyway cause u will b relegated this season u should have went down last season. Get real.
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should be a good addition to an already good side SB is putting together. I agree with the earlier posts that from what ive seen wolves dont need midfielders, they need defenders cause craddock for example was finished when he left safc. once again i hope wolves stay up, good set of fans and of course big mick. however the guy that said wolves are the bigger club financially, well clearly they aren’t when we pay bigger fee and wages.
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Gardener would have been a poor signing in my opinion, over rated (and obviously overpaid), and MM wouldnt play him in midfield anyway!
In a different position though, I hope there may be some sustainance in the Jonny Evans story, think he would be a good signing
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Its all a ruse they do it every year pretend we are after top class players but never sign them because they will not pay the price.
Prime example last yead could have had DANN and JOHNSON but would not come up with the redies and now they are worth twice what we could have payed.
Blinkered, no vision for the future, but lets not worry we have got WARD and his mate KEOGH so why should we worry.
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Well said No 20! I told you lot on here over a week ago to be patient? Keep going on about O,Hara & as i told ya the deal was done! As in his case most of the players will not be free to talk to anyone untill the end of the month? Its about time everyone should start showing some confidence in the 3M,s? We are a great club that is solvent & im pleased they are at the helm keeping us that way? We will bring in the necessary players to improve our squad but in our time & will not be shoehorned into buying players who A, aint worth the money or B, Dont want to play for the Wolves with pride?
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why would gardner,johnson,evans etc come? we just escaped relegation by one point and dont pay the going rate. you wouldnt bet against us being in a relegation scrap again next season when with a team like sunderland that would be unlikely. what i’m saying is that players has a number of options and will take the best deal.
Its admirable that we look to buy mainly british players but the truth is we cant afford the good ones, although ohara is an exception.
We as a club need a better scouting system to look abroad, i.e. europe,south america. surely we can find a pollet,de wolf from somewhere???
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Dont believe he was a major target for us. No better than what we have – and a diver. Major targets are 1 or 2 centre backs and a left back.
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19 Vindaloopi.
You didn’t answer my question on the previous thread. Can I ask it again ?
“Just trying to decipher your post (73). It seems you are making a link between our Chairman, Morgan and Jonny Evans being a Manchester United player. Am I on the right lines ?
Would you care to explain, I’m intrigued.”
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I do not have a problem with the ethos being put on British and Irish players, just so long as we do still have scouts working in Europe looking out for the odd “gem”. I assume/hope we do, hence the discovery of Adlene. And looking around our current squad, we have of course a sprinkling of overseas players – I think that must surely continue.
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19 your comment is very hurtfull, Stephen Ward will never walk alone…..when was the last time you saw a king on his own, Steve is a jewel in the crown.Ward & Wolves are wicked.
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Not too bothered about this one, unless he can play centre half or left back then I do not feel this is such a loss. We will certainly not get relegated without Gardner in our team, but we will be if we don’t sign two top quality centre backs and a top quality left back. So get your priorities right and strengthen where we really need to.
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If we are picking off players from relegated teams, would anyone fancy a punt at Mark Noble? Or seeing as we like our Welsh internationals, Jack Collison.
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Patience is key here. We will find out in due course who actually WANTS to play for us which i feel is key to our future success. Sit tight & wait out !!
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Wolves to miss out on a player another Premier club wants.What’s new in the state of Camelot.Actually we have missed out on Gardner 3 times.We were linked two summers ago{you know the same summer we missed out on Dann,Johnson,Carroll,Mccarthy and Adam;all players identified by Mick McCarthy] and then in the following Jan when he went to the Blues and now it seems he is off to Sunderland.No one should blame Mick,if our squad is found wanting.Time and again he has identified quality players,only for the powers that be being unable to sign them.As for people saying midfield doesnot need improvement.Did they actually watch the games at home against Fulham,Everton,second half Baggies and first half Blackburn? We were outplayed in midfield.
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Sooo Gardner is a ‘big name player’ is he? jeez
19. Poor irish players like Ward? Is this the Ward who has played anywhere without moaning and helped us to a 3rd season in the top flight? Dream teams like handsworth can only dream about three seasons in a row..
I reckon some of you lot are a blast at parties…
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21. Wanderer in eire
You do make some good points regarding the notion “speculate to acumulate”
But what makes you think Sunderland wont be dragged into a relegation dog fight ?
Yes they will have money to spend but at a cost of having to sell there star assets and hope they can replace them with decent players which is never guaranteed for starters.
Then you also go on to say “If we were relegated everything will beocome pear shaped”….
Well i disagree, out of every bottom half prem team in the league we are one of the only clubs who could handle getting relegated without the risk of going into meltdown, thanks to tight wages a good turn over & assets woth more than what we payed for them.
Hammil we bought for next to nothing and got in early beating other teams to him, and will always be worth more than we payed for him, same goes for Doyle, Jarvis, Fletcher, SEB, HUNT, even Henry !
At very worst we get relegated, at least we still have a club to support :)
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Some of the analysis above is spot on. On the other hand 15+19 talking the usual tosh. Wouldn’t have minded signing him, but most certainly not a priority area, better to spend the wages on a top centre half (or two). Always amuses me when a ‘always wanted to play for the club I supported as a boy’ player jumps ship the moment they get relegated.
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I would sooner have o’Hara at £5m than Gardner and so would Sunderland.
Next non story.
Wanderer in Eire, erm what did we pay for:
Jarvis
Kightly
Ebanks
Henry
Stearman
Hennesey
Foley
I think we would make a tiny profit out of anyone of the above so stop talking utter tripe.
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19 – if it wasn’t for Ward’s goal at Liverpool we would be in the championship next season, what short memory you have
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There’s a long way still to go. I doubt Gardener was really ever a top tr=arget for us anyway. From the very little coming out of Wolves, it’s been that our targets were fro a goalie, a midfielder, a centre back, a left back and possibly a loan striker.
Gardener was only probably a prospect if there was a problem with the deal to sign O’Hara. If he goes to Sunderland, then they’ve spent about the same money to sign him has we did for O’Hara and probably given him a hell of a lot more cash then O’Hara got from us. Age wise, skill wise I think we got a better deal. I could see him taking over the captins armband either this season or next.
I think we could get Bassong for less than Johnson and about the same as Mills, so I think that may be the better option at centre back. Konchesky, I think would be a decent signing. He didn’t get a fair crack at Liverpool and would suite our type of play over Liverpools. For a loan striker… I think if we tried for Keane it would be too much of looking into the past and could we really want to pay those wages? Sturridge or Wellbeck if either are on the loan market again would do us good.
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As I’ve said before, too often in the past we have had uncommitted players going through the motions. We only want players who bleed gold! We don’t want a greedy and overpriced Blouse who isn’t fit to lace Jamie O’ Hara’s boots. However, if we keep missing out on a number of intended targets many of us will get hacked off pretty damn quickly. And pay up for Matt Mills before he goes somewhere else Moxey!
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War and Peace? Lol We’ll be fine! UTW
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in responce to “wonderer in eire”, sunderland going into receivership, give your head a shake, it has not or will ever happen ,owner is a billionaire, muppet……your just envious….ideot, havent a clue what your talking about, you havent the money to compete, your going down
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sunderland were heading into receivership? when was that, like?
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Don’t understand this report.
On Friday Moxey/Morgan (can’t remember which) said, “we are now looking at a CB, LB and possibly a striker on loan”. No mention of another midfielder. And now we’ve missed out on Gardner?
PLEASE, PLEASE get some / a / any type of decent defender in.
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Oi number 12 – Joey Barton!!!! Have you have bang on the head??? Think before you type?
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or even have you HAD A bang on the head….i’ll think before i type too!
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Wanderer in Eire, when were SAFC going into recievership? I hope somebody told Ellis Short mind!
JohnBoy, in what way are wolves in a better finanical position than us? And claiming you have a superior history to us is laughable i’d love you to show me the facts that back up either of your claims.
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21
What utter drivel you talk, as usual.
Hamill is an absolute steal @ £500k & is a quality footballer.
Our approach is spot on, tell me how much money did Wigan make on Heskey or Bramble???
How many foreign players have they signed for big money that can’t make the grade, quite a few is the answer, including their record signing who has only played a hand full of games.
Be careful what you wish for!!!
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To all the Mackams that have posted on this thread, nice to hear from you!!!
But please don’t take any notice of 21, he’s a bit dim & to think, we have to listen to it week in week out.
53, I know he’s annoyed you, but we ain’t going down, not a prayer, not with the points we are now used to taking off you!!!
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3 – Guardiola has done an amazing job at Barcelona so I can’t see him coming out of retirement to play for Wolves. Looks like we’ll have to settle for Guedioura instead.
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21 – IDIOT
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Cuddly, How many times do I have to remind you,the millions we want to spend come from that wonderful Aussis who lives in New York,called Murdoch.Surely it is not such a bad idea spending his money, that unfortunately we give hIm in the first place via Sky subscriptions and newspapers.Of the other money we pay our bit in season tickets and all those pies.The club made £9m profit the season before last,and will have made a decent profit last season.It is not unreasonable for fans to want more of that Sky money to be spent on decent players.If we were comfortable mid table in the Prem,it might be a different matter.
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Wolves are no longer a one man team. I like the speed at which we are getting stronger. It is solid and sure and looks to the future. Look at where we were fours years ago and where we are now. Look at any point on the last 4 years and then go back six months. Without fail you will find we are a stronger team. So don’t look at who we don’t sign. Look at how the squad shapes up in August with who we have signed. anyone can criticise individual signings we do or don’t make. More important is the shape of the squad we do have. That squad is still premier league. There are still 72 clubs below us that want to be where we are.
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31) What history? Wolves are more successful than Sunderland… fact! Sunderland have won 6 top league titles – most of them 1890′s – and 2 FA Cups. Wolves have won 3 top league titles, 4 FA Cups and 2 League Cups!
Irrespective of money that you have received for Bent and Henderson, Sunderland are in debt and Wolves are not. We will not go down but you might!
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Willy,What did you think at half time against Blackburn? We don’t want that again.
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Brilliant post 64 Willy Wolf.
Really nothing to add, you’ve summed it up wonderfully!!
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I think the worst thing about 21′s post is all the “” ‘ d words
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Don’t rank him to be honest!
And why do we need another mid when our problems are more at the back!
Save the cash and throw it at a decent pairing I say!
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I do despair when reading some of the comments, today football is a business. First you get the basics sorted out, consolidate and then improve your product by buying better quality players.
The ignorant comments from people who have never actually managed anything in life are not helpful. All the so called expert fans who know so much more than the current owner, CEO and manager simply prove the point.
Fortunately there is a sprinkling of sensible comments from people who think before giving us the benefit of their opinions.
We all get frustrated by the apparently slow progress our team is making, but some of us realise the limitations the club operates under.
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no70 Well you should not despair and should not talk down to fellow fans/customers.The time to worry would be if no one cared enough about the club to comment.It is passion that drives the support base.I have to say I find it incredulous that you talk of the limitations that the club is apparantly working under.The club has benefited from a £30million gift from its previous owner and has received television rights of approx £65 million total in the last two seasons, with another guaranteed £80m to come.Some limitation that is.
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Yes fluffy wolf i do think b4 i type unlike yourself and its my opinion that i think Joey Barton would be a good signing instead of Gardner if we were looking to sign another midfielder also better value for money in less spent on the fee and is wages also after Nolan he was one of the toons better players last season up the wolves o my head
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