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Wolves have gained without buying

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Wolves blogger Tim Spiers believes the improvement shown by the club's current squad made it unnecessary to 'panic buy' on transfer deadline day.

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Wolves blogger Tim Spiers believes the improvement shown by the club's current squad made it unnecessary to 'panic buy' on transfer deadline day.

It's safe to say I didn't really expect much excitement from a Wolves point of view on transfer deadline day.

Last season our two deadline day captures were Marcus Bent and Adriano Basso, signings not even Jim White could feign excitement about.

While it would have been nice to make a couple of additions – and from the sounds of it the three Ms did have at least one target in mind – we weren't in desperate need of fresh blood.

Our impressive start to the season has given things a rosy outlook and players whose positions were, and for me still are, in need of strengthening, have performed very well indeed.

I'm talking about Karl Henry and Stephen Ward who, Henry's subdued performance against Aston Villa aside, have been two of the major plus points in our three opening games.

I would be concerned that if either of them got injured because the next in line – presumably Kevin Foley and George Elokobi – aren't proven at this level in those positions.

But, touch wood, Henry and Ward aren't injury-prone, so fingers crossed it won't come to that.

No doubt if we had had lost our opening three games things would be different and one or two loan recruits may have been brought in, but the squad generally has a solid look about it.

And Henry and Ward – often vilified by some supporters – embody the strides which appear to have been made since last season, having started the campaign full of confidence.

Ward, in particular, has been a revelation, starting with his stunning opening-day goal at Blackburn.

Against Fulham, he gave excellent support to Matt Jarvis and made two goal-saving challenges in the space of one second-half minute.

At Villa, hhe was our most adventurous player at times, especially in the first-half when he made two or three surging runs into the box, while he also did a commendable job of trying to subdue the frisky Charles N'Zogbia.

In short, he's made himself undroppable and, at the same time, hinted that the protracted answer to the 'left back problem' was right in front of our eyes all along.

Ward is often referred to as embodying Mick McCarthy's Wolves era, which I assume refers to the fact that he's a nice unassuming bloke who makes the best of his ability and, of course, puts in a good shift.

It could also mean that, like his manager, he's got a peculiar nose and talks with a funny accent, but either way Ward – or Wardinho as he's been dubbed by some – has done more than enough to earn the unwavering admiration of the Wolves supporters.

For whatever reason, that's not always been the case in the past, with some so-called fans being shamefully disrespectful at times but, hopefully, that's all behind us.

So, yes, while others around us were losing their heads, we kept quiet on deadline day and, in one respect, no news was good news as it meant none of our first-team players were snared.

The job the three Ms have done in fending off advances for Kevin Doyle and Matt Jarvis should by no means be underestimated.

Goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey must surely be on the radar of many top clubs too and it's a testament to the ambitions of the club that all three seem more than happy to stay at Molineux for the time being.

As chief executive Jez Moxey argued yesterday, there was no business done at Wolves on transfer deadline day because everything they wanted to do had been achieved earlier in the summer.

Most of that included shifting dead weight and farming some youngsters out on loan and, looking at our list of outgoings yesterday, we certainly managed to trim the playing squad.

To complete the loan moves, young David Davis was surprisingly switched to the Scottish Premier League with Inverness Caledonian Thistle, while Leigh Griffiths jumped at the chance to join Hibernian.

The Scottish top flight might be as interesting to watch as the South Yorkshire Over-75 Tiddlywinks Championships, but I look forward to seeing how they get on.

All in all there was none of the panic buying witnessed at Arsenal, Blackburn or Stoke, the latter of whom splashed £22million on three players who have done very little of note in the past two Premier League seasons.

Thirty-year-old Peter Crouch, who had a one goal in six league goal ratio for Spurs despite having Gareth Bale, Luke Modric, Aaron Lennon and Rafael van der Vaart putting chances on a plate week after week, seems massively overpriced at £12million.

It didn't seem to me like any of our competitors did anything too impressive, either, with Queens Park Rangers and Blackburn, the two squads who needed strengthening more than anyone else, just about bringing themselves to a competitive level with a couple of decent signings.

I was surprised Newcastle and West Bromwich Albion didn't do more business, while Swansea and Norwich obviously seem happy with what they have got as they were also quiet.

Now that the transfer window is shut we can finally forget about speculation and rumours and get on with the weekly grind of domestic football.

A weekend off for the international break means we can all salivate over the Premier League table for a few more days yet.

And, with the division's worst team due at Molineux next weekend, there's plenty to look forward to.