Wolves will fight for star players - Steve Morgan

Wolves chairman Steve Morgan today outlined his determination to keep the club's star players.

Sunderland are eventually expected to return to the bidding table and match Wolves' £15m valuation of Steven Fletcher after failing with a series of bids up to £13m over the last month.

West Ham are pondering their next move over £10m-rated Matt Jarvis after Wolves rejected their second offer of £6.5m rising to £9.5m for the winger.

But in an exclusive interview with the Express & Star, Morgan explained why the club are holding out for as much as possible.

"We haven't put in all the effort and commitment that we have ploughed into the redevelopment to not go back up," said Morgan, who officially opened the new £18m Stan Cullis Stand a week ago.

"We want to get promoted. But it's going to be difficult and the sooner we get things settled, the better.

"We're doing our best to hold on to our star players.

"We've got a few issues at the moment which people are aware of and we're working on. But we desperately want to keep our better players because we want the strongest possible team – we're trying to give ourselves the best possible chance of winning promotion."

Asked if he expected Fletcher and Jarvis to leave by the end of the transfer window, Morgan admitted it could go either way.

He said: "It's a funny old life – anything can happen but all I would say is we want to keep our strongest team."

Morgan's determined stance came as Sunderland boss Martin O'Neill hinted at increasing his bid for long-term target Fletcher, who was not involved in Wolves' Championship opener at Leeds today.

"I don't think I've ever cheap-skated when it comes to buying players," said the former Villa boss.

"I don't mind paying over the odds here if this person is value for money.

"That's fine and that's what I'm thinking about."