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Wolves blog: Are the lower leagues a good talent pool?

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Are the lower leagues an ideal supermarket for Wolves? In recent history they have been...writes Wolves blogger Tom Tracey

Around two months ago, Wolves completed their Championship campaign with a 4-2 win over Millwall. Since then, they have dipped into the transfer market to sign Jed Wallace from League Two Portsmouth.

Picking up players that have shone in the lower divisions (or even non-league football) has generally been successful for Wolves.

Matt Jarvis was signed from League One Gillingham and was a standout player in the Premier League before being sold for massive profit.

Kevin Doyle had scored 18 goals in the Championship when Wolves paid a then-record fee for his services, a player who especially in the 2009/10 season stood out as a key player.

Michael Kightly celebrates his goal

Michael Kightly was picked up from Conference side Grays Athletic and shone in the Championship title-winning season. Surely he would have commanded a similar fee to Jarvis had he not struggled so much with injury.

Whilst Wolves cannot rely on signing players in divisions lower down solely, they are a good supplementary pool of talent where players are likely to fit into the young and hungry typecast that Wolves are hunting for.

In the current squad, Dave Edwards was signed from Luton Town, Richard Stearman from League One-bound Leicester City, Lee Evans from Newport County, Tommy Rowe from Peterborough United and Kortney Hause from Wycombe Wanderers.

They offer a cheaper option and a lower risk than bigger money signings which can pay off massively.

Tyrone Mings has just joined Bournemouth for £8m and was signed by Ipswich from non-league Chippenham Town for around £10,000, making a big name for himself and has even been linked with Arsenal.

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Matt Ritchie was named as the League Two player of the year in 2012 and League One player of the year in 2013 before being voted as number one in a list of 50 of the best Football League players in the season just gone.

This calibre of players are certainly out there.

Signing players from foreign teams has generally failed for Wolves. Other than Sako, it is hard to think of many players who have really shone in recent times.

Solbakken's only summer in charge of Wolves saw him sign five players from foreign clubs (for around ten million pounds depending on the source) and it is only Sako who has so far made any impact.

Whilst this route can be expensive, it can be successful in the Championship, as runners-up Watford have shown in the season just gone with a squad full of foreign imports.

Danny Graham

Another route is signing Premier League players, either permanently or on loan. Wolves had varying success last season, with the acquisition of Afobe being one of the best signings in recent seasons, whilst George Saville must do more to justify his £1 million price tag.

Middlesbrough had seven Premier League loan players at some point during their last campaign, finishing fourth.

If the links with Sammy Ameobi have truth, Wolves fans will hope that this loan turns out better than Danny Graham and Yannick Sagbo.

But the emphasis at Wolves on diligent recruitment and bringing players in to first join the development squad surely lends itself to looking to the lower leagues to find the hidden gems that they offer. And why not?