Wolves wait on McCarthy deal

Wolves expect an answer from transfer target James McCarthy in the next 24 hours after the young midfielder's club tour yesterday.

McCarthy, who is wanted by four other Premier League clubs, is due to have talks with at least one of them, Wigan, today.

But he left Molineux suggesting Wolves would know by tomorrow if they had managed to land their seventh signing and second transfer coup of the summer after beating off rival interest to secure Kevin Doyle.

As in the Doyle case, Wolves will hope manager Mick McCarthy's growing Irish community will influence the 18-year-old Hamilton midfielder who will cost £1.4m plus add-ons which could take the fee past £2m.

Chief executive Jez Moxey saw Celtic pull out of the McCarthy chase yesterday but knows Portsmouth, Spurs and Burnley are all on the player's trail and is taking nothing for granted after leading the Molineux sales-pitch.

"James came down with his family and had a look around Compton and Molineux and met Mick upon his return," he said.

"He has now gone away to consider his options and we await any further developments."

Wolves boss McCarthy revealed that yesterday's developments signalled the closing stages of a lengthy pursuit of a player who has long been regarded as one of the best budding talents in the UK. His trusted chief scout Dave Bowman has championed the cause of the Republic of Ireland Under-21 international with McCarthy saying:

"He's one Dave has been banging on about for a long time and he reckons he's one of the best around for his age. We've wanted to bring him in for a while."

Wigan are so far the only other club known to have met the asking price and their overtures today carry the most threat to Wolves' ambitions – although Moxey is braced for any one of the other three English clubs hi-jacking the deal.

Celtic pulled out because they could not afford the fee.