19 Aug 2021 16:28:45
So Rafa Mir is off to Sevilla. That back up for Raul can't be far away but just who is it? Hopefully not Fabio.
19 Aug 2021 21:42:54
Have to agree Old.
Posted last season the old saying "you can`t make a silk purse out of a sows ear".
Would love him to prove me wrong.
19 Aug 2021 21:46:44
Otasowie off for £3.5m as well, it does start to beg the question as to what is the point in investing in a youth system if the players only get a chance once they've left! Really gutted about Otasowie, Mir never wanted to come but Owen really did want to succeed! I will guarantee Brugge end up selling him within the next five years for at least ten times the price we are letting him go for! ðŸ˜.
20 Aug 2021 11:44:52
Yes, but the thing is bully he wants to go, doesn't look like he is anywhere near a first team player and we are making a sizeable profit, as we are with Mir, who also doesn't want to be at the wolves.
Let's get rid of a few more of the one's who ain't going to be near the first team and use the money to strengthen.
20 Aug 2021 11:46:36
Maybe we have a percentage agreed of any sell-on, Bully?
20 Aug 2021 11:49:25
Was gutted when Otasowie came on as sub against Brighton away and headed the ball way over the bar when he could have scored the winner. Ota snow on the ball.
20 Aug 2021 13:15:19
BullysBoy. Sad to see Owen Otasowie go. I always thought the lad had a great future in front of him hopefully with us! Shame he has gone. Potentially the driving midfielder we desperately need, now not to be. Wish him every success with FC Club Brugge.
20 Aug 2021 15:23:54
Good responses gents 👠I agree Deep I would VERY much hope there is a sell on involved! And I know what you mean Big (that he wants to go) but the club have a years extension built into his contract. I would have liked to see them trigger it and give him a chance. he's only going cause he was sick of waiting, trigger the extension and give him game time. Or even trigger the extension and loan him to Brugge without a fee agreed in the hope he doubles his value in a season (which at his age is likely) I appreciate I haven't seen him train and Bruno has so maybe there's more to it than I know. Just feels like a very average fee for a player who really could be good. Good luck to him but I do hope I'm wrong and the club are right, wouldn't be the first time! ðŸ˜
I just really thought he was exactly the kind of player Lage was recruited to get the best from?! Like you say I suppose it all comes down to what the player wants these days, sadly ðŸ˜.
20 Aug 2021 15:41:37
The player's hold all the ace's these days, they only have to down tools so to speak to force a move through.
Some players have sharper tools than others so to speak 😉 but if they want to go in my opinion let them go and move forward.
Otasowie may turn out to be a world class midfielder, but I'd say from what I've seen so far he's more likely to be a run of the mill midfielder.
I'm sure Jeff has included a sell on fee just in case.
20 Aug 2021 17:35:58
From reports it looks like we have gone back to the table and accepted the deal offered so I would be surprised if a sell-on clause was included unless the buyer used that as an initial gambit to extract a small price in the first place. I’m with you Bully’s on this one, absolutely gutted that a lad with his potential hasn’t had the chance to be developed by Lage’s team.
20 Aug 2021 19:12:15
Just to throw my pence in on this I am also very disappointed Owen has gone and it would be interesting to know what we offered him relative to what he is now getting in Belgium.
Surely Brugge can't be offering ludicrously high wages and if it was just playing time couldn't we have simply offered him an appropriate loan - like Sanderson?
He was not that far off being ready - he wasn't ready last year but nor were several of the kids thrown in at the deep end due to our failure in the transfer market and the injuries we suffered - and had the potential and physical powers to be the Vierra style of dominating midfield player we desperately need!
How hard did we try to keep him and why was he so determined to leave?
Was he comparing himself to Fabio and asking why he wasn't being offered a similar wage given he was similarly almost ready for first team football?
Heaven help us if that is the case as what do you have to offer exceptional footballers like Traore if they want to benchmark their salary to Fabio's wage packet!
21 Aug 2021 11:15:52
TFIOG, you may have got to the root of all evil (though I hope not) . But the plausibility of your points can’t be knocked back by any evidence to date. Prior to last season, team unity and clear harmony in the camp took us a long way in games and over runs of game when we weren’t playing particularly well. Possibly without Traore last season could have been much worse. If the tight salary structure has been busted with the signing of Fabio causing disharmony and leading to the loss of Nuno then that’s not only negligent but a huge dent (at the very least) on the 10 year plan. A poor start to this season, new management team, system changes, new personnel and a loss of togetherness and team unity and team spirit could lead to disaster.
I wish we weren’t playing Spurs tomorrow and I really fear for us in this game if we play a high line and go gung ho.
Time to keep it tight and take our chances but this game worries me as reunions rarely work out well for Wolves.
21 Aug 2021 12:01:30
To be fair NES it wasn't just the purchase of Fabio that was wrong last summer. We sold Doherty far too cheaply, over paid for Semedo and Hoever and wasted wages and a loan fee on Vitor all the while whilst not buying anyone to fill positions that we desperately needed filling - RCB, AM and adult back up CF.
Net net we wasted perhaps as much as £70m by poor dealings in the transfer market, blew our wage structure to pieces (increasing it hugely along the way), while as you say both potentially damaging dressing room morale and team spirit and most certainly weakening the team and squad.
However any criticism of the man resposible for this Jeff Shi - not Nuno has he very publicly and clearly asked the club to go another way! - is mwet with hostility and personal criticism on this forum.
I don't get it you would think fans would be v unhappy at the wasted opportunity. From challenging for Europe maybe even Champions league we are now just 12 months later holding our breath that we don't get dragged into a relegation battle this season. However for a significant proportion of the posters on this site nothing went wrong and nothing ever does!
21 Aug 2021 16:34:47
future. Nice to read your comments as usual for which I agree. I expect this will light the blue touch paper! Truth hurts as they say!
I'm going to stay quiet until the end of the transfer window in the hope that Mr. Shi can do something about the situation. It's time to sort a few things out.
Hope things are going well with you. Take care.
21 Aug 2021 18:35:20
I've said it before but peeps REALLY need to try and understan/ re-think how modern day clubs work! Jeff Shi is not doing anything regarding transfers other than signing them off! You can try and blame the guy for many things but transfers would (as proven before) been signed off by one man and that was Nuno! Jeff Shi had not worked with Fabio Silva or Vito before, Jeff Shi did NOT make Semedo our primary target (thus resulting in the fire sale of Doherty to an old friend Jose)! I loved Nuno and hand on heart I wish he hadn't left, however I can't get on board with this re-writting of what happened where suddenly Shi is running the transfers and the squad with Nuno just a bystander?! C'mon gents your all sharper than that! And of course Nuno wanted more money, which manager doesn't exactly?! Let's see how he gets on a Spurs, I reckon he got more than he bargained for because he has a few top players wanting to leave and a chairman renowned for pinching the pennies (I say that with respect as I'm one of the few that thinks Levy runs a tight ship) . Time will tell how things go but let's try not to make out that Nuno left because of Fosun, he left because he had 'come to the end of the cycle' (his words) . Did Fosun make him apply for the Arsenal job as well then?! After which he signed a three year contract I might add!
Now we move on, let's see what tomorrow brings. I have to be honest at this stage I'm just not sure what to expect from either team/ manager. Bring it on ðŸº.
21 Aug 2021 19:17:47
With all due respect Bully’s none of us are experts on the way Fosun run their business or have any insight into the commercial relationship with Gestifute (apologies if you are an officer or employee of one of these entities) . I can imagine from what I’ve read that Jeff Shi has a close working relationship with Mendes (the evidence from our transfer dealings suggests little else) . That relationship wouldn’t be at the Manager / Coach level (in spite of other business relationships between Nuno and Mendes) .
The players that have come into Spurs in recent weeks and who are rumoured to be coming in are not all Mendes clients. Why should we blame Nuno for the very poor transfer dealings of the last 3 transfer windows, he’ll have given a list to the boss as he’ll give a list to the new boss.
And if his new boss (after doing his proper due diligence) decides not to put all his eggs in the Mendes basket then fair play to him!
21 Aug 2021 21:28:51
With all due respect NES as I've said MANY times before read the Athletic article! Part of the reason Nuno fell out of favour with Fosun is because they didn't agree with HIS preference for Mendes clients! Remind me NES who was Mendes first ever client was it Jeff Shi, no it was in fact Nuno! If you really think that a manager of Nunos calibre would have come to Wolves without having a large say on transfer policy well I find that very hard to believe! Nuno wanted more money, of course he did but I'm afraid that does not mean that he spent what he had especially wisely last season. Like I said read the article, it was written by people with FAR more knowledge of the inner workings of our club than any of us ðŸ‘.
22 Aug 2021 11:20:56
I don’t see too much coming out from Spiers to suggest he’s particularly in the know at Molineux but maybe he is being used to put one-way spin on certain topics. Apparently our former potential star Otasowie is lazy, doesn’t want to train, turns up late and won’t talk to his colleagues.
There may or may not be anything in these Athletic articles and I know that some posters hold these up as gospel but I’ll keep a balanced view and we all know there are always two sides to a story.
I love the club but continue to be troubled by all these roles that Jeff Shi has taken on and whether at THIS stage the club / company is getting best value from the commercial relationship with Mendes / Gestifute. Time will tell and I’ll be delighted if and when my worries recede.
22 Aug 2021 16:16:17
But hang on the other side of this supposedly 'balanced' view is to just assume that our chairman is finding and deciding transfer targets despite the fact virtually no chairman actually do that?! A view isn't balanced if the driving force behind it is to shift all blame on to Jeff Shi and absolve Nuno of any, how's that balance exactly?
22 Aug 2021 17:57:09
That’s putting a spin on my point that is totally unjustified and I’m sure that Jeff and Nuno would take collective responsibility as they both have had a say. My opinion (and I’ve not worked with the board of a premiership club) is that Nuno will have provided a list and the club will also be receiving information on players being pushed by agents (some on transfer lists and some not) .
At the end of the day the buck for multi-million pound deals will (as it always does) rest with the boss. He’ll have his transfer project teams, his legal resources drawing up contracts and he’ll have his financial guys looking at the potential payback on each investment and the financial implications of making each signing (on the annual company budget / transfer budget / wages budget/ re-forecasts / 5-year plan) . Recommendations will be made and the deal signed off, delayed or stopped altogether.
So I don’t blame one person totally but I know where responsibility and accountability starts and ends.