Should teams stick or twist in January transfer window |
I heard an interesting comment from Wolverhampton Wanderers the other day.
Rob Edwards was appointed as manager at Molineux only four weeks ago, and I am sure that Rob’s tenure is not dependent on whether Wolves get relegated this season - let’s be clear, no club has ever come back from such a bad start to retain its position in the Premier League. But the word is that what happens between now and the end of the year will decide what happens in January.
What that signals is Wolves will seek to offload a boatload of players in the window to raise the maximum amount of cash in order to pay down their substantial debt, and to cut the wage bill by getting their highest earners off the payroll. Essentially, they are accepting their fate, they are not going to attempt to fight off the inevitable, and they are telling all other teams to sharpen their pencils and prepare their bids. They will be making the best financial decisions that they can, they may even start shaping their squad for the Championship with the intention of bouncing back.
Wolverhampton Wanderers' Yerson Mosquera (left) reacts after scoring an own goal with Emmanuel Agbadou (Image: Nick Potts/ PA Wire)
Wolves, a bit like Brighton and Brentford, have done a great job of finding undervalued talent, but unlike the Bees and the Seagulls, they couldn’t hold onto them for long enough to protect them from falling. Nunes, Neves, Neto, Ait-Nouri, Silva and Cunha left over the past five seasons for........