General Wolves News

[Deutsch Wolf]

Telford is too low a level for any of our players who have a genuine future here. For muck like Bradley Reid and Ben O'Hanlon then maybe, but they're never going to make a Football League career.

If we're sending anyone to the Conference North then they shouldn't be here in the first place.

 

[Kenny]

I guess if it is going to be a long term project. Help them get back in to the Conference then that level is certainly fine for players around the 18/19 year mark.

 

[Tony Towner]

Telford is too low a level for any of our players who have a genuine future here. For muck like Bradley Reid and Ben O'Hanlon then maybe, but they're never going to make a Football League career.

If we're sending anyone to the Conference North then they shouldn't be here in the first place.

As someone who has watched a reasonable amount of Conference North football I can't disagree. Of the players Wolves have sent there in the last 3/4 years and the players Hednesford have signed from league teams on loan, there's only Burgoyne who has gone back and made any kind of impact and without wishing to be disrespectful that was very much a circumstance pick.

 

[darlowolf64]

Telford is too low a level for any of our players who have a genuine future here. For muck like Bradley Reid and Ben O'Hanlon then maybe, but they're never going to make a Football League career.

If we're sending anyone to the Conference North then they shouldn't be here in the first place.

Doherty could do a job for them

 

[Parkins left foot]

Doherty could do a job for them

Doherty could do a job for anyone - tidying the garden, painting the house

Whether football is involved is another matter

 

[pr0sl0]

Telford is too low a level for any of our players who have a genuine future here. For muck like Bradley Reid and Ben O'Hanlon then maybe, but they're never going to make a Football League career.

If we're sending anyone to the Conference North then they shouldn't be here in the first place.

Something about this doesn't add up, yeah.

I'm not sure how "Wolves have bought Telford" would work, structurally and legally. There are specific rules forbidding any one organisation or company owning more than one club in England, and I'm pretty sure that applies outside of the Football and Premier Leagues, too, though can't find anything specific to confirm that in a quick Google.

Let's assume there's some kind of loophole in effect here - like, I don't know, it's a Fosun subsidiary that's bought Telford, and they've structured it in such a way that it would pass the FA's test to prove that it and Wolves are truly independent from each other and the former isn't a subsidiary of the latter. Assuming that, I guess we have to assume also that Edwards wasn't actually sacked a few weeks ago along with Lambert, right? He was told, "hey, we still value you, and we've got a nice gig coming up at another project if you hold tight." Sounds like a demotion to me, tbh, and if Edwards is rated within the game as highly as everyone keeps saying he is, I don't know if he couldn't have gotten something a bit higher profile in League One or Two.

On the other hand, Telford is arguably a club with some (limited) potential. If towns like Chesterfield, Lincoln, Stevenage, Burton, and High Wycombe can support Football League teams, Telford should be able to as well, and if Edwards does secure some success there then it might make a much more suitable place to loan our younger players. It also makes some sense, I guess, to formalise the use of New Bucks Head as the stadium for the U23s, too, and be in a position to upgrade it - a lot of top flight clubs do have pro-level stadiums for their youth teams, particularly elsewhere in Europe, and Fosun no doubt have some quite ambitious plans to improve the academy even more when we do eventually secure promotion. But those seem quite limited reasons to actually *buy* another club.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I agree it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense (nor do I think it would be allowed - otherwise you'd have Chelsea buying out the likes of Sutton, City buying out Stalybridge, even if it were simply consigned to non-league - and that would seriously screw over the competitive element of the leagues they're in).

I would argue that if Telford were ever going to support a full time football club with serious aspirations on the Football League then it would have happened at some point in the last 40 years since the expansion of the area started to kick off, it hasn't and hasn't ever looked anywhere near close to happening. Everything west of Wolverhampton is our territory bar the handful of slightly odd, horse-bothering Shrewsbury fans.

 

[pr0sl0]

True, though you could say the same about a club like Wycombe - in a part of the world filled with Home Counties commuter belt London top flight team fans, flitting around non-league for more than a century until Martin O'Neill came along. The dynamics behind why some clubs suddenly manage to establish themselves in higher leagues and others never do can be very arbitrary.

 

[pr0sl0]

Ooh, I've just thought of two ridiculous reasons (which are obviously untrue but might appeal to the conspiracy theorists) for it, though:

1) Fosun want to sell Molineux and build a new out-of-town stadium on the site of New Bucks Head, where getting planning permission to expand an existing stadium will be much easier and cheaper than buying and building on virgin land.

2) To get around FFP, Fosun will inject millions into Telford, buy a bunch of players, loan them to Wolves, then write off the debt when Telford inevitably goes bankrupt.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I'm up for 2), just to see Ronaldo and Falcao unveiled at Telford for one day before they get loaned here.

They couldn't sell Molineux We don't own the land.

 

[AndyWolves]

I'm up for 2), just to see Ronaldo and Falcao unveiled at Telford for one day before they get loaned here.

They couldn't sell Molineux We don't own the land.

Do the council still own the land?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

They do, and will do for all of our lifetimes.

 

[Tony Towner]

Pretty sure Morgan tried to broach that one and was told where to go.

 

[AndyWolves]

They do, and will do for all of our lifetimes.

That sounds a bit sinister!

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

That sounds a bit sinister!

Only if you're planning to live to the age of about 120 And even then the situation will still probably be exactly the same, assuming football hasn't been replaced by some kind of futuristic robot game on hoverboards by then.

 

[Kenny]

assuming football hasn't been replaced by some kind of futuristic robot game on hoverboards by then.

I will get my complaint in about the Dohbot now

 

[AndyWolves]

Only if you're planning to live to the age of about 120 And even then the situation will still probably be exactly the same, assuming football hasn't been replaced by some kind of futuristic robot game on hoverboards by then.

I kinda meant like a 90's action movie, picture a meeting in the council offices and then a crazed Hans Gruber utters that line before wasting everyone. And then selling Molineux to Omnicorp for a million kugerands

I'll get me coat

 

[AndyWolves]

Anyway, if the upshot of all this is that AFC Telford stay in business, we secure somewhere for our U23s to play and our kids have somewhere to learn about "real football" then all is good. Assuming it's all nice & legal

 

[Johnny75]

I think you're all missing the obvious conspiracy. Moxey has bought Telford so that one day they will be bigger than Wolves and he will have his revenge......

 

[Tony Towner]

They weren't going bust. Personally I think it's an internet rumour given credence by a coincidental managerial appointment, but if it were true then as football fans we should be opposing it. They have a history and a fanbase that doesn't need to be run roughshod over by a bigger team looking for opportunistic gain and that's as a Hednesford fan who has no time for Telford.