The 2015/2016 Summer Improvement Thread

[Deutsch Wolf]

The irony of course being that the vast majority of fans would love us to emulate Southampton and Swansea....who both routinely sell off their best players and replace them with low cost alternatives, the former also placing great emphasis on playing their own youth players wherever possible.

 

[North West Wanderer]

I am however happy with Coady and ALF particularly, and we potentially have a very exciting team.

Potentially. That word again.

I cannot believe anyone sincerely thinks we are stronger for having sold Stearman.

The insinuations from all platforms is that it's not that big a deal, which astounds me.

 

[pr0sl0]

The more I think about it the more selling Stearman does make sense from a footballing perspective. We arguably had one too many players competing for CB as it is, and Stearman hasn't been that much better than either EEL or Hause. (The exception to this may be when paired with a CB who's more lof a leader, like Batth, but how many years have we been saying that was one of Stearman's biggest flaws? And isn't it the point of an organisational "leader" of a CB that they make the other players around them better? In which case shouldn't we expect both Hause and Ebanks-Landell to improve alongside Batth, and maybe even surpass Stearman as they age and gain experience?)

If we hadn't sold him, we'd probably have had to send one of EEL or Hause out on loan - not ideal for a club looking to develop its own players. So why not cash in while we can?

Of course, this logic also largely applies to McDonald, also in the last year of his contract - the fact we rebuffed Fulham implies that, while we may have one or even two more CMs than we need, the coaching staff don't see a future here for some of them. (My guess being it's Evans, which is a shame as I think he'd be best at playing McDonald's role alongside Coady.)

 

[North West Wanderer]

How exactly would they have shown ambition this window? Who should they have bought and why?

If we had Dicko available and Stears still here I'd have been really happy. I assume the Dicko scenario will now be sorted next week via loan, but Stears has really disappointed me.

 

[Nando]

Rising to 2.5m for Stears according to Spiers.

 

[North West Wanderer]

At CB, we have an injured Batth who is limited IMO

We have EEL who is ok, and Hause who could be ace

We have Iorfa who currently plays RB and is raw

We have Deslandes who is very raw

That's not strong, however we want to dress it up

 

[thehistorymakers]

Afobe was playing in League 1.

What do you want then? Premier League players at huge outlay on long contracts? Because that has worked spiffingly lately.

I didn't want to sell Stears, to pay for a player in another position. I don't understand how people can't see that is what we have done. With DB injured, who many said last year wasn't playing that great and Stears was voted POTS. Surely we shouldn't have sold Stearman now?

I do believe that some of our buys will come good, but it looks like they gave up on aiming for promotion before we started.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Straw clutching to match your own ideology on how a successful football team is. If a player at the age of 20 had made over 200 appearance is he less valuable than a 27 year old that may have made only 100 because of injury or not being picked? Age is such an nonsense number to measure the success of a football team.

No straws to clutch but fair point about my ideology. Considering the errors we have made that have cost us goals in the first few games a number of people on here put that down to " youngsters and inexperience" still each to their own. Not a great window for me. Some good business but some investment on potential rather than proven at this level and that can be a bit of a gamble. If it works brilliant. Last year I had the audacity to criticise "one error a match" and was pilloried so that is how fickle it can be. I am not upset at him leaving. I am upset that we now have such a youthful defence at this level, no not upset cautious. Ikeme has made too many mistakes of late for me to have faith in our ability to be solid and no clean sheets this year backs that view up. We are hardly prolific scorers so we need to be tight defensively. We cant play a game of we will outscore you with any team in this league. Coady looks great, Wallace and Bryne have potential and I am hoping ALF and Afobe hit it off. Any more injuries and we may suffer ( everyone forgets November last year when 2 injuries effectively cost us the play offs)

We will ultimately see but I dont see an automatic promotion team as yet in this squad. Sorry. Good job I have a titanium skin

 

[Sedgley Wolf]

Rising to 2.5m for Stears according to Spiers.

Hopefully the 2.5m for Stears according to Spiers will help stem the tears of people with fears that Wolves will fall away from the promotion race with our peers. Maybe we can now sign Freddie Sears?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Ikeme is one of the oldest heads in the squad and has been directly responsible for at least two of the goals we have conceded.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Ikeme is one of the oldest heads in the squad and has been directly responsible for at least two of the goals we have conceded.

and how many premier league games has he played?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I didn't want to sell Stears, to pay for a player in another position. I don't understand how people can't see that is what we have done. With DB injured, who many said last year wasn't playing that great and Stears was voted POTS. Surely we shouldn't have sold Stearman now?

I do believe that some of our buys will come good, but it looks like they gave up on aiming for promotion before we started.

I didn't want to sell Stearman either. I said when it first broke that I was disappointed. However, that doesn't make it a window of sackcloth and ashes. We have got some good players in and we have to see how it all comes together. My concern is an injury to one of our remaining centre backs before a 93 day loan would cover us until the next window.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

and how many premier league games has he played?

What the hell has that got to do with it?

 

[Penk Wolf]

Moxey and Morgan are showing zero ambition for the club I love. I loved Wolves before they came and I will love them when they have gone.
How anyone can defend their total lack of ambition for Wolves is beyond me.

I tend agree to an extent. Generally, over the long term, clubs that spend are the ones that get promoted.

What this window has shown us is that Morgan has no intention of spending. At the start of the window, we were in a great position to push on and we've done nothing to look like we intended to. Yes, sometimes big money signings don't work, but shows ambition from the owner.

When you look at some of the other clubs have done during the window then it gives us an idea where we will be in the next 5 years or so.

Quite disappointed.

 

[Jolemai]

I tend agree to an extent. Generally, over the long term, clubs that spend are the ones that get promoted.

What this window has shown us is that Morgan has no intention of spending. At the start of the window, we were in a great position to push on and we've done nothing to look like we intended to. Yes, sometimes big money signings don't work, but shows ambition from the owner.

When you look at some of the other clubs have done during the window then it gives us an idea where we will be in the next 5 years or so.

Quite disappointed.

I'm sorry Penk but you've lost me. On one hand you want Morgan to show ambition, on the other you don't want us to be playing in the Premier League?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

What this window has shown us is that Morgan has no intention of spending. At the start of the window, we were in a great position to push on and we've done nothing to look like we intended to. Yes, sometimes big money signings don't work, but shows ambition from the owner.

When you look at some of the other clubs have done during the window then it gives us an idea where we will be in the next 5 years or so.

Whether you agree with it or not - Steve Morgan has never said he would commit any more external funding to the club beyond his initial £30m investment. That was made eight years ago and despite many ups and downs on the pitch nothing has ever changed. As such I'm not sure why anyone expects this to change now or any time in the future.

 

[Penk Wolf]

I'm sorry Penk but you've lost me. On one hand you want Morgan to show ambition, on the other you don't want us to be playing in the Premier League?

Obviously, the two are related.

 

[Penk Wolf]

Whether you agree with it or not - Steve Morgan has never said he would commit any more external funding to the club beyond his initial £30m investment. That was made eight years ago and despite many ups and downs on the pitch nothing has ever changed. As such I'm not sure why anyone expects this to change now or any time in the future.

Fair point, but eventually you'll have a team playing in an emptyish stadium and at risk of ending up dropping in and out of this league.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

The irony of course being that the vast majority of fans would love us to emulate Southampton and Swansea....who both routinely sell off their best players and replace them with low cost alternatives, the former also placing great emphasis on playing their own youth players wherever possible.

Southampton have spent 163 million in the last 5 years and recouped 142 million. Swansea have spent 80 million and recouped 66 million. Hardly buying league one bargains is it? And they do tend to replace the stras they sell pretty like for like. Southamptons promotion team of 2012 contained Lallana Lambert Schniederlin Shaw Puncheon and they were replaced with quality but not for peanuts. 10 mil Tadic 12mil Long 10 mil Forster 9 mil Pele 6 mil Gardos and 10 mil Mane are hardly low cost alternatives. I know everything is relative but we never spent anything like that when we went up , not even close. If you want to see the figures here they are http://www.transferleague.co.uk/wol...tball-teams/wolverhampton-wanderers-transfers

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Southampton have spent 163 million in the last 5 years and recouped 142 million. Swansea have spent 80 million and recouped 66 million. Hardly buying league one bargains is it? And they do tend to replace the stras they sell pretty like for like. Southamptons promotion team of 2012 contained Lallana Lambert Schniederlin Shaw Puncheon and they were replaced with quality but not for peanuts. 10 mil Tadic 12mil Long 10 mil Forster 9 mil Pele 6 mil Gardos and 10 mil Mane are hardly low cost alternatives. I know everything is relative but we never spent anything like that when we went up , not even close. If you want to see the figures here they are http://www.transferleague.co.uk/wol...tball-teams/wolverhampton-wanderers-transfers

All those Southampton deals being made on a completely different TV deal to when we were in the Premier League.

The sums spent on Fletcher, Doyle, O'Hara and Johnson were top end for bottom half PL clubs at the time. Not that this is really in any way relevant.