Love it or hate it, from a fan’s perspective, the January transfer window often gives us the quixotic hope that a faltering season can be turned around with the magic wave of a Chairman’s cheque book.
Stoke’s survival last season was aided massively by the acquisition in the winter transfer window of James Beattie, a player now looking destined for Fulham and not Wolves, mores the pity.
And I’m sorry, but I find it hard to get over-excited when the news filtered through yesterday that we had signed Geoffrey Mujangi Bia, apparently another You Tube sensation.
I’m not the greatest of footballers, but edit a couple of my goals and runs together and stick it on the web and I’d probably look a world beater!
We need something to start the Wolves engine motoring again. We need an Adam Johnson, a Stephen Hunt or a Jamie O’Hara. We need a big name signing for the fans to believe that this season isn’t going to end in disaster.
I’ve said it before and I’m going to bore you all and say it again; I am sick and tired of everybody saying that there will be three worse teams than us at the end of the season and we will therefore survive relegation by default.
Ok, if that’s the case, lets look at the evidence; Portsmouth are on the edge of the abyss, Burnley now have Brian Laws in charge, Hull need to offload players to balance the books, Sunderland are on the slide, Notlob and Blackburn have looked awful and on it goes.
But I don’t want to rely on other three other teams being a little bit less rubbish than we are and I’m sure you don’t either.
Mick bought poorly in the summer. He brought in mainly Championship level players to make up the numbers and it’s a gamble that clearly hasn’t worked.
Arguably, only three of those signings; Marcus Hahnemann, Kevin Doyle and Nenad Milijas have made any difference to what we already had at the club.
Just why didn’t Mick spend the six odd million quid he has wasted on Andrew Surman, Stefan Maierhofer and Greg Halford on one quality centre back, winger or striker?
Ok, I accept that attracting the big name players to a newly promoted side is always going to be tricky, especially with the wage structure we have in place, but I’d rather give a player a bit of extra dough than line the pockets of those football agent vermin.
Mick can’t do a thing about the mistakes of the summer but he does have a chance to bring in players who are going to make a significant difference for the 2nd half of our season.
Mujangi Bia could well prove to be a success, but history shows that signing unproven players in a winter transfer window rarely pays dividends.
Proven Premiership quality may not come cheap, but there is a fundamental reason for that, the clue is in those first three words.
When I met Jez Moxey last week, he was quick to point out how this club is financially sound and debt free. All well and good and yes I’m glad we are not in the economic mess that Portsmouth, West Ham and Hull find themselves in.
But what would you tell your Grandkids about our latest Premiership adventure? “Well little Johnny, we may have finished that season relegated, but I tell you what, the books balanced and we made a profit from the hotdogs”. Unless the kid is an aspiring accountant, I can’t imagine they’ll be overly excited.
C’mon Mr Morgan, you said yourself that we are not just here to make up the numbers, well now is the time to prove it. If our next signing is Daryl Murphy from Sunderland and not a quality signing of intent and purpose, then we may as well give up now.
Just what is this club’s ambition this season?
Moving on and let’s not bother talking about the Wigan game, it really was abysmal.
Instead let’s focus on the upcoming back-to back games at the Molineux, starting with Crystal Palace in the cup at the weekend and a welcome distraction to the toils of the relegation battle.
It’s nearly 15 years ago since we played the Eagles in the sixth round of the FA Cup when they absolutely battered us in a replay at Molineux. We lost 4-1 that day to a Palace side who were then in the Premiership and if you get a chance, the last two goals are belters and well worth revisiting on You Tube.
Now the roles are reversed with Wolves in the top flight and Palace just outside the play-off places in the Championship. But I think Neil Warnock will have them fired up against a Wolves team low on confidence on the back of a trio of recent league defeats.
Darren Ambrose will be dangerous, but Palace’s biggest threat is likely to come from wonder kid Victor Moses who has been linked with a big money move with just about all of the top Premiership clubs as well as Real Madrid.
Mick has already stated his intent and said that he will play his strongest side. So hopefully we won’t see the likes of Elokobi, Surman, Hill or Maierhofer and therefore we should have a really good chance of being in the hat for the fifth round.
I’m sure that Hennessey will come in and I would give Doyle a spot on the bench with Liverpool in mind. But please Mick, no more Foley in midfield, round pegs and square holes and all that?
After that appalling miss against Wigan, I’m sure Ebanks will be eager to prove a point in this game. But with 19 unsuccessful shots on goal this season and just one goal from the spot, I do think that he has had his last chance to prove he can cut it in the Premiership.
There is no room for sentimentality, especially at this level of football, sorry SEB.
I think the equation is simple; Ebanks replacement needs to be a target man of proven quality, not a donkey like Kevin Kyle or a Maierhofer who looks alarmingly out of his depth, maybe then we can believe that we have a fighting chance of survival.
Of course, a win against Palace will be a welcome boost to morale, but I’d exit the cup if it meant we picked up three points against Rafa’s Liverpool on Tuesday night.
Facing Liverpool under the floodlights next week is why we love playing at this level of football. They are a beatable side, as was nearly shown when we played them on Boxing Day, but even without Gerrard and Torres they still have enough talent to give us a very difficult game.
Enjoy the cup game and the rest of your weekend.
UTW!
@Wolvesblogger 