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MISSED OPPORTUNITIES (Transfer discussions)

Black Country Wanderer

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As it seems we cant discuss possible missed transfers on the transfer thread i thought it best to post a new thread where we can
So to kick it off
Enzo
seems he didnt want to come now but in January so i agree with club to move on as he wouldnt be PL ready till probably April
Palhinha
We dont know whats happening here just that Fulham are ready to jump in,probably as we dont know whats happening with Neves
Nunes
I find it hard to see us paying that much for him,as good as he is,but hope im wrong exactly what we want
Many more im sure,discuss
 

Black Country Wanderer

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Having the attraction of European football in Summer 2019 & only using it to get Cutrone & an on-loan Vallejo has to be up there as one of the biggest missed opportunities for me.
Although i agree,i was thinking more of this seasons transfer window tbh
 

Black Country Wanderer

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Reading Sellars comments about the South American market i wonder if Hobbs is looking at multiple targets over there,or just sipping his Pina Colada
 

wolfgar

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This is purely just me speculating, but it appears to me we thought we'd get some takers for Neves and that we'd then replace him with Palhinia and look to bring in a more expansive or dynamic midfielder e.g. Nunes or Fernandez (and whoever else appears further down the list). It looks like we aren't going to get the money we want for Neves thus we have sacked off signing Palhinia? We have however recognised that we still need that other midfielder. Unfortunately quality players such as Nunes and Fernandez tend to have some decent options and also cost a fair bit. This of course makes life rather difficult for us given that we are fairly strict with our finances and don't exactly appear to be the most ambitious club going on the surface.

I think it's great that we try and aim high with signings I really do, but I'm not convinced that many of the quality players we've been linked thus far will end up here unless we strike it a bit lucky. We've seen this before in recent seasons.

The links to Nunes/Fernandez, Barbosa and Collins suggest to me that the main areas we are hoping to strengthen are CB and CF, which I think makes sense. However we aren't going to spend money on just anybody to make up the numbers. Right now, it appears like real rock and hard place stuff from the outside looking in e.g. the players we would like are expensive and have other/better options so we have to cross our fingers a bit, and players that we can get are perhaps no better than what we already have? I don't see that there's any chance of Nunes, Barbosa or Collins ending up here personally and I do wonder how long our lists of targets stretches and what happens when its exhausted?

My guess right now is that we will bring in perhaps 2 or 3 players max depending on outgoings (we could get a good bid for someone we don't expect to leave). I imagine any signings will end up being more potential rather than real top quality. If, as it appears we can't sell Neves for what we want, I suspect we might look to shift some other saleable assets. I have a feeling that will be Traore, MGW and perhaps Sanderson? This is purely just guesswork and a bit of boredom on my part and I would be very happy to be utterly wrong.
 
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jonesy

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I think fosun are spoofers and need to be shipped out L. No interest in football side and are leaching off the brand . Self sustained bull **** when we haven’t seen any extra revenue streams they have sprouted on about for the last few years. Got rid of Laurie and Kevin and we’ve been **** ever since
 

Notsoslimshady

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I don't see how we've missed these opportunities yet. The 3 you mention haven't actually officially signed for anyone else as far as i know. It does look like the argentinian lad is off the cards, so i guess that is possibly one, but we can't drag a player here kicking and screaming. And other than media speculation we have no idea hoe genuine most of these are

Seems like another pre-emptive thread which is going to go in the same circles as others
 

Black Country Wanderer

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This is purely just me speculating, but it appears to me we thought we'd get some takers for Neves and that we'd then replace him with Palhinia and look to bring in a more expansive or dynamic midfielder e.g. Nunes or Fernandez (and whoever else appears further down the list). It looks like we aren't going to get the money we want for Neves thus we have sacked off signing Palhinia? We have however recognised that we still need that other midfielder. Unfortunately quality players such as Nunes and Fernandez tend to have some decent options and also cost a fair bit. This of course makes life rather difficult for us given that we are fairly strict with our finances and don't exactly appear to be the most ambitious club going on the surface. I think it's great that we try and aim high with signings I really do, but I'm not convinced that many of the quality players we've been linked thus far will end up here unless we strike it a bit lucky. We've seen this before in recent seasons.

The links to Nunes/Fernandez, Barbosa and Collins suggest to me the main areas we are looking to strengthen are CB and CF, which to me makes sense. However aren't going to spend money on just anybody to make up the numbers, so it appears like real rock and hard place stuff from the outside looking in e.g. the players we would like are expensive and have other/better options so we have to cross our fingers a bit, and players that we can get are perhaps no better than what we have? I don't see that there's any chance of Nunes, Barbosa or Collins ending up here personally and I do wonder how long our lists of targets are?

My guess right now is that we will bring in perhaps 2 or 3 players max depending on outgoings (we might get a bid for someone unexpected). Probably more potential than top quality. If, as it appears we can't sell Neves for what we want, I imagine we might be looking to shift some others. I have a feeling that will be Traore, MGW and perhaps Sanderson. This is purely just guesswork and a bit of boredom on my part and I would be very happy to be utterly wrong.
Agree with much of what you say
Palhinha was always Neves replacement,although i think he would be a good addition either way
I feel we are being used a bit as bait to push other teams into action on some of the links
If teams like Benfica,Inter,Roma are in the mix we dont stand a chance,or very limited chance at best
We may have to set our sights lower at more attainable targets,but nice to mentioned in these things at least
 

Black Country Wanderer

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I don't see how we've missed these opportunities yet. The 3 you mention haven't actually officially signed for anyone else as far as i know. It does look like the argentinian lad is off the cards, so i guess that is possibly one, but we can't drag a player here kicking and screaming. And other than media speculation we have no idea hoe genuine most of these are

Seems like another pre-emptive thread which is going to go in the same circles as others
Thats the point,other threads have been shut down because of exactly that
Im hoping this one can be used to discuss what you want without transgressing the title
 

Rangiora Wolf

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I think fosun are spoofers and need to be shipped out L. No interest in football side and are leaching off the brand . Self sustained bull **** when we haven’t seen any extra revenue streams they have sprouted on about for the last few years. Got rid of Laurie and Kevin and we’ve been **** ever since
Well said but as long as ST holders and loyal fans keep parting with hard earned £££, they wont sod off. Lets hope we get new owners who care about the club with deep pockets before we end up back in the champ. My concern is a buyer for the club will be as elusive as trying to bring players in
 
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Northampton_wolf

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Signings we could have made but never did,

Sanches
Wolves rejected the chance to buy new Liverpool signing Darwin Nunez a few years ago. According to reports, the midlands club passed on the Uruguayan forward in the summer of 2020 while he was still in the Spanish second division at Almeria


Not getting top 7 in 2021/22 season.
Letting Goncalves leave
Not playing vitinha
 

TF2Wolf

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My guess right now is that we will bring in perhaps 2 or 3 players max depending on outgoings
I hope you’re wrong with your guess.

The team was already showing relegation form towards the end of the season.

The squad as it stands is slightly weaker some would argue not in quality with the loss of Ruddy, Saiss, Marcel & now Hoever, but we are down on numbers. With the lack of competition for places it may mean players know they don’t have to be 100% on it every game or they are at risk of losing their place and with injuries we then would need to rely on youngsters with no experience, obviously not the best time to begin to integrate them into the 1st team.

Then there’s the playing style. It is clear the players we have can’t or won’t play to Bruno’s preferred formation/style. The rumours of players not being happy with Bruno’s attempts to change things coupled with no change to trying a back four and some of the unacceptable performances concerns me.

I seem to recall there used to be a lot of talk amongst the football community, ex-players, etc in the early Fosun days of the ambition of the club and the club had got a reputation as a good place to go to enhance their careers. That talk seems to have disappeared now and it just feels as though that special something has disappeared and we’ve become just another mid-table club. The problem is any mid-table club can easily be pulled into a relegation battle.

I fear for next season with no significant refresh by the time pre-season starts and possibly not at all how does Bruno have chance to implement his preferred style properly?

If he doesn’t then where do we go other than the continued attempts by Bruno to be pragmatic and revert to the risk adverse approach with few goals and boring style of play.

Obviously I’m hoping that Fosun do something to get the project back on track but I fear we either no longer really have a vision to sell to prospective players and/or we don’t have the quality of people in place to be able to sell the vision. I worry Fosun have become complacent and don’t think they need to do a lot to retain Premier status. I guess time will tell.
 

Black Country Wanderer

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I hope you’re wrong with your guess.

The team was already showing relegation form towards the end of the season.

The squad as it stands is slightly weaker some would argue not in quality with the loss of Ruddy, Saiss, Marcel & now Hoever, but we are down on numbers. With the lack of competition for places it may mean players know they don’t have to be 100% on it every game or they are at risk of losing their place and with injuries we then would need to rely on youngsters with no experience, obviously not the best time to begin to integrate them into the 1st team.

Then there’s the playing style. It is clear the players we have can’t or won’t play to Bruno’s preferred formation/style. The rumours of players not being happy with Bruno’s attempts to change things coupled with no change to trying a back four and some of the unacceptable performances concerns me.

I seem to recall there used to be a lot of talk amongst the football community, ex-players, etc in the early Fosun days of the ambition of the club and the club had got a reputation as a good place to go to enhance their careers. That talk seems to have disappeared now and it just feels as though that special something has disappeared and we’ve become just another mid-table club. The problem is any mid-table club can easily be pulled into a relegation battle.

I fear for next season with no significant refresh by the time pre-season starts and possibly not at all how does Bruno have chance to implement his preferred style properly?

If he doesn’t then where do we go other than the continued attempts by Bruno to be pragmatic and revert to the risk adverse approach with few goals and boring style of play.

Obviously I’m hoping that Fosun do something to get the project back on track but I fear we either no longer really have a vision to sell to prospective players and/or we don’t have the quality of people in place to be able to sell the vision. I worry Fosun have become complacent and don’t think they need to do a lot to retain Premier status. I guess time will tell.
Again i agree with your sentiments
We are in danger of becoming a bottom half of the Prem team no doubt,and maybe 2/3 quality players can address that
Like you i fear we may need more than that,with more like 4/5 players to refresh the squad
That wont happen this window,i know that,and we will be lucky to get 3 quality players in
I just wonder if as a club we have been sucked into a "make do and mend" mentality,instead of the more progressive stance we took 4 seasons back
Its all well and good being self sustainable, but not so much if we end up back in the Championship
 

Monketron

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Having the attraction of European football in Summer 2019 & only using it to get Cutrone & an on-loan Vallejo has to be up there as one of the biggest missed opportunities for me.

I agree with this somewhat, but the fact is we ended up failing UEFA's FFP that year even with those few signings. I dunno how Wolves could have worked around that without selling someone for big money which wasn't there at that time. We basically got into Europe far too quickly after overspending in our promotion year. Which I know sounds like an excuse but how else could we have done it?
 

Jefe

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Assuming Britney's source was accurate, then Ruben Dias is the ultimate missed opportunity. He is now one of the best centre halfs in world football, and undoubtedly would have catapulted us into serious Champions League contention. We could've triggered his £57m release clause, but tried to lowball it as usual and missed out. We of course went on to sign Silva and Semedo for £70m the following season, while Dias headed to City.
 

TF2Wolf

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Its all well and good being self sustainable, but not so much if we end up back in the Championship
Agree with this entirely.

In my opinion we are not ready to be self sustainable in the model of a one in one out kind of policy.

I am hoping that Fosun see the risk to the investment and speculate to accumulate.
 

Northampton_wolf

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Assuming Britney's source was accurate, then Ruben Dias is the ultimate missed opportunity. He is now one of the best centre halfs in world football, and undoubtedly would have catapulted us into serious Champions League contention. We could've triggered his £57m release clause, but tried to lowball it as usual and missed out. We of course went on to sign Silva and Semedo for £70m the following season, while Dias headed to City.
Nunez and Dias we passed on
 

Halesowen wwfc

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Signings we could have made but never did,

Sanches
Wolves rejected the chance to buy new Liverpool signing Darwin Nunez a few years ago. According to reports, the midlands club passed on the Uruguayan forward in the summer of 2020 while he was still in the Spanish second division at Almeria


Not getting top 7 in 2021/22 season.
Letting Goncalves leave
Not playing vitinha
Many sticks to hit the club with but goncalves isnt one of them
 

TheTwoPigeons

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You know your transfer window is disappointing when there's thread to talk about missed opportunities from the window and there's still 10 weeks to go.
 

Black Country Wanderer

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You know your transfer window is disappointing when there's thread to talk about missed opportunities from the window and there's still 10 weeks to go.
Not just that tbf
Other threads are being shut down because of going way off topic,just a chance this one wont be and discussions can take place without fear of being called out
Although i do agree with mods that some people are being idiots with their back and forths
 

A3wolf

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I think the attraction of the Europa league to players is massively overrated on here
I do think it is really player specific. Some will see the travel and extra games as a pain in the backside while some would like the experience playing in different countries.
 
D

Deleted member (smith)

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I think we all recognize that improving the squad is not easy for a team in the top ten but outside the big six…. Players good enough for big six or a champions league side don’t want to come to wolves. And wolves are not looking for players that will not improve the squad. A sort of catch 22. It’s definitely not as simple as agreeing a price with the selling club and with much lower revenues Wolves can’t compete on salary.
 

Stoichkov

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Barnwell targets Platini and Rudi Krol. We end up with Rafael Villazan

It's a wolves ting innit fam
 

Black Country Wanderer

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I think we all recognize that improving the squad is not easy for a team in the top ten but outside the big six…. Players good enough for big six or a champions league side don’t want to come to wolves. And wolves are not looking for players that will not improve the squad. A sort of catch 22. It’s definitely not as simple as agreeing a price with the selling club and with much lower revenues Wolves can’t compete on salary.
We are in a bit of hard place right now
Any decent player will,quite rightly,be looking at CL clubs,and unfortunately we arent near that standard
So we have to be creative and take a few chances on lesser known players,that in itself holds its own perils
Everyone was enthusing over Trincao last season and we know how that turned out,but its what we have to do really,take a punt and hope
 

TF2Wolf

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I think we all recognize that improving the squad is not easy for a team in the top ten but outside the big six…. Players good enough for big six or a champions league side don’t want to come to wolves. And wolves are not looking for players that will not improve the squad. A sort of catch 22. It’s definitely not as simple as agreeing a price with the selling club and with much lower revenues Wolves can’t compete on salary.
This is the line that’s been trotted out by the club the past few windows.

Surely part of a decent DOF role is to identify players that will improve us AND we have a good chance of signing.

Our strategy seems to be to walk into the Porsche Dealership try to lowball them in the hope the salesman has to hit his sales target.

I’ve not got a problem with this strategy as if you don’t ask you don’t get but when the salesman says no rather than moving onto a more realistic target we then try the same tactic at the Ferrari garage and then seem to wait and wait in the hope the salesman gives us a call and says you know what I’ll take your offer.

Meanwhile the Audis and the BMW’s all get bought up and we’re left with the choice of keeping what we have or buying a knackered old Vauxhall Corsa with 123,000 miles on the clock .

At the end of the window Sellars and Co tell us we tried to buy a Porsche but it’s really tough in the current market.

Rinse and repeat each window.

Ultimately it’s Fosun’s money to do with as they wish and I’m sure they will never directly admit it but the project and all the associated buzz that went with it seems to have disappeared.

We seem to be running similar to Moxey/Morgan years just in a higher league.

Anyway regardless I’ll be there at the start of the season cheering on the team whoever the players may be and Fosun know there’s many of us that will make the financial sacrifices and do the same. UTW
 

Stratman Wolves

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Having the attraction of European football in Summer 2019 & only using it to get Cutrone & an on-loan Vallejo has to be up there as one of the biggest missed opportunities for me.
This was the first window where things seemed to get weird and not-as-they-seem. The perfect opportunity to push on, add one or two new bodies for the first team and they just swung and miss entirely.
 

SteveBullsKnee

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Well said but as long as ST holders and loyal fans keep parting with hard earned £££, they wont sod off. Lets hope we get new owners who care about the club with deep pockets before we end up back in the champ. My concern is a buyer for the club will be as elusive as trying to bring players in
The money earnt from fans is a tiny percentage of the income received.

How does having an owner with deep pockets equate to caring about the club?

Finding a buyer for the club wouldn’t be elusive in the slightest. If Fosun wanted to sell they could tie it off in months
 

Axle

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What I find hard to understand is that may people highlight that we don't have European football to offer and yet in the first season in the Prem we were signing seasoned, proven internationals and probably the most exciting talent outside of the PL (Traore).

Not only that, but we did some exceptionally creative business with Afobe and then recruited strikers who were unproven, but worked together (Jota, Raul).

We're now an established club, with good potential and have shown to have a pathway to bigger clubs.

This can't just be the selling of the 'project'. We're arguably in a better position than three years ago, but the carousel doesn't seem to be turning in the same way.

It baffles me really and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
 

Stratman Wolves

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What I find hard to understand is that may people highlight that we don't have European football to offer and yet in the first season in the Prem we were signing seasoned, proven internationals and probably the most exciting talent outside of the PL (Traore).

Not only that, but we did some exceptionally creative business with Afobe and then recruited strikers who were unproven, but worked together (Jota, Raul).

We're now an established club, with good potential and have shown to have a pathway to bigger clubs.

This can't just be the selling of the 'project'. We're arguably in a better position than three years ago, but the carousel doesn't seem to be turning in the same way.

It baffles me really and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Because the project was a meme. It no longer exists. It may have existed with Nuno and before covid, but something has changed. The project is what it was, if it ever really "was".
 

Sussex Wolf

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What I find hard to understand is that may people highlight that we don't have European football to offer and yet in the first season in the Prem we were signing seasoned, proven internationals and probably the most exciting talent outside of the PL (Traore).

Not only that, but we did some exceptionally creative business with Afobe and then recruited strikers who were unproven, but worked together (Jota, Raul).

We're now an established club, with good potential and have shown to have a pathway to bigger clubs.

This can't just be the selling of the 'project'. We're arguably in a better position than three years ago, but the carousel doesn't seem to be turning in the same way.

It baffles me really and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Hence my thread on Mendes.
 

old wittonian

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It seems to me that Shi and Sellars must realise that the fans are frustrated and need appeasing.
Perhaps a simple statement to the effect that we are working on targets and expect announcements soon.
Maybe that would be considered more of the usual bull****.
 
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