Wardinho

[WalsallWolf]

We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. Most people are basing their reasoning on either the money that he's on or that we should have better players than him. On the first point, it's not his fault that as a result of his long service, that he got improved contracts. On the second, well we signed him when we were in the Championship and I don't think anyone could argue that he is a definitely all-round better player than when we signed him. Given our position, I don't think there is a better utility player outside of the Premier League. However, it's my understanding that he was asked if he would reduce his terms, which he politely refused, then he was an outcast. Which I think is a little unfair (see point 1)

He had become stale for me timber. He is a good, hardworking Championship player (i reiterate i am truly perplexed Mick hasnt signed him) but on this occasion it was time for him to move on. I also imagine over the last 2 years a player of his quality probably didnt justify his wage and he certainly wouldnt have justified it in League 1 and I cant imagine a player of his age would have wanted to play in League One either.. I wish him all the best.

 

[Mugwump]

I was thinking of other teams not us

Ah, fair enough.

 

[Mugwump]

Doesn't matter though, does it?
As long as they're paying some part of their wages and aren't rotting in the reserves. If they perform, the interest from clubs will come.

If they're rotting in the reserves, we're still paying their wages, so let's hope someone else takes Johnson and O'Hara.

I kind of agree, but if he plays rubbish he comes back, nobody wants him and we are back to square one. I would let him go for 200k or so even though he is worth more IMO just to get him off the books. Same with RJ and JOH. We just need them gone. I think it's more important to shed the wages rather than getting big fees for them.

 

[SanFranWolf]

All the best Wardy.

 

[kapitiwolf]

Good luck Wardy best wishes for the season.

 

[k-dog]

If we are still paying part of the wage of these players we're loaning out, then I don't wish them luck at all. Leeches

 

[Edgmond Wolf]

Good luck Wardy, thanks for your efforts in the Old Gold and Black shirt.

Good move for both club and player

 

[welshy]

Close that door on the way out Wardy boy.

Your lack of effort under Solbakken undone all of your 100% efforts for McCarthy, same applies for Foley.

 

[North West Wanderer]

Calls fans numpties who slag Ward off on here yet he is the one who is always slagging off the signings Solbakken made including Sako most recently.
Pot, kettle, black?!

Bar Sako he's right?

 

[thewiseone]

Close that door on the way out Wardy boy.

Your lack of effort under Solbakken undone all of your 100% efforts for McCarthy, same applies for Foley.

Spot on :congrats:

 

[Dewsburywolf]

Good luck Wardy, always gave 100% (which posters said was what they wanted ALL our players to give) & not his fault to he got "crow-barred into the team" at the (alleged) expense of others more talented

 

[Deleted member 4099]

Good luck Wardy. Great servant. Good move right for both parties.

 

[Tring Wolf]

There's lots of talk about Wardy's effort (which is spot on) but I also think he is a much better footballer than many give him credit for. I can't think of many players who could do a decent job as a striker, 'number 10', left-back and left-winger (I'll ignore the central midfield experiment).

As others have said, we really should have upgraded on him when we had the chance but he has been an excellent signing and servant to the Club. Hope he does well at Brighton.

 

[Poztin]

The sort of utility player who every manager loves.

A better footballer than many give credit for and a great servant to the club.

All the best Wardy.

 

[Poztin]

Oh and I'm yet to see anything from Ricketts (a career fullback, and supposedly a cracking one) to convince me that he's any better than Ward.

Think that highlights how unjustified some of the criticism was.

 

[Mugwump]

There's lots of talk about Wardy's effort (which is spot on) but I also think he is a much better footballer than many give him credit for. I can't think of many players who could do a decent job as a striker, 'number 10', left-back and left-winger (I'll ignore the central midfield experiment).

As others have said, we really should have upgraded on him when we had the chance but he has been an excellent signing and servant to the Club. Hope he does well at Brighton.

I agree with that. I think he is a very clever footballer. His biggest problem for me is that he was shoe horned into left back when we had nobody else and for some bizarre reason we left him there when it was plainly obvious his defending was suspect. I would have kept him and played him up front this season tbh.

 

[rincewind]

Oh and I'm yet to see anything from Ricketts (a career fullback, and supposedly a cracking one) to convince me that he's any better than Ward.

Think that highlights how unjustified some of the criticism was.

Based on 2 competitive games where Ricketts has done quite well.
Though I agree Ward was one of the players unjustly criticised.

 

[cooper_J]

The sort of utility player who every manager loves.

A better footballer than many give credit for and a great servant to the club.

All the best Wardy.

Agree with this also.

 

[Sussex Wolf]

Good luck Ward. Always committed, and should do well at Brighton.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Dewsburywolf]

Oh and I'm yet to see anything from Ricketts (a career fullback, and supposedly a cracking one) to convince me that he's any better than Ward.

Think that highlights how unjustified some of the criticism was.

To be fair I thought early on against Gillingham he was our worst defender which, considering he's captain & easily our most experienced player, I found a bit disconcerting

 

[JR's Boots]

We look a much better side without Henry and Ward in it but good luck to the pair of them. Ward ended up being a left back who couldn't defend.

Onwards and upwards.

 

[DejaVuWolf]

The good thing about these loan deals is we can bring all these players back into the fold next season for our assault on the Premier League.

 

[Dewsburywolf]

We look a much better side without Henry and Ward in it but good luck to the pair of them. Ward ended up being a left back who couldn't defend.

If you mean backing off until he was almost in Asda's car park I noticed Ricketts doing quite a lot of this against Gillingham. It's easy to criticise but knowing exactly when to put a challenge in isn't always as easy as some might think. It's only a week since everyone was praising Waggy for being able to "drop a shoulder & skin his full-back" being a full-back today won't necessarily be much different to those days

 

[Saltyjim]

Good luck to Wardy, hope he has a great season.

 

[andyc225]

The good thing about these loan deals is we can bring all these players back into the fold next season for our assault on the Premier League.

Bring them back into the fold...

 

[Mutchy]

Be interesting to see how Ward does. I wish him well.

 

[WV10Wolf]

Oh and I'm yet to see anything from Ricketts (a career fullback, and supposedly a cracking one) to convince me that he's any better than Ward.

Think that highlights how unjustified some of the criticism was.

Really? Saturday was the first time since the days of Mark Venus where I haven't wanted to lambast our left back.

 

[andyc225]

I can't wait until they see his abilities first hand against the Bloos (where he'll no doubt get stick). His ability to backpedal at speed is a marvel to behold.

 

[OLDGOLD]

Good luck wardy. Fantastic player and massively underrated. That goal at anfield will stay with me forever.

Thanks for the memories ( Ignore the numpties).

One swallow does not a summer make........

 

[JR's Boots]

If you mean backing off until he was almost in Asda's car park I noticed Ricketts doing quite a lot of this against Gillingham. It's easy to criticise but knowing exactly when to put a challenge in isn't always as easy as some might think. It's only a week since everyone was praising Waggy for being able to "drop a shoulder & skin his full-back" being a full-back today won't necessarily be much different to those days

It was more than that Jim. His positioning was awful and he played most of his time as a wing back in a flat back four. Instinctively he wants to get forward and he would get caught in no mans land between defence and attack.

Most of our opposition would quickly work out that we were weak on our left, especially with the nightmare pairing of Ward and Berra. I remember Nan taking about a minute to exploit our failings on our left as he waltzed in to score.

I appreciate that we are in league 1, but it's no accident that we've not conceded a goal with a proper left back playing in position.

 

[mikic]

It was more than that Jim. His positioning was awful and he played most of his time as a wing back in a flat back four. Instinctively he wants to get forward and he would get caught in no mans land between defence and attack.

Most of our opposition would quickly work out that we were weak on our left, especially with the nightmare pairing of Ward and Berra. I remember Nan taking about a minute to exploit our failings on our left as he waltzed in to score.

I appreciate that we are in league 1, but it's no accident that we've not conceded a goal with a proper left back playing in position.

Have to agree with this. Ricketts positional play defensively is far superior to ward's

 

[paddy]

The good thing about these loan deals is we can bring all these players back into the fold next season for our assault on the Premier League.

that is one dejavu we can do without

move out - move on

 

[wolvesjoe]

A little surprised that no-one is wondering why Ward has been outcast from the squad when left sided players are in short supply, and when his wages cannot be amongst the highest in the squad.

Could it possibly be that he, along with Henry, were seen as the disruptive element in the dressing room?

 

[Bill McCai]

Yes I'm amazed forward thinking Brighton have signed him. They will be asking renowned trouble maker Craddock to come out if retirement before long. The listing if the four was a PR win. Doyle, De Vries, Hammill, Sako, Doumbia, Boukari were/are all available, but there is no PR mileage in publicising it.

 

[Big Mack]

A little surprised that no-one is wondering why Ward has been outcast from the squad when left sided players are in short supply, and when his wages cannot be amongst the highest in the squad.

Could it possibly be that he, along with Henry, were seen as the disruptive element in the dressing room?

Crossed my mind too. It'll be interesting to hear what really went on in dressing room over the past two seasons.

 

[blaenboy]

There's lots of talk about Wardy's effort (which is spot on) but I also think he is a much better footballer than many give him credit for. I can't think of many players who could do a decent job as a striker, 'number 10', left-back and left-winger (I'll ignore the central midfield experiment).

/QUOTE]

Ward is a good footballer who is much underrated by many fans who love to have a common moan where they can all feel part of a pack. His ball playing was not recognised enough, just a moan when he played it long- which every defender does for safety at times. As already remarked he had a great understanding with Jarvis and their work together was really important to us in our promotion year and early in the Premiership. Not as good at defending as going forward, but every player has different aspects to their game. I wish him well. He gave good service. I am not sure about the criticism of the Solbakken time: I don't think any player knew what he was doing under SS, since he didn't know himself what he was doing.Good luck Stephen

 

[Keano17]

This is a classic example of a players stock rising when he is not in the team (see flethcher at Man Utd).

Ward was a liability at left back. I'm not a believer in this "he's a good lad, he gave 100% every game". He had long enough to get the basics right (not backing off, correct positioning, improved first touch). He failed to do all that. The man was on close to £18k a week and isn't worth the money.

Good riddance.

 

[wolvesjoe]

Yes I'm amazed forward thinking Brighton have signed him. They will be asking renowned trouble maker Craddock to come out if retirement before long. The listing if the four was a PR win. Doyle, De Vries, Hammill, Sako, Doumbia, Boukari were/are all available, but there is no PR mileage in publicising it.

Strange isnt it that all of those players, (apart from Hammill who went early on), have all been allowed to train with the squad and not kept apart. Must just be cynical PR on the behalf of the club, and nothing to do with rebuilding the spirit of unity and cohesion valued so highly by Jackett. In reality, Ward and Henry both became far too big for their boots, and Ohara and Johnson already were. There is no place at Jackett's Wolves for players who have lost their professionalism, and a good job too.

 

[North West Wanderer]

Ward will be on £10k absolute minimum. If not more.

 

[loopy lupine]

A little surprised that no-one is wondering why Ward has been outcast from the squad when left sided players are in short supply, and when his wages cannot be amongst the highest in the squad.

Could it possibly be that he, along with Henry, were seen as the disruptive element in the dressing room?

I agree with this... everyone was surprised at Ward's inclusion in the "outcasts" but we're not privy to the dressing room. KJ must have had a reason to remove him from the first team.