Next chapter in the Wolves era brings hope

Football FanCast columnist Adam Thompson takes a look back at the breaking football news of the past week.
 
It was certainly a productive week up at the Molineux last week. Tuesday morning Kevin Doyle is unveiled as wolves' record signing 6.5 Million smashing the former record of 3million. The Irish International's signature was more than a record it was statement of intent. Next in is 1 million pound Andrew Surman a player who has been consistently touted for Premiership football. A surprise acquisition arrived on Thursday with Wolves beating Sheffield United to signing of jack of all trades Greg Halford. Then on Saturday Wolves bolstered their defence once more with Ronald Zubar completing his transfer from Marseille for 2.5 million, not to mention Nenad Milijas who's work permit application was accepted after weeks of doubt.

With Wolves fans prior to last week's merry-go-round starting to grumble at their lack of transfer activity, 4 signings in 6 days put pay to all that.

What struck me as most impressive from all these welcome additions was the speed in which wolves began negotiations. While they left the fans sweating on if this would be like the summer of 2003 where 5 million was spent on players (2 of that on Henri Camara) to beat the relegation trap door, Wolves wasted no time particularly with Doyle and Halford with both players being contacted the day after the conclusion of their respective clubs seasons. Add this to Surman who was tracked for 3 years and Ronald Zubar for 5, it certainly brings comfort as a fan that Wolves (in particular Mick McCarthy, Jez Moxey and Steve Morgan) have a plan for the club and promising ones at that.

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"He won't be welcome back round here!" read one Liverpool fan's comment on the shock news Michael Owen has joined their bitter rivals Manchester United on a free transfer. "He's no loyalty, I hope Anfield lets him know that next season" read another. My question to those fans. Why? Michael Owen showed Liverpool more than enough loyalty during his time at Anfield and if memory serves me right single handed won the F.A cup against Arsenal for you once upon a time. Then the new manager , Rafa Benitez didn't fancy him so flogged him to Real Madrid who were the biggest club in the world at the time, they didn't fancy him either so he held out for Liverpool to buy him back but for sake of his family's desire to move back to England. The only club who would put the cash up was Newcastle and Owen joined them instead. Newcastle get relegated, Michael Owen is on a free for Liverpool to sign him. But despite them expressing their desire of fire power and someone to play off Torres and Gerrard and the fact they would have picked up a player they sold 4 years ago for £8million for nothing and a player who was willing to radically drop his wages to speed up the transfer, they instead let him go to their title rivals. No loyalty? What's a player and his brochure to do.

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Talking about no loyalty. Congratulations to Cristiano Ronaldo who was true to his Mommy's word when he completed his transfer from Manchester to Madrid. 80'000 Madrid fans turned up to welcome Ronaldo who will wear Real's number 9 next season. The £80 million signing who often claims he's the best player in the world has been quick to state he's worth his transfer fee and will justify the price tag. As my old man says ‘The higher the pedestal you put yourself on top of the bigger the fall' for Ron's sake let's hope that a fall isn't cushioned by white hankies.

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Latest headline from the Wolves page on skysports.com ‘Craddock:I nearly quit Wolves.' Unfortunately for Sky sports this ‘scoop' that captain Jody Craddock nearly left for Australian side Perth Glory earlier this year, has been circulating around local media outlets since the end of March. I was very disappointed not to find a preview for our upcoming game against Birmingham and there were no references at all to Barrack Obama's impending visit to Britain for the G20 summit. Oh well least there's Easter to look forward to.
 

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