Wolves News

[Ray@Wolves]

Wolves News

Wolverhampton Wanderers are delighted to announce the signing of 19 year old attacking midfielder Chaka Traore who comes to us as part of the newly introduced League wide scout initiative. Rumours are circulating around Molineux that this exciting young player from Cote D’Ivoire is likely to be given plenty of game time during the up coming season to ensure he develops as he should and meets his undoubted potential.

The powers that be within Molineux are hopeful that this new scout initiative will be repeated going forward as this does appear to be a great way to introduce new young players into the game, certainly as far as most of the 2^nd Tier sides are concerned anyway.

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[Ray@Wolves]

Wolves News

Wolverhampton Wanderers are pleased to announce the development of the ground in a move that will see the existing 55,000 seat capacity at Molineux increased to 65,000 which will be ready for the new Championship season opening home game against Nottingham Forest. This should help to offset the difficult financial situation the club found itself in last season due to the fine balancing act between outgoings and income. It has long been an issue for the communities in the Black Country that demand has far outstripped supply in the rush for tickets to each game, so this announcement will not only please the supporter groups who have been campaigning for an increase in capacity for some time but will also provide additional much needed income for the club.

In other news there looks like there is going to be a major investment into the youth academy here at Molineux as the club looks to bring in a coach, on a three season contract and a scout on a five season contract. This will ensure the medium term future of the youth academy with a steady influx of new scouted talent and a more intensive training and development regime that we know the new coach will instil. This move demonstrates the relentless pursuit required by the manager of bringing in and developing youth talent that will hopefully form the mainstay of the first team in the seasons to come and that the future of this club is ensured going forward.

At a news conference held earlier today at Molineux, long time Wolves manager Ray Wallace announced that he has made newly signed 19 year old midfield Cote D’Ivoire prodigy Chaka Traore the clubs new captain. This is very much viewed as a bold move from the experienced manager who was thought to be looking towards keeper Aaron Ramsdale as the obvious choice for captain for the season opener. However, this move reinforces the managers well known long held belief in youth talent. He is quoted as saying “I know there will be an undercurrent outside the club thinking what am I doing on this appointment, but the truth is this lad has come into training and looked confident from the word go. His fellow players have embraced him straight away and he’s looking to lead at every opportunity despite his tender years. I have no doubt he will prove to be a very good captain for this team and will no doubt go on to bigger and better things as his overall game evolves and grows”.

In addition to the unveiling of young Chaka Traore as the new captain, the club have also advised local news outlets that they are looking to bring in another two new young players this time to join the youth academy. Initial glowing scouting reports have been received detailing a pair of young players that the academy is very keen to bring in. One is thought to be a central defender, whilst the other a midfielder. No other details are available at this time as negotiations are still at a very early stage with both the players, their families and their representatives. These two potential newcomers are expected to be a great addition to the existing seven youngsters already in the youth academy. With three first team players looking to finally hang up their boots at the end of the forthcoming season, there is the added incentive for all these young players as they try to impress over the coming months to try to graduate from the youth academy and secure a first team place once these three veteran players retire.

Breaking news has emerged from Molineux concerning the future of veteran attacking midfielder 29 year old Alex Mowatt. After a couple of solid seasons for the club, including a couple of seasons in the Premiership, the popular Doncaster lad Mowatt has decided to move on after an undisclosed bid from new Everton caretaker manager Mike Bridge was received and accepted. Manager Ray Wallace said “We’ll be sad to see Alex go, but he had the opportunity to get straight back into the Prem so he rightly took it . He’s well liked on the terraces for his determined and committed style of play. He’s certainly been a mainstay of our midfield since he joined from Middlesbrough, and I can only commend him for the leadership and tenacity he has shown both on and off the pitch while he’s been with us. He will be sorely missed here and, based on his performances for us, I know he will be a great addition to the Everton squad. Our best wishes for the future go with him”.

With the departure of Alex Mowatt on to pastures new, there is now a gap in the first team squad that will need to be filled before the start of the new season. Further news on this is expected soon.

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[Ray@Wolves]

Wolves News

As we near the half way point in the season, things are looking grim in the black country as Wolves lose yet again in a season that is looking less and less like being a success and with a team that is looking more and more fractured as each game passes.

After a valiant effort last season to stay up in the Premiership that proved to be ultimately fruitless, the club and fans had rightly gone into this new season in the Championship with high hopes for a strong set of performances that could take the side back up to the top flight at the first attempt. However, those hopes have proved quite empty and fanciful so far, and the fan base in particular are now voicing their displeasure before, during and after the games. Manager Ray Wallace had said only two weeks ago that this sort of behaviour from what was originally a small section of supporters wasn’t helping the players on the field and what they needed was the support of the fans in getting behind the players, particularly at home, to get through this sticky patch. The fans seem to be not buying into this as they see the players, coaching staff and management become increasingly distant with one another both on the training pitch and during matches.

The general air of despondency about the club is a great worry not helped with conflicting reports emerging via a “friend of a friend” type comments currently proliferating on social media. A lot of this seems to centre on the perceived ineptitude of the long standing manager in setting the team up in a positive manner prior to each game and making coherent changes through the game. The wisdom of the sale of experienced midfielder Alex Mowatt to fund the Academy improvements and to make room for 19 year old Chaka Traore in the first team is another topic of discussion on the social media boards. This leads into the managers choice in captain which also seems to have become a bone of contention for supporters and caused an apparent rift in the dressing room, with the more senior players questioning a decision that they feel is more based on pleasing the board, shareholders and sponsors rather than in being a purely footballing decision. There also seems to be much online attributed to the Championship’s leading goal scorer Nicolas Jackson who is alleged to be at odds with some of his team mates over, what he sees as their apparent lacklustre efforts. The body language between certain players over the past couple of weeks on the training pitch and field of play attests to the reality of this. It is also rumoured that Jackson was far from happy with the decision to sanction the transfer of strike partner Gabriel Veron to Sheffield Wednesday. There is also a feeling that the club as a whole are prioritising their efforts into the Academy at the expense of the here and now with the first team.

With this sort of backdrop young striker Joao Pedro must be wondering what he has walked into. Certainly, until this dark cloud has been dispelled from above Molineux it is unlikely many quality players would wish to transfer into this mess. Although from the rumours, quite a few incumbents would jump at the chance of a transfer away at the present time.

Things do appear to be reaching breaking point. After a supporters group demonstration prior to the home game against Brighton and reiterated loudly after the game which saw the home side lose yet again, the Wolves board hastily convened a meeting in the bowels of Molineux to discuss all the ongoing issues both on the field and off it and try to find a way to resolve some, if not all, of their problems. There is clearly a disgruntlement spreading amongst the support base with the apparent level of commitment being shown by both players and management. There have also been rumours of player unrest to compound this. So, in this climate of supporter displeasure, potential player revolt and extremely poor results will the board intervene and make changes? Will the manager be made the scapegoat? Although in many eyes he is the problem and not innocent in arriving at this sorry point in the club’s history. Could it be that Ray Wallace himself has lost his enthusiasm, will pre-empt a decision from the board and fall on his sword before he’s pushed? Or like most managers before him, wait to be pushed out and count his payoff all the way to the bank? From the outside it does seems more and more likely that the only thing that can save the manager after his long tenure is the intervention of the mythical FFO gods with the gift of a massive turn around in the fortunes of the team that play in gold and black.

Only time will tell good reader….……

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[Ray@Wolves]

Wolves Press Conference

With Wolves looking to get their season back on track after two losses and two draws from the last four games. Talk around the clubs’ supporters has inevitably centred on what is going wrong, what the plans might be for the coming close season and how that will impact on the new season. With this backdrop the Wolves manager Ray Wallace faced the press.

Your team seems to have hit a bit of a road block in their title aspirations, what do you put this down to and why do you think this is happening at the same point that it did in the first half of the season?
Yes, I can’t deny it’s not looking good at the moment. We’d done really well to force our way back into contention with a series of wins, but for some reason things haven’t gone our way lately and we’ve drifted off the pace at just the wrong point in the season with little time left to rectify it. We are playing well, but suspensions and injuries haven’t helped us. The luck of the ESMS gods seems to have well and truly deserted us lately. If I could tell you what’s going wrong I’d tell you and trust me I’d rectify it, but for the life in me I really don’t know what more we can do. The lads are training well through the week and yes, this run hasn’t helped morale, but there isn’t a single player dragging their feet with their head down. The players all want to turn this around as much as me and the staff. We just need that little spark to get ourselves back on track. We even have a final to look forward to so there is everything to play for over the few remaining games of the season.

Do you feel you may be hampered by suspensions over the next few games?
Unfortunately, I have to say yes to that. We have a number of players on the cusp of a suspension, in fact four players are right on the edge. Pascal Struijk is in the worst position facing a potential three game ban. It’s something we will try to manage as best we can, but we could get a raft of yellow cards brandished early in the next game or we might get lucky and not see another Wolves player booked until next season.

Despite the problems in the league, the team have looked unstoppable so far in the Football League Trophy. What’s the feeling in the camp on the club reaching their first ever final?
As you can imagine it is an awesome feeling. No matter what level your playing at, being in the final of any cup competition is amazing. When it gets to the day, we just have to hope everyone is fit and healthy and all play to the best of their abilities. The worst thing is that one or two players choke on the big occasion. But they have to realise that these opportunities don’t come along very often so they need to just get out and enjoy it and hopefully the result we want will come.

Away from the senior team, do you feel the Academy has been a success?
Yes, I do. I’m still very enthusiastic about the future of the Academy and we definitely plan to keep investing in the project for the foreseeable future. We can clearly see some significant improvement in our players and I think the input this season from our senior coach Rafael Baptista has been invaluable.

What are the plans concerning the Academy?
As you know we brought Rafael in last season as our senior coach and we are actively looking at applicants for a second Senior Coach with a more defensive mind set to bolster what we want to achieve with our training regime. We are also contemplating bringing in another scout, but that will very much depend on what our finances look like at the end of the season. We are certainly going to try to bring in two more young players and we are actively searching for potential prospects as we speak.

We have three senior squad players that will retire at the end of this season, and they will need to be replaced to keep us within the league rules on squad size before next season kicks off. With this in mind it’s looking likely that we are going to promote at least two of our Academy players to help cover this gap in the squad. Italian striker Claudio Bellucci will definitely be one of those to move up to the senior squad and back up our strike pair of Nicolas Jackson and Joao Pedro. At this early stage 19 year old attacking midfielder Jack Wilshere is also being evaluated and is also under consideration for promotion to the senior squad.

We can also confirm that Thiago Silva will be promoted to the senior squad and loaned out to Millwall, where he will get full game time to further his excellent progress so far amongst the exciting young side that Gary Windebank has put together at The Den.

What are your plans concerning the senior squad?
Well as I mentioned before we have three veteran players in defender Daniel Pappoe and strikers Rafael Matos and Chris Martin retiring at the end of this season. So money will have to be found to plug that gap in the squad and players promoted from the Academy as we just discussed.

At this early stage it is anticipated that the main bulk of the squad and the first team players in particular will remain the same whether we achieve promotion or remain in the Championship. However, there have been rumours that I wish to address concerning our back up keeper the Dutchman Joel Drommel. There have been issues surrounding his training ground behaviour of late and we are addressing that internally. I am also aware that he has posted on social media his desire to move on to pastures new. I have not had this discussion with him yet but suffice to say we do have 19 year old Italian keeper Steffano Sorrentino waiting in the wings at the Academy ready to be promoted to the senior squad should Drommel decide to hang up his Wolves shirt and move on.

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[Ray@Wolves]

Wolves News

Senior Team News:

It has been confirmed that Wolves have agreed a deal with Norwich City’s new boss Jon Banks to bring 23 year old English defender Sam McCallum to Molineux at the end of this season. It is expected that McCallum will give that extra boost to the defensive depth at the club and be the extra player to make up the squad numbers to the League required 23.

Off the back of this signing, it has also been confirmed by the Senior Coach at the Wolves Academy Rafael Baptista that three of the Academy players will join the senior squad next season. Italian keeper Steffano Sorrentino will take up the mantle of back up to Aaron Ramsdale now that it has been mutually agreed that current back up keeper Joel Drommel will move to pastures new. English attacking midfielder Jack Wilshere and Italian striker Claudio Bellucci are also set to join up with the senior squad for next season.

Academy News:

With four players being promoted to the seniors it will leave five current youngsters still within the academy environment, but Baptista also confirmed that two new young players have been identified to join Wolves Academy for next season. Baptista said “With the moving on of Sorrentino into the senior squad, one will definitely be a young keeper and the second is going to be a striker. That will leave the Academy with the new keeper, two defenders in Paulo Maldini and Fredrik Stoor, two midfielders in Patrick Viera and Daniele Conti and two strikers in Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the new youngster.”

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