Wolves Fans' Verdict: Analysing the summer transfer window and Wolves' light squad

Amid frustration over failing to sign a midfielder late in the window, our Wolves fans have their say on a summer in which Wolves brought in six fresh faces.

Harry Lee

It would have been common knowledge within the club that there would be several high-profile departures at Wolves in this transfer window.  

With Cunha’s release clause, Ait-Nouri expressing a desire to move on and Semedo’s contract ending, it also meant that it was a fantastic opportunity to reshape the squad with huge wages coming off the books along with some hefty transfer fees in. Vitor Pereira has been allowed to bring in more coaching staff, and more importantly, his own ‘Director of Professional Football’ in Domenico Teti who would have a large say and influence in transfer dealings.  

But despite all of this, Wolves have ended up in the same situation as we have for the past few years, incredibly short of ambition and devoid of real quality in the squad. You have to say that the transfer window has been a relative disaster, Teti and the wider recruitment team have failed us.

The squad is worryingly lopsided, with room for six centre backs and five wing-backs yet not one player in the forward position with any real pace or one-on-one winning ability. In this formation which Periera wants to set up in, the wing-backs are potentially the most important players on the pitch, in losing Semedo’s defensive qualities and Ait-Nouri’s on the ball ability, both £30m+ players, we have somehow concluded that spending roughly £10m each on their replacements would be sufficient, yet £26m+ for what could be a backup centre-back in Krejci apparently makes sense?  

Of those five wing-backs we do not have a standout, for all of R.Gomes’ endeavour he does not seem to be favoured, Wolfe and Bueno have had nearly equal game time now which suggests Pereira is as unsure as I am. On the right side Tchatchoua could well prove a useful weapon being the one member of the squad who offers raw pace, but his lack of technical ability is apparent, albeit workable.

Replacing the output of Cunha and Ait-Nouri with 32 goals and assists between them in the league alone last season would always be tough. Near impossible to the same extent under our ‘restrictions’ on maximum transfer fees and wages we are willing to pay.  

Arias felt like a good signing, especially given the Club World Cup, however he will clearly take time to settle in as did Andre, J.Gomes etc. This is time Wolves simply do not have the luxury of. Fer Lopez is clearly talented but also will need time given his age.  

To summarise, this means that we are still playing a defensive midfielder in Marshall Munetsi as a number 10, how has this been allowed to happen?

There were several opportunities in the transfer market this season which other Premier League sides have taken advantage of, with Premier League ready experience at fair prices such as Dewsbury-Hall, Kelleher, McAtee to name just a few – why should this not be a market we are more active in along with the Championship? 

Ultimately, we head into the season light, and with Wolves having circled the drain for a few seasons now it feels as though we are destined for relegation.

John Lalley

Wolves are not purchasing at the top end of the market and overseas players joining a struggling outfit operating in such a competitive league face a daunting challenge. Inevitably, some incomers simply can’t handle the transition. 

Others like Emmanuel Agbadou last season immediately become highly influential and vastly improve the team. Conversely, Nasser Djiga purchased to pair up with Agbadou found himself very quickly out of the picture and farmed out on loan for the duration of this season. Djiga has struggled in Glasgow; Agbadou’s high standards have dipped; any signing invites risk. 

Expecting the half a dozen players who have joined us to equal or improve upon the outgoing Cunha, Ait-Nouri, Semedo, Doyle and Sarabia is fanciful. It’s difficult not to be sceptical; Wolfe, Tchatchoua, Arias and Lopez have all appeared briefly, seemingly competent without being outstanding. But making any snap judgement on them along with Krejci and Arokodare would be grossly unfair. 

Of all teams, Wolves’ need for instant pay-back is overwhelming, but some leeway has to be given. Matheus Cunha took a while to adapt, but given time, he was breathtaking. Nobody will be replicating his standards and it’s highly unlikely that all of the new guys will be immediate first choices, but we desperately need strong contributions from a couple of them at the very least. 

But maybe a deal rejected is of greater significance. Resisting Newcastle’s push for Jorgan Strand Larsen was essential. Their bid was well over the odds and had a similar offer been lodged some months ago, given their current policy, Wolves would have rapidly cashed-in. 

But with the campaign underway, we simply had to decline. His fourteen goals last season did much to ensure safety. Without Cunha’s support, Larsen is likely going to have to provide a repeat and more besides if we are to survive again.

Adam Virgo

The transfer window as a whole for Wolves has been nowhere near good enough. To neglect the midfield like we have done is absolutely crazy and any injuries or suspensions to Andre and Joao Gomes leaves us in serious trouble.

Not only that, but we’ve obviously sold some extremely key players in Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait Nouri as well as losing Nelson Semedo who was our captain and Pablo Sarabia who was very experienced and had the ability to win us games at times.

We’ve replaced them with players who have got very good potential but obviously zero premier league experience and three out of six (not including Larsen as he was already here last season) have came from leagues outside of the top five which also carries risks.

I find it baffling how we can make around £13m profit on player sales compared to player incomings. With the money we’ve brought in, surely we could have spent a lot more and also ensured there was sufficient backup in midfield considering we let Tommy Doyle and Boubacar Traore go out on loan. Since those two both exiting as well, we’ve had 39 days to bring in a central midfielder and have failed to do so which is absolutely criminal.

We do this far too often where we take big risks in the summer, start August and the first half of the campaign poorly and have to spend big money in January when players are overpriced to try and stay in the league and eventually it’s going to catch up with us.

I actually like a lot of the signings we’ve brought in, some more than others but when you lose Ait-Nouri and Cunha who were involved in a lot of our goals this season and replace them with Wolfe and Arias who haven’t started the season too well, it’s obviously concerning and puts even more pressure on someone like Strand Larsen to be scoring a lot more than he did last season.

The positives are that we’ve managed to keep Jorgen Strand Larsen and we’ve also managed to sell Fabio Silva for a very good fee. I particularly like the signings of Tchatchoua, Krejci, Fer Lopez and Arokodare who I think can all have good seasons in their own right but they have to hit the ground running very quickly otherwise we are in very serious trouble in terms of potential relegation.

It’s yet another summer transfer window where we’re taking serious risks with our Premier League safety and particularly the midfield area where we are extremely light beyond Andre and Joao Gomes because I don’t think many fans trust Bellegarde or Munetsi in a two-man midfield.

Clive Smith

The transfer window is a lot like buying/selling a house. Agreeing a price is only part of it. We all want our dream home, but even if we can afford it someone might then go and gazump you. So, you do the best you can. Trying to get it done asap to avoid uncertainty but even with expert solicitors and estate agent it still takes way too long.

Getting your first choice players in through the door by July 1 is preferable but not always realistic. All you can do is try and get the best fit possible for the best price possible. 

This summer Cunha, Ait-Nouri, Guedes, Sarabia, Semedo, Doyle (and Silva) left the building. That included three significant starters that needed replacing just to keep us where we were. It's a fact of life, whether its 

Palace, Newcastle, Brighton, Bournemouth or Wolves we will all get cherry picked by the greedy six just the same.

Ideally its not replacements we want but improvement. Rarely will we be able to see that from day one however. Attracting PL ready players is nigh on impossible (we're in the bottom six and at risk), so unless we have a rising star in our Academy we shop in the EFL or overseas.

I wrote in my City verdict that keeping your best assets is important. We lost some, but being able to retain Gomes and Andre was a positive. Likewise Larsen. He joined us this time last year, despite scoring four goals in his open 12 games, he generally had mixed reviews  a lot of criticism, yet now he is viewed as our best chance of staying in the PL,  and vitally we kept him.

We now need to give Arias, Lopez, Wolfe, Tchatchoua, Krejci and Arokodare a level of patience before we judge them and the transfer window overall. At least the recruitment team have been far from passive.

How you measure our success is related to your expectations. If you expect us to be seventh, like we have been twice in 40 years you are likely to be disappointed. If your expectation is at least 17th then, the investment since the departure of our three starters has hopefully improved our chances of achieving that goal.

Rather than saying who we 'failed' to acquire lets concentrate on who we have been successful in signing. 

Its not how good they look now, its how good they will be over the next 35 games. With H.Bueno, Mosquera and Hoever also at VP's disposal, he has nine players to coach and improve who hopefully can help us be successful this season. All the best VP I'll be supporting you all the way.

Matt Gallimore

I'm sure I was one of many Wolves fans refreshing 'X' every 30 minutes on Monday, awaiting news of which midfielder we had brought. Unfortunately come 7pm that never materialised. 

Truth is this doesn't surprise us at all with Fosun and Jeff Shi. Everything the ownership do is on the cheap, wasting time scrapping around to get it for as cheap as possible, looking clueless in the process and us missing out yet again. They say when trust is broken in a relationship it's hard to get it back, and that's the scenario we find ourselves in now with the guys at the top. We don't trust them to get it right and I can't see that changing.

We do have good players still in this squad, but when you lose your best players year on year and replace them with 'prospects' or players with no actual experience of this gruelling league, then eventually you are gambling with the survival of your club, and this season just has the sense that it could finally be the year when we get swallowed up.

Vitor is described as wanting tall, athletic, aggressive players but the fact is the main thing that wins you football matches is 'quality's as much as Joao Gomes and Andre are good at what they do, we badly needed someone who can put their foot on the ball and pick a pass which is going to create chances for the strikers. I don't see us having that unless Fer Lopez gets to grips with this league very quickly.

Keeping Strand Larsen was essential, as without him it would be good bye Premier League, hello Championship.

Fingers crossed the summer recruits do get up to speed quickly, and now that the transfer window is closed, Vitor can work with what he has and sculpt a side that can get enough points for us to go through this all again next season.