Got the popcorn out here reading this.

For some context, since those first three defeats, so from Watford away onwards, we are fifth. If we were to maintain our points per game over the same period we would finish on 66 points which would normally guarantee a 5th or 6th place finish and has been enough for 4th (Chelsea 19/20).

The problem is that these trends dont maintain their linearity through to the end of the season unless you have the squad strength and options to change games. I think that will cost us 3 or 4 vital points as it did in 19/20 when we were chasing Chelsea. Realistically I think we are looking at 7th unless something dramatic happens in the next few days.

I'm happy with that, Bruno has got us back on track after last season's blip.

Getting balance right between recruiting :
a) quality young players with potential to improve
and
b) quality established players who can immediately improve the starting line up
is what's being debated here I think. I think most fans see that we have done really well with the former, but just one or two of the latter to help us win those rogue 3/4 points back would be money well invested as it would take us to the next level.

so hwang signs today, on his b'day for £14m

frees up one of our 2 loan spots, is this false hope we get in a loan to buy or is it gonna happen

I don't get the Hwang signing - why not take a few more months to assess him and then make it permanent in the summer if we still want him?

Didn't read your comment properly Tino, that is a reason to be fair, though I guess we'll find out if that was THE reason.

I hope its THE reason, I really do

but then a £14m gamble on Hwang can easily be made back, we won't lose out I dont imagine

comment by (U17339)
posted 14 minutes ago
I don't get the Hwang signing - why not take a few more months to assess him and then make it permanent in the summer if we still want him?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Agree.
Wasn't that impressed.

Hwang is a no brainer. I would have been more surprised if Wolves hadn't signed him. As Tino says we can't really lose on the deal, and there is enough to his game to prove himself in the first team.

the only annoyance is, we passed up Vitinha on a similar fee and he'd have fit nicely in Bruno's system... granted Hwang has probably shown more in his time than Vitinha did

Tim Spiers
@TimSpiers
·
4m
It'll be a four-year contract for Hwang when he officially joins Wolves in the summer (as revealed by
@mcgrathmike
), which is set to be announced imminently.

Fee, which was agreed at the start of the loan (as were personal terms), is £11.9m #WWFC




if Tims on the money, £12m is a good price

Vitinha showed some promise, and I must admit I would have kept him. Having said that I also understand Wolves thinking he hadn't done enough.

You win some, you lose some. Generally we have been doing more winning than losing.

comment by Amigawolf no longer MIA (U18508)
posted 2 minutes ago
Vitinha showed some promise, and I must admit I would have kept him. Having said that I also understand Wolves thinking he hadn't done enough.

You win some, you lose some. Generally we have been doing more winning than losing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'd say it's 50/50 on the youth gambles myself

Nouri - win
Neto - win
Kilman - win

Jordao - jury's out

Vitinha - loss
Pedro G - massive loss
Fabio - showing improvement, but nowhere near £35m (yet)

copious amounts of youngsters out on loan, so we'll see

oh and

Cutrone huge loss
Rafa Mir, big gain and just about levels out Cutrone


can't think of many more ones for the future off the top of my head

Dion Sanderson out on loan at Sheff. Wed. for the rest of the season.

If we have signed Hwang permanently, then I don't see any more huge signings in this transfer window. I would have thought that we could have waited until the end of the season to make the final decision.

Ooops, Sanderson to QPR not Sheff Wed.

I don't think it's a bad signing at all, I really like him and love what a bulldog he is, he must be a nightmare to play against. I'm not certain I agree it's a no brainer to make it permanent now though, he's blown a little hot and cold and has been injured for a good few of the games we've had him - why not just take a bit longer to assess him.

Maybe we would get the money back on him but 14m quid isn't super cheap. He's one of about six forwards and arguably not one of our first eleven (Podence and Neto would be ahead of him, and Bruno would arguably have Trincao ahead of him too). And six months is a long time in football - maybe Silva has a breakthrough few games now, or Chiquino is better (or worse) than we expected. Like I say, I like him and I'm not surry we've signed him, but I might have been tempted to wait till the summer and assess all our transfer requirements and options in the round.

Just one final question too, given how many forwards we have already and how tight we seem to be for money these days, and how close we apparently were to a couple of big signings in the summer...would people have preferred the ability to use part of that 14m last summer to get Botman and Sanches over the line?

Having said all that, if it is 12m that does seem very good value for Hwang and it's hard to imagine losing out on that deal whenever we do it...

comment by wolfieinFL (U16306)
posted 5 minutes ago
Dion Sanderson out on loan at Sheff. Wed. for the rest of the season.

If we have signed Hwang permanently, then I don't see any more huge signings in this transfer window. I would have thought that we could have waited until the end of the season to make the final decision.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
other than the fact we're not paying a penny till the summer? and it now means we can bring in a new loanee?

Hwang I don't think we can lose on. He is easily worth the 11.9 million spend, and I think will go on to prove himself.

As for bringing up Botman and Sanches, It is about more than a simple transfer fee. People need to move away from the idea that money is all that is required to sign these players, and that they are the missing pieces. I'm not saying they can't add something, just people get too hung up on certain players.

Won't he be officially on loan until the summer though?

Either way, a decent signing. The understanding with Jimenez as more of a provider in the first few games looked really promising. I'm looking forward to seeing him back in the side although Podence has been excellent in recent weeks.

comment by Oldgoldilox (U17303)
posted 3 minutes ago
Won't he be officially on loan until the summer though?

Either way, a decent signing. The understanding with Jimenez as more of a provider in the first few games looked really promising. I'm looking forward to seeing him back in the side although Podence has been excellent in recent weeks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm not sure how the terms of the loan are, some are saying it frees a space others not so, If this doesn't seem a space saver then its a bit meh

comment by Amigawolf no longer MIA (U18508)
posted 4 minutes ago
Hwang I don't think we can lose on. He is easily worth the 11.9 million spend, and I think will go on to prove himself.

As for bringing up Botman and Sanches, It is about more than a simple transfer fee. People need to move away from the idea that money is all that is required to sign these players, and that they are the missing pieces. I'm not saying they can't add something, just people get too hung up on certain players.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

That's because they are the players we were most confirmedly linked with, it's a reasonable assumption therefore that the club felt those two options offered potentially among the best balance of risk/reward/potential, albeit not in such a balance that they felt it was right to ultimately bring them in.

I broadly agree with you, potentially more than most on here, that the club knows best, they have all the data and insight and experts and access and we have a tiny, tiny fraction of that.

BUT, with that said, we can still speculate and discuss whether the club has the right strategy and balance (and whether we like it or not) when it comes to transfers - otherwise we might all as well sign out of JA606 and do some work no? And I, for one, am dead against that idea.

Signing Hwang would mean he is no longer a loan player. The agreement included an option to buy before the loan expired and Wolves would be taking up that option. Hope he does well for us but don't really understand why we would sign him now rather than towards the end of the loan when we would have ha longer to assess him.

He scored 4 in a short period of time and nobody else at the club has done that, so in that respect getting him permanently is a no brainer. Take those goals away and I cant say he has impressed me greatly. Time will tell and he certainly could come good, But to me another few months on loan would have been the right route before taking the plunge.

comment by (U17339)
I broadly agree with you, potentially more than most on here, that the club knows best, they have all the data and insight and experts and access and we have a tiny, tiny fraction of that.

BUT, with that said, we can still speculate and discuss whether the club has the right strategy and balance (and whether we like it or not) when it comes to transfers -
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Of course we can discuss the clubs strategy etc. But when we are sitting 8th in the league, with players like Sa, Kilman, Ait etc. It is pretty hard to pick fault.

Of course on the other hand, if we had spent 500 million and were fighting a relegation battle like Everton, I'm sure there would be plenty of discussion. including from me.

I think Hwang is impressive when he plays off Jimenez. His link up play with him has been very good.

He is less impressive when playing as the main striker or too wide in the system that he can not make the runs off the striker.

comment by Tamwolf (U17286)
posted 4 minutes ago
I think Hwang is impressive when he plays off Jimenez. His link up play with him has been very good.

He is less impressive when playing as the main striker or too wide in the system that he can not make the runs off the striker.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
see if we do switch back to a four man defence, with Hwang up top , and Raul off his shoulder with Neto and Podence out-wide we'd have a frighteningly quick forward line

My jury is still out, with regard to Hwang. Before we got him on loan, he made sub appearances for RBL before coming to us. True, he scored 4 goals when he first got here, but didn't do much prior to his injury. He has missed the last 6 league games with a hamstring injury and we all know, that can be a problem in future matches.

I still maintain that it might have been better to assess him further, rather than take the plunge with a permanent deal at this time.

Even if Traore does go, we seem to be overloaded with forwards and though I do agree that's good for competition, I fear Fabio Silva will not get the game time he needs to improve and sending a 35m player out on loan wouldn't make sense to me.