Liam Keen on Wolves' Deadline Day activity
Liam Keen on Wolves' Deadline Day activity
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00:00Well, hello, I'm Nathan Judah. I'm delighted to be joined by Wolves reporter, it is Mr.
00:04Liam Keane. Liam, it's been a hot minute since I've seen you last. Deadline day, look, it's
00:09been a few quiet deadline days over the years, whether that be January or the summer, but
00:13the excitement is back. Wolves have been very active. Whether they've left it too late,
00:18well, remains to be seen. But what are you feeling? How do you feel Wolves have done
00:22on this said Friday, quarter to 11 at night? Deadline is about to shut in 15 minutes, but
00:30it looks like Wolves have done their business. How do you rank it?
00:33Yeah, I do remember last summer they brought Bellegarde in very late, didn't they? So it
00:36was a little bit exciting last summer. And it's been fairly similar this summer, albeit
00:43with a little bit of frustration, disappointment, I imagine as well, because a lot of fans and
00:48Gary Neill felt that Wolves needed a centre back and they've not been able to do that.
00:52That's the negative from today. Essentially, and taken from what we understand and also
00:58speaking to Gary Neill and what he said publicly, is that Wolves were working towards certain
01:03targets based on the way they wanted to play. They, for several reasons, some of them financial,
01:09were unable to bring these targets in. They missed out on several targets when it comes
01:12to centre backs. It's now transpired that Gary Neill has come to the realisation he
01:17may have to slightly adapt how he's trying to play. And that also meant that for the
01:21last few days, at least, they've been slightly adapting how they are going ahead in this
01:27market. And that means trying to sign players, not necessarily for the original style, but
01:31players that will add something to this group going forward. They did try, they looked at
01:36targets, they went for some late moves today and centre backs have not come off. However,
01:40Sam Johnstone was earlier today, Dunne and Dusted, Andre in the last few minutes has
01:45just been announced, Carlos Forbes, he's in Wolverhampton, everything's going fine and
01:50it'll be announced at some point. It could be any minute now, it could be in three hours
01:54from now, but he will be announced as a new winger as well, with Chiquinho going the other
01:59way to Mallorca on loan.
02:02Chiquinho was the one who's kind of had to, they got to make way really, haven't they?
02:06Because of the squad. Chiquinho, slightly disappointing for him, obviously kind of really
02:12wanted to stay. He spoke to him after the West Ham United game, didn't you, in pre-season
02:16and he was desperate to show what he could do. I thought he looked really good in glimpses
02:20that we've seen of him this season. He'll be disappointed because, you know, it's Wolves'
02:24career, he's got to have a question mark around it now. They've let him go, surplus to requirements
02:29and we're not going to see him. Was that the right decision or it had to be a decision
02:33once one person had to go? And do you think this was just the unfortunate one out or do
02:37you feel Wolves have made the correct decision or will that be, we'll see in time?
02:40Yeah, yeah. I think once they've made the decision that, well, this is also linked slightly
02:44to Daniel Pedence. Now that Daniel Pedence will be moving to Al Shabaab in a roughly
02:48five million pound deal, their transfer window closed on Monday, so they've got a little
02:52bit extra time for that to go through and be announced. With that sort of puzzle piece
02:57being part of the jigsaw, once they've made a decision that they want to bring in another
03:00winger, Carlos Forza being that player, they had to really move another winger on, particularly
03:05if, and this may not happen straight away, of course, tomorrow at Forrestal I don't think
03:09this will happen, but once Andre is up and running and playing regularly, Wolves may
03:14be playing a 4-3-3 at that point. At that point, you've got three forwards to choose
03:19from and probably, what, eight or nine wingers to play for two positions, essentially. So
03:27with Pedence going, that drops the numbers, with Chiquinho moving out and Forbes coming
03:32in, it evens the numbers out and it makes sense. I don't think you could have kept Chiquinho
03:35and Forbes. It would have just meant a 24-year-old Chiquinho is probably playing for the 21s
03:39and it doesn't make any sense for the player as well as the club.
03:42What does Chiquinho bring to the table?
03:58Yeah, I think Wolves are probably looking for someone a bit more direct, similar to
04:00what Chiquinho offered and what Pageneto, of course, offered. I think their hope will
04:04be that Forbes can be that kind of player. That's really what Wolves have missed. Wolves
04:08have missed a little bit of pace, direct, aggressive play. I would like to think at
04:14the Premier League, that's what he brings. He's still 20 years old, however. He was at
04:19Man City's academy for a few years, having moved from Portugal, moved to Ajax last season,
04:25his first full season as a professional at Ajax and got a couple of goals in 20-odd appearances
04:29and has now got a big move to the Premier League. So as exciting as hopefully he will
04:34be at the same time, is it going to be a ready-made, walk-into-the-start-eleven Pageneto replacement?
04:40I think probably time is going to tell with that one. It's difficult for us to say at
04:43this stage.
04:44Yeah, and in Andre you've got to think that he's probably more ready to go. But at the
04:48same time, you look at strength and depth, you look at where Wolves need to add quality
04:52and centre midfield will probably be the last position on the list. I understand, and we
04:58discussed last night, that he plays at six. Tommy Doyle will probably be one who could
05:03say, well, I want to be playing that position as well. He's the one who's probably been
05:05slightly deeper when he has come on the pitch. It's going to be interesting to see how many
05:11central midfielders Gary O'Neill uses and who makes the starting line-up because there
05:14is a lot of competition for places now.
05:16Yeah, if they do play a 4-3-3 or something similar with three midfield going forward
05:21regularly, then that still opens a lot of opportunity to Tommy Doyle. Perhaps Bibicaccio
05:27once we've got an idea of his lay-off, how long he'll be out for, perhaps once he's back
05:32that still gives him an opportunity because he was due to go on loan up until his injury
05:36on Wednesday night. So there is still chances because you need, if you're going to play
05:41three midfielders, you need players that are ready to come in and Tommy Doyle I think is
05:44an excellent option for Wolves to come in and play football.
05:47But at the same time, Tommy Doyle's played Premier League football. Will he start ahead
05:50of Andre to start with? I think the betting man probably says yes if they're going to
05:56play a three, particularly against Forest tomorrow perhaps because he's been there and
06:01done it and Andre's still got to come in and learn the ropes. There's some interesting
06:05quotes in fact from Matt Hobbs within that announcement for Andre to say, as good as
06:10Jairo Gomez has been since he arrived at Wolves, he also had six months when he arrived in
06:14that January learning behind players like Ruben Neves and Mario Lamina. So he's going
06:22to need that opportunity to adapt as well Andre, albeit it looks like a really exciting
06:26signing and once he's up to speed, pretty much an oven-ready Premier League player.
06:31If he doesn't come off the bench away from home and score a winner like Jairo Gomez,
06:35I'm not interested. In terms of outgoings, Fabio Silva, another loan for him?
06:39Another loan for Fabio, yes. Las Palmas, obviously Wolves wanted a permanent or a loan with an
06:46obligation or a loan with an option in favourable terms and it's taken incredibly long for a
06:51deal to be done. Wolves expected Fabio Silva to have left the club a long time ago in this
06:55window to be perfectly honest and I think the player would have expected that as well.
06:58He didn't materialise for whatever reason. Las Palmas is the move for him on a straight
07:03loan with no options to buy, however they will be paying his full wages which will be
07:08beneficial to Wolves for at least until January or if he comes back and goes somewhere else or
07:14for the full season. It is a season-long loan but you never know with Fabio, there have been moves
07:18mid-season with him as well. If he goes and performs, it's only going to help the player,
07:22it's only going to help Wolves going forward. His future isn't here, that's been made pretty
07:26clear by the player and by Gary O'Neill. They just need to find a permanent resolution and
07:31it's a shame really that they couldn't find it this summer.
07:33Yeah, obviously we expect Daniel Pedenza to go as you mentioned earlier and
07:37Jose Sar expecting him to not be at the club after Monday, Tuesday?
07:41Yeah, it's sort of creeping closer. There's a confidence that Sar will get a Saudi move.
07:48Of course, as I say, Monday is their deadline day so that is the expectation as it stands
07:53but there's still plenty of hours to go before Monday and there's still obviously an opportunity
07:59for Jose Sar to stay. I think there'll be plenty of people that will be happy for him to stick
08:02around and have a quality goalkeeper there. Will the player be desperate to stick around and not
08:07play with Johnston coming in to be the number one you imagine? I don't think so. I don't think
08:12he'll be very happy with that scenario so it's likely as it stands and we'll be very interested
08:17in fact to see the matchday squad for Nottingham Forest tomorrow. I think that will tell us a lot.
08:23Thank you very much for that. I shall see you at the Nottingham Forest buffet tomorrow afternoon.