Wolves transfer update: Danso, Forbs, Cunha and more
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Well, hello, I'm Nathan Judah, a.k.a. Darth Vader. I am here with Wolverhampton Wanderer's
00:14reporter, Mr. Liam Keane, a.k.a. Baby Yoda.
00:19I'm not sure that's a compliment or not, but I'll take it.
00:22Baby Yoda knows everything. He's a wealth of information, a wealth of transfer information
00:26for Wolverhampton Wanderer's Keynote, so you take it.
00:28There you go, I'll take that, I'll take that.
00:30OK, look, I thought it was worthy of a transfer update today. Things are starting to move,
00:34aren't they? Look, Monday is a transfer deadline day, February the 3rd. We know that things,
00:40even though ideally January the 1st would be a great day to sign all the targets, it
00:45doesn't work like that. And with movements, with clubs, with situations, this is always
00:50going to start ramping up, as it is with every Premier League club. And it seems like today
00:54and going forward, there's going to be a lot of movement, I think, in the market, incomings
00:57and outgoings. Let's start with the main news today. And first of all, this update
01:03on Kevin Danzo.
01:04Yeah, it's a good thing you started with that at the very top of the video, because we're
01:08recording this just before 5pm on Tuesday evening, and easily by 5.01, things could
01:14have changed.
01:15Could change.
01:16It's going to move very, very quickly.
01:17It's moving. It's fluid. It's fluid.
01:18Absolutely.
01:19It's fluid.
01:20Hopefully this video won't be out of date too quickly. But yes, let's start with Kevin
01:24Danzo. He's a player that, I think it was back on 30th of December, I think we reported,
01:29as did others, to say the Wolves were considering moving for him again. They looked at him in
01:34the summer. They looked at him towards the very end of that window, as well as earlier
01:38in that window in the summer. And then he transpired not long after that. And it was
01:44well reported at the time that he was a player that almost made a move to Roma. There was
01:48a heart issue discovered in his medical, decided, well, it was pulled out from underneath and
01:52the transfer was scrapped. He's had minor surgery since then, but he's been playing
01:55in France regularly, missing two months.
01:58So he's a player that Wolves have looked at for quite a while. They ended up moving for
02:04Emmanuel Agbadoo first, but we know they wanted to add a second centre-back. And this one
02:08has reignited over the last few days. So yesterday was a bid of roughly around £16 million,
02:16which has been reported in France as roughly about €19 million. It was lodged, rejected.
02:22There seems to be a lot of chatter in France around a €22 million bid. Lots of interest
02:29from other clubs as well. Claire, his club, which I'm not even going to attempt to pronounce.
02:34Would you like to pronounce it for me?
02:36Oh, no, no. Not interested.
02:38Lens. I don't know how to pronounce it.
02:40L'Or.
02:41L'Or. I assumed it might be that, but I couldn't tell you.
02:43You don't pronounce the S.
02:44I wouldn't know. There's clearly been a lot of chatter and then sort of briefing and getting
02:50things out there about wanting a certain amount for the player. And obviously they're keen
02:55to keep hold of him. But the latest today, as you've kindly introduced on this video,
03:00is Wolves are persevering with this one. They're still in talks. They're locked in negotiations
03:06with L'Or. And they're very likely to make another bid. Now, of course, he won't be the
03:13centre-back they're looking at by any means, but they're keen on him. They're keen to bring
03:18a defender in. And this one is one that they're hoping to get over the line.
03:22Yeah, there's some rumours about different centre-backs. I think Axel Desarcy was one
03:25of them at Chelsea at this moment in time. It looks like Aston Villa are winning the
03:28race to sign him. In terms of bids and some people getting a bit flustered and frustrated,
03:33look, Wolves are 18th in the table and, you know, they need to get players sooner rather
03:38than later, of course, and look at an ideal world. They'll have a central defender in
03:41for Saturday against Aston Villa. Whether that will be the case, we don't know at this
03:45moment in time. But clubs getting rejected fees, it's almost like a prerequisite these
03:52days, isn't it? You put a bid in and it's got to get rejected at least first time. Is
03:57this lawn playing hardball? Or do you feel that there's a real chance that this could
04:02fall through if other teams come in and make a late bid for him?
04:06It's clear they're going to take advantage of the situation where they know that Wolves
04:09and other clubs want one of their players, so they'd be silly not to take advantage
04:13of that. It's also not quite as cut and dry as it tends to get reported, and it's reported
04:17that way for quite obvious reasons in that fans need to be able to digest the information.
04:22It's not quite as cut and dry as Wolves make a bid, a bid gets rejected. It will be ongoing
04:26back and forth negotiations. They'll be keen to get maximum fee for a player that they
04:31don't want to lose. Equally, Wolves will be keen to pay as little as possible for a
04:36player that they want. So you've got to try and find the middle ground there. Hence why
04:39there's been a lot of chatter coming from big outlets in France, and lots of people
04:44putting contrasting and agreeing information out there. It'll be a player that, as I said,
04:50they're keen to get over the line, but if it does fall through, which is possible, more
04:54than possible in negotiations, they will have other targets in mind for centre-back. The
04:59problem is, as of Tuesday right now, almost 5pm, they've got till next Monday, they've
05:04got six days and a few hours till 11pm deadline to get over the line.
05:08And of course the fear is that they were in this situation, weren't they, in the summer
05:12and we know what happened then. So yeah, we don't want any kind of case of déjà vu that
05:16they've got to get someone over the line. And if they have to pay potentially over the
05:19odds in this situation, clubs will take advantage of, like you say, Wolves' position. Let's
05:23hope that deal gets done.
05:24Particularly in the January market as well, I think it's worth mentioning. I think that
05:27context is definitely important to mention. January means that clubs are going to start
05:30to take advantage of that even more.
05:32I mean, I know it's at the other end of the pitch, but we look at Matthias Kunje in the
05:34time when Lopetegui came in. Look, they paid a lot of money and a lot of people thought
05:37over the odds. Thankfully, he's shown and gone way above what anyone thought in this
05:41moment in time. And Wolves will come on to Matthias Kunje in a little bit, but obviously
05:44he's way surpassed the fee that Wolves paid out and that was a good gamble to take. Hopefully
05:48Danso, they can get over the line and it proves to be a very astute signing.
05:52In terms of that potential incoming, there is a potential outgoing as well. Loan incoming
05:59in terms of Carlos Forbes for Wolves hasn't worked out. Could he be going back sooner
06:04than we expected?
06:05It's starting to look very likely. Yes. So obviously the deal when he arrived in the
06:10summer was a loan deal with an option to make that permanent, but that option would become
06:15an automatic permanent deal if he played a certain amount of games. We don't have the
06:19exact figure on how many games that is, but we do know that it was a substantial amount
06:23of games. He's made nine Premier League appearances so far this season. One of them being a star,
06:28which of course was that Brentford game, the 5-3 back in October. So a memorable game
06:34to be the only game you started. And the last time he played was against Forest on the 6th
06:39of January. He's played three times in the last two months, so he's been very underused.
06:44He struggled to adapt to the Premier League. He hasn't impressed Vitor Pereira nor former
06:48head coach Gary Neal, and he's nowhere near triggering that permanent clause as it stands.
06:54So with that, there becomes no real surprise that Wolves are open to allowing him to go
06:58back to the Netherlands and Ajax. There was no recall clause, as we've said permanently
07:03on the podcast and reports elsewhere, there was no recall clause for Ajax for him to return
07:09back there partway through the loan deal, but they're keen to have him back. Wolves
07:13are open to that possibility with him being underused here, and they're now in talks and
07:18negotiations to make that happen. Now they have to figure out a way to make that work,
07:22whether that is Ajax paying Wolves a small fee to make it happen, whatever it might be.
07:27As it stands, they're in talks to get that one done. And really, when you look at the
07:32squad, the registered squad, we know that's something we've spoken about a lot recently.
07:36Wolves are going to have to be very wary of that when they look to make additions because
07:40Agbedo's come in, so he'll have to be added to that squad. Mosquero will go out, so that
07:43should be a like for like with his injury. Lamina may still go, and midfielder could
07:47come in and take that spot. But otherwise, unless you take other players off there, I
07:51Clyde, for example, they've only got one spot available. And that is if Lamina goes,
07:56of course, one spot available for one homegrown player available. Otherwise, the rest of the
08:01squad is taken up. Again, someone like a people got sure it could be a player that moves around
08:05with that. Now with Carlos Forbes, he's under the age of 21. He's 20 years old, which means
08:10he doesn't actually count to that figure for that squad list, which means him leaving will
08:15not actually open up any more space for us to bring players in.
08:18But what it would do is leave space in a matchday squad, for example, keeping players
08:22happy for players that do come in and want minutes. So albeit it doesn't have its uses
08:27for the Premier League registered squad, it does have its uses for Wolves moving forward
08:31with the players that they do have available.
08:33Yeah, I read some people talking about, you know, this was supposed to be the next big
08:36thing and maybe a replacement for Pedro Neto. And I don't feel that was the case. I feel
08:40like he was there to compete, to show what he can do. I don't think it was a nailed uncertainty
08:44that Wolves are going to sign him, obviously with the high appearance fees for that to
08:47be an option to an obligation kind of shows that. At the same time, it just hasn't worked
08:51out, has it?
08:52No, not at all. He's clearly got some unique qualities like a Neto and a Damotori when
08:58it comes to his speed and his power. But I think from a technical perspective, a tactical
09:03perspective, I think you could highlight that Brighton league game, the 2-2 back in late
09:09October, it was. He comes on at halftime in that game and Gary Neill dragged him off in
09:14the 89th minute for Rodrigo Gomez, having only come on as a substitute because he played
09:19a big part in Brighton's second goal and he was really struggling. So I think from a technical
09:23and a tactical point of view, he's not quite been there for the Premier League. Now, whether
09:26that quality, whether that's a lack of quality, we'll only really be able to tell when it
09:30comes to later down in his career or whether it was more a timing issue and he hasn't quite
09:35adapted. Either way, it looks pretty likely as it stands that he's going to move back
09:39to the Netherlands. It's one that we'll be keeping an eye on and hopefully updating on fairly soon.
10:10Hugely important. So we'll stay in the Premier League this season and we fully expect him
10:13to be here gone February the 3rd.
10:15Yeah. And when we spoke about this last week, when all of that noise was happening, not
10:20really a lot of change at that point either, other than he hadn't signed the contract yet.
10:25And it was clear that there were people putting the feelers out, getting some noise out there
10:29to potentially see what suitors would be available if the money was there. But as we've said
10:34all along, unless I say it could be a fluid situation that changes, but unless there's
10:38a lot of money, a lot of money on the table, a big, big offer, you won't be going anywhere.
10:42And from his perspective, it only makes sense to sign this contract, become a very, very
10:47well-paid player at Wolves. You're likely to leave in the summer anyway if the right
10:52offer comes in, earn a bit more money between now and the end of the season. It only makes
10:56sense for the player and Wolves would like to reward him for his performances.
11:00I still expect if he doesn't get done before, that he probably signs that contract once
11:05the window closes and he's still a Wolves player. But as I say, unless there's any major
11:09offer coming in, which we're not aware of at the moment, he will be a Wolves player
11:13beyond February 3rd.
11:14Yeah. And look, you know, you leave Mateus Cunha, as we've said before, you've got to
11:18replace him. And if you don't replace him, you've got an injured Jorgen Struyng-Larsen.
11:22We'll see what the situation is in that. You've got Hwang Hee-chan who can't score goals
11:25at this moment in time. It will be a Premier League suicide to let Mateus Cunha go. So
11:29yeah, I'll be absolutely stunned if that happens.
11:32Right. Okay. You get yourself to jujitsu, lads. This is going to be a late one. Hopefully
11:36we're not doing too many of these transfer videos, outgoings anyway, before deadline
11:40day. But you know, there might be one on Friday. There might be one on Thursday. You never
11:43know. We've got the podcast as well. Join us and we will guide you all the way through
11:47until Monday night, 11pm, when the deadline day slams shut, baby. We'll see you soon.