Wolves chase an eighteenth placed finish

Last updated : 07 May 2004 By Dave Burgess

Extra money for next season’s Division One campaign is at stake in the remaining two fixtures of this season. A higher finish in the Premiership means more prize money to take away with us and rebuild the team over the summer.

Rick Hayward has already gone on the record as stating that a £7m ‘warchest’ would be given to Jonesy to try and get us back into the Premiership at the first attempt.

With up possibly twelve or more players going through the Molineux exit doors this summer, big savings can be made in the wages that long since forgotten players are still drawing.

We can expect to see the end of:

Andrews
Blake
Cooper
Ganea
Gudjonsson
Irwin
Iversen
Luzhny
Melligan
Ndah
Oakes
Okoronwo
Rae
Silas
Sturridge

Which must free up the wage bill to bring in new players to allow all that money to be spent on transfer fees and signing on fees alone.

Sure this mass clear out will leave us short on personnel, but it’s clear that Jones doesn’t rate the majority on that list.

Some were short-term attempts to keep us in the Premiership, obviously Irwin is retiring and Rae deserves his chance possibly at Rangers.

Small fees will be involved for Silas, a massive disappointment, and Cooper but otherwise the majority will not have their contract renewed.

Obviously we all have our fingers crossed that Henri will stay on and fire us back into the Premiership if his agent can stop trying to unsettle the forward.

No one else will attract any real attention from elsewhere and the majority can still play at the higher levels of Division One football.

It’s then all down to Jonesy as to who he can persuade to come and help us win promotion. He didn’t do very well last summer but I’m sure he’ll have learnt from that and might not even disappear on holiday this time!

Clear the deadwood, bring in some quality to add to what we’ve already got and surely the only way is up next season!