Hassan Kachloul is the latest new face in at the Molineux and the last until the transfer window re-opens in January.
As to what happened to Dave Jones’s comment about hoping to have three new faces by 5.00pm this afternoon, we’ll never know.
What we do know is that we’ve only got two keepers now, with Pavel Srnicek having joined our opponents last Saturday.
With Joey Gudjonsson being added late last week, we now know the squad that has to battle through until January to get us up to about the 20+ point mark by the New Year.
We have 15 games to get 19 more points to give us the 1-point a game average by this point. However, this is still likely to see us in 20th place and we know the history of the team who are bottom at Christmas.
You have to commend the Wolves board for sticking to their guns about the obvious financial restraints they are working under. In the program notes on Saturday and on radio interviews, Jez Moxey was adamant that the prudence was the best policy.
At least Dave Jones signed his three-year contract. Sure, he deserves it as a reward for getting us there in the first place but I wonder if it is heavily incentivised for working miracles to keep us in the top flight.
Even the players seem surprised by the number of signings as many have had articles attributed to them urging more new faces at the Wolves.
Of major concern is the injury to Kenny Miller. All we can hope is that the further tests reveal that he will be able to return sooner rather than later. I’m sure we’ve got the players to defend but have we got enough to score the goals?
As for Kachloul well his career is down a dead-end at the moment so he has nothing to lose and everything to prove.
Frozen out by Villa he played in one Intertoto qualifier in July 2002 and that was his season. Therefore, remains to be seen how immediately effective he will be. Obviously Jones knows him well having signed him whilst at Southampton. An attacking midfielder, he also has seen quite a few cards flourished, the odd read one amongst them, during his spells over here in the UK. Another left sided player so possibly brought into compete with Alex Rae’s current position in a 5-man midfield.
At the least the two-week break gives us time to get injured players nearer a return and bed in the new signings. We just have to hope that we don’t get further injuries through international duty.
It will be interesting to see what happens in January if we are still struggling. Will the board throw caution to the wind or start preparing for life back in the Nationwide?
Hopefully, we won’t have to worry about this ;-)
E-mail me with any comments/feedback to: dave@wolves-mad.co.uk