'The Wolves' Site News Page

Wolves have targeted 33-year-old Trinidad and Tobago international goalkeeper Shaka Hislop after he has been given a free transfer by West Ham.
Wolves boss Dave Jones has been searching for a goalkeeper for more than a year since releasing Mike Stowell, with only young Matt Murray as back up for Michael Oakes.
Portsmouth are also after Hislop and their manager Harry Redknapp took Hislop to the East End.

Wolves young midfielder Keith Andrews could miss the start of the season for the second season running.
Andrews is almost certain to miss the start of pre-season and could miss some of the start of August because of the knee injury that required surgery just before the end of last season.
He missed the first three matches of the 2001-02 season through suspension and struggled to regain his place.

Wolves sold 324 new season tickets on the first day of general sale and are poised to break through the 15,000 barrier as the total number sold rises to 14,735. Over 14,000 of those went to early bird customers who bought their tickets when the club froze rates in March.
The latest figures mean Wolves enter the 2002-03 campaign with well over 2,000 more season ticket holders than last year, after going into last season with 12,800 season tickets sold.

Former Wolves player Paul Simpson has been appointed as the new player-manager at Third Division Rochdale, it was made official at a press conference this morning.

Wolves youngsters arrived back at Molineux after a successful trip to Holland where they played in the Grubbenvorst International Tournament with twelve other teams.
Wolves made it through to the final without conceding a goal, beating Holland’s S.V Venray 6-0, Germany’s F.C Berlin 2-0, Austria’s F.C Kelagkernten 1-0, Holland’s NEC 1-0 and Helmon Sport 2-0, and then met Belgium’s F.C Ghent in the final of the tournament.
The final ended 0-0 after 90 minutes so the teams had a penalty shoot-out. Wolves unfortunately losing 4-3 in the shoot-out.
Wolves Sammy Clingan was named Player of the Tournament, after each of the 11 coaches from all the opposing teams voted for the 18-year-old midfielder.
Under 19s coach, John Perkins said: "Sammy was outstanding throughout the tournament, as every other coach recognised."
"His contribution was excellent and I do believe the club has in Sammy, a player of great ability and first team potential."
"We were by far the best team in the tournament, as our results and goal tally proved. The attitude and mannerisms of the players both on and off the pitch were magnificent."
"They are a credit to the club and our professionalism and performance was rewarded by the fact that we were offered a written invitation to attend next year's tournament within an hour of the end of the event."

Wolves season tickets for the 2002/03 campaign went on general sale at 9am this morning and fans have been queuing up outside the ticket office this morning even before it opened to buy theirs with 109 already sold by 11am this morning. This morning's sales takes the total of season tickets sold so far up to 14,531.

Aston Villa striker Dion Dublin was linked with a summer move to Molineux but Villa boss Graham Taylor has hinted that Dublin could still have a future at Villa Park if he manages to force his way back into first-team contention.
Dublin's agent Struan Marshall also yesterday played down the rumour, insisting his client would stay at Villa Park until he was told otherwise.
Taylor said: "Dion Dublin is a great pro. He has come back from a loan spell at Millwall and there are no problems with him, but he does have two years still on his contract and at the end of the day he knows the way I am thinking."
"If he breaks back into the first team then that will be great. That is how it should be handled. I am not into all this behind the scenes stuff. Let us be open and talk to each other sensibly like adults and out of that you gain the respect that is necessary to have a successful team."

Meanwhile Jez Moxey say's Wolves will not be spending a lot of money again this summer instead he expects boss Dave Jones to sell players to fund his own transfer dealings.
Moxey said: "There certainly won't be the same level of investment as last season. But we do need to make changes and players will go out while others will come in."

Stockport boss Carlton Palmer has revealed he is trying to persuade former Wolves winger Andy Sinton to sign a one year contract at Edgeley Park.
Palmer and Sinton are former England and Sheffield Wednesday colleaguesare due to meet on Thursday but, with three First Division clubs also battling for his signature, Palmer remains only 'hopeful' of completing a deal.

Wolves winger Mark Kennedy has been assured by specialists he won’t require surgery to repair the tear in his groin.
He originally sustained the tear during the defeat at Molineux to Grimsby back in March and has since made a couple of attempts at returning but was forced to pull out of the Republic of Ireland squad for the World Cup when he suffered a reaction to the injury, during Niall Quinn’s testimonial at Sunderland.
Wolves boss Dave Jones said: “The last thing we would want is to see Mark come back for the pre-season and join in with the other lads only for him to break down again."
“This way we hope that by the time everyone else comes back we’ve got some assurances that Mark is fit enough to join in.”

Wolves boss Dave Jones accompanied by chief executive Jez Moxey faced Wolves fans last night for the first time since the end of the season in a 90-minute debate.
Jones admitted that the club ‘should’ have won promotion but strenuously refuted suggestions that anyone at the club did not want the big prize and said he feels 'embarrassed and hurt' at Wolves promotion failure.
One of the 350 Wolves fans said: "You have spent £14m and you are sitting there embarrassed. But you aren't as embarrassed as me. I have to work with Albion fans."
If you weren't there you can hear it several way's:
You will be able to listen to the forum via WOW.
An edited version will be broadcast by the station tonight between 7pm and 8pm, with the full 90 minutes transmitted during Capital Gold's Friday night sports show beginning at 6pm on 1152LW.

Around 350 Wolves fans have tickets to put manager Dave Jones on the spot at a forum in the Hawyward Suite at Molineux tonight.
Jones faces the public for the first time since Wolves missed promotion, Chief executive Jez Moxey will also be present and the capacity has been increased from 300 because of the demand for tickets.

Wolves chief executive Jez Moxey thinks there is going to be more swap deals than money transfers in the transfer market in the coming months.
The collapse of the ITV Digital channel has left many clubs with little spare money and they are having to re-examine their financial practices, and Moxey reckons this could affect clubs' buying and selling of players.
He said: "I can see the idea of trading players becoming much more popular."
"Instead of buying and selling, I think more and more managers and chairmen will grasp the concept of offering one of their players for one or two of someone else's."
"I'm going to be talking to a number of chairmen over the summer to discuss this idea with them."
'Until more money comes in, every club is going to be extremely careful and are going to find it difficult to buy."

Wolves have been linked with Tottenham's out-of-contract striker Chris Armstrong, who has been suffering with injuries since December 2000, and been told he has no future at the club by boss Glenn Hoddle. Armstrong is available on a free transfer, but it is thought that the 30 year old would not be keen to make the step down into Division one.

Wolves assistant manager John Ward won't be able to coach or be on the touchline for the whole of August as he's due to have another operation a fortnight before the start of the season on the 10th August.
Ward has recently had surgery on his left hip and is due to have the same operation on his right hip.
Ward said: "That means I will miss all of August, but at least I will be around for most of pre-season first."
"The club have been brilliant with me and I'm not indispensable. Dave Jones and Terry Connor will be around to work with the players while I'm away.
"And there will be a time when I'm available to do office work if not get out on the training ground."
"At least I'm not missing any work now, but I know I will be absent for a few games at the start of the season."
"Unfortunately, this is something that needed sorting out. I could literally have found myself without a leg to stand on and the medical people were unwilling to do both hips together."

Wolves transfer target 23-year-old defender John Curtis will be allowed to leave Blackburn Rovers, boss Graeme Souness has announced.
Rovers did reject a bid from Wolves for Curtis prior to transfer deadline day and turned down a transfer request from the former England Under-21 star in the last two weeks of the season.
Curtis was a key member when Rovers won promotion from the First Division 12 months ago but hasn't been able to get in the first-team place this season.
Now Souness say's it would be unfair to deny Curtis a move, despite having two years left on his contract.
Souness said: "John was an ever-present for us when we got promoted last year and a very important part of the team. But things have been hard for him this season and he rightly wants to be playing every week because he is only a young lad.
"He knows that I won't stand in his way. He has done a good job for us and it's only fair that we treat him right."

Wolves veteran midfielder Andy Sinton will not be offered a new deal, boss Dave Jones said he spoke with Sinton last week to confirm that his Molineux career had come to an end after he was given an extra year at the start of last season to pass on some of his experience to the youngsters. He joined Wolves on a Bosman free transfer from Tottenham in the summer of 1996.
Already Walsall manager Colin Lee has been cleared to make a move for Sinton if he decides he wants to add him to his squad again, because it was Colin Lee that signed him for Wolves.

Mark Kennedy is out of the Republic of Ireland's World Cup squad with a groin injury that made him miss most of the end of the season with Wolves.
Kennedy was to prove his fitness when the Republic took on Sunderland for Niall Quinn's testimonial at the Stadium of Light last night.
All was going well and he scored the first goal and was the only player to continue after half-time then after 84 minutes he was substituted and McCarthy has chosen not to take Kennedy to Japan and South Korea.

Nathan Blake was forced to miss out on Wales 1-0 win over Germany last night, after chipping a bone in his ankle and could now be facing surgery.
He was sent back to Molineux from the Wales training camp because of the problem, and now will have to see a specialist to determine the seriousness of the injury.
He is expected to be back to full fitness by the time the Wolves squad report back for pre-season training.

Wolves have announced their plans for summer friendlies, they will be traveling to Portugal for the summer tour with the opposition yet to be announced and have Newcastle United visiting Molineux.
See the Fixtures page for full details.
Boss Dave Jones said “We’ve put together a programme which is varied and challenging as we prepare for the new season."
“We opted for Portugal because we have been offered excellent training and accommodation facilities, which are used by the national team, along with quality opposition."
“I was also keen to include some local clubs in our schedule and we look forward to the trips to Kidderminster, Worcester and Burton."
“Cardiff and Stockport will prove tough tests, and then we’ll round off with a visit from a star-studded Premiership side.”

Rangers have finally acknowledged the free-transfer of Kevin Muscat, Alex McLeish the Rangers boss said: "Kevin Muscat signed a few weeks ago."
"He will bring experience, international experience, and he's a solid pro."
"We've had good endorsements for him from past coaches, none more so than Eddie Thomsen, who I played with at Aberdeen."
"Eddie rates Kevin very highly, but we also did our homework. We watched him in a few games and he looked like he would be a good squad acquisition."

On the subject of loyalty Joleon Lescott has insisted he's happy to stay at Molineux for 'as long as it takes to win promotion.'
The young defender sent a message from Toulon where he is playing in a under-21 tournament with England.
He said: "I'm disappointed not to have gone up automatically this season and disappointed we couldn't make it through the play-offs either."
"But I'm very happy at Wolves and I have two years left on my contract. I would like to be there when they win promotion and I will stay as long as it takes us to get there."

Wolves have announced they are to play a pre-season friendly against Kidderminster Harriers at Aggborough on Wednesday 24th July, kick off at 7.45pm.

Relegated from Premiership: Leicester, Derby and Ipswich.
Promoted from Div 2: Brighton, Reading and Stoke.
The survivors from last seasons Div 1: Wolves, Millwall, Norwich, Burnley, Preston, Wimbledon, Crystal Palace, Coventry, Gillingham, Sheff Utd, Watford, Bradford, Nottm Forest, Portsmouth, Walsall, Grimsby, Sheff Wed, Rotherham.

There are lot's of rumours around that Scottish giants Celtic and Rangers have been invited to join the Nationwide League and would be put into Division One.

Wolves have announced a rise in ticket prices for the first time in two years, but for 92 percent of existing season ticket holders there will be no increase after they benefited from the ‘early bird’ offer enabling them to renew their seat at last year’s prices.
Some match day tickets have gone up by £1 others just 50p for full list of prices see the Ticket Information page.

Chief executive Jez Moxey said: “We hope supporters appreciate that, with inflation across the business especially player wages, we were unable to maintain the freeze on ticket prices. However, Sir Jack Hayward and the board of directors appreciate that following football is costly for supporters which is why these increases are just about the minimum we could realistically implement."
“Our admission prices are still amongst the most competitive in Division One and, for the majority of our supporters, there will be no increase for the third season running owing to the tremendous take up of our ‘early bird’ season ticket promotion – over 14,000 fans renewed before the March 15 deadline."
“Season tickets at Molineux still represent the most cost effective way of supporting Wolves and offer a whole host of other benefits too.”
Season tickets go on sale on Monday 27th May to new customers. Existing holders, who did not take up the ‘early bird’ offer, have until Friday 7th June to claim their seat.
In addition, ‘early bird’ ticket holders have from Monday 20th May to Friday 24th May to purchase any extra available seats or to relocate their existing seat.

The transfer rumours have started already with Dave Jones again being linked with a move for Royal Antwerp defender Harald Pinxten. Jones has been a big admirer of Pixten since he played against Wolves last summer in a pre-season friendly and Jones has had the Belgian defender watched at various points last season. The Wolves boss has also been linked with Grimsby's young defender Simon Ford and Manchester United veteran Dennis Irwin. Irwin's United career ended today and he is available on a free transfer but his wage demands could be too high for Wolves as Dave Jones tries to cut down. He could also generate interest from other premiership clubs even at the age of 37 and want to stay in the top flight.

Birmingham City, Nottingham Forest, Watford and Crystal Palace have all declared an interest in Carl Robinson and Preston recently denied offering £2million for his services.

Wolves chief executive Jez Moxey has said that Wolves won't be selling their best players, including highly-rated young defender Joleon Lescott.
Wolves have made it clear he is part of their plans to make the Premiership next season, with interest being shown in Lescott from Premiership teams Arsenal, Tottenham and Blackburn.
Moxey said: "We are certainly not interested in selling our best players and Joleon Lescott certainly fits into that category."
"Joleon is signed up on a long-term contract at Molineux and we have no intention of letting him go."
To me this sounds very similar to the statements made just before the sale of Keane and Akinbiyi.

Other transfer news: Wolves have turned down a bid from Hull City for 20-year-old striker, Colin Larkin.
He spent the majority of last season on-loan at Kiddeminster Harriers because Dave Jones wanted to give him first team experience, whilst there from September to April he was under the management of Jan Molby, who is the new manager of Hull.
Wolves boss Dave Jones said: "We can confirm that Hull have made an offer for Colin, but this has been rejected. That's the situation as it is."

Wolves have confirmed that season tickets prices will be going up for next season, but do not envisage a significant increase. This will be their first raise in ticket prices in two years.
They haven't announced full details yet, but chief executive Jez Moxey insists they will only be around 50 pence to £1 more per game.
He said: "It is not inappropriate to raise the prices but there will certainly be no huge jump".
"Our supporters are not going to be penalised as a consequence of the fallout from ITV Digital."
Over 14,300 tickets were sold for Wolves 2002-2003 campaign when the club had told fans they could buy tickets at this season's prices if they came up with the money before a deadline date.

Sir Jack Hayward says that he will provide more funds for Dave Jones's squad strengthening. The Bahamas-based multi-millionaire joked "I think there is still one or two million left, I will be going back to the Bahamas shortly to check and see what is in the kitty."
The 78 year old has already spent around £48 million on the club he has supported since he was a boy, developing the stadium and bringing in new players every season.
Wolves chief executive Jez Moxey confirmed money was available for new players, but he warned they could not take Sir Jack's generosity for granted.

Mick McCarthy's has picked Wolves winger Mark Kennedy in the Irish 23-man squad for this summer's World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Kennedy was doubtful after suffering with a niggling groin injury at the end of the season but he returned for Wolves last match to prove his fitness.
The Ireland team are playing a testimonial for Niall Quinn in Sunderland on May 14th then are off to Dublin for the Nigeria match on May 17th and then kicking off their Group E campaign against Cameroon on June 1st.

Carl Robinson has left Molineux on a Bosman free transfer after he and the club didn't agree a new contract. He didn't have another team lined up, but it's thought there will plenty of offers made to him. Robinson was at Molineux for seven years joining in 1995 as a trainee, the midfielder has had six caps for Wales but only made 15 starts for Wolves this season.
Boss Dave Jones hasn't yet confirmed the midfielders exit as he wants to wait until he has spoken to each player individually, and discussed their situations with the chief executive and chairman.

Wolves chief executive Jez Moxey said at this mornings press conference: “The only way I can describe the feeling inside the club is as though we are in mourning. That’s how bad it feels."
“I think sometimes supporters question whether the management and directors of a club feel the same as they do, but everyone at Wolves is hurting very much.”
“We really want to underline how grateful we are to our supporters who have been fantastic this season. Their support grew in passion and intensity as the season progressed. They were terrific."
“We’ve been inundated with emails of encouragement and support for Dave Jones, the team and Sir Jack."
“I think people recognise that although we failed to win promotion, we have seen some fantastic football this season."
“The level of tremendous support we received is something for the players to hang onto.”

Jez Moxey also revealed that Kevin Muscat signed a pre-contract with Glasgow Rangers, a deal he believes to be potentially ‘illegal’ and breaking Football League rules. But he said that it might have been signed in ignorance of the regulations which were changed this season preventing players entering such agreements.
Jez said: “As far as we know Muscat has signed for Rangers. He admitted to signing a pre-contract a few weeks ago, which is in contravention of Football League rules, after first denying it."
“I’m sure innocence will play a part for the player. Although he may not have realised it, he was in breech of the rules. I don’t believe Rangers have breeched the rules."
“I’m very unhappy about this and I make no apologies for expressing my anger."
“As far as I am concerned, this is not yet dead. However I don’t believe we would be able to demonstrate that Rangers are in breech of any rules or regulations. I don’t believe they signed the contract.”

Dave Jones added: “Muzzy was a big part of the squad to get us into the Premiership. Then he decided he wanted to leave the club and sign for Rangers. From that day on we started to look for another full-back.”

More statements and information from the press conference can be found on the Official Wolves website WOW.

Wolves are holding a press conference tomorrow at 10.30am after boss Dave Jones had the annual meeting with the board of Directors on Friday. This years meeting would have seen Jones try to explain why after spending over £15 million on players and looking to have turned Wolves bad luck in Division 1 around it all went badly wrong.

Wolves boss Dave Jones is going to this summer's World Cup finals in Japan and Korea, to have a look for players and other countries training techniques.
Jones and a member of his backroom staff will be watching the tournament in May and June but it's thought there will be little money for Jones to spend unless he first unloads some of his big-earning, high-fee players.
Jones said "There is an opportunity to watch teams training and study their coaching routines as well as to go to games".
"It will be interesting to learn what they do differently in other countries. We will be there for a couple of weeks during the group stages because that¹s when all the teams are still there."

Wolves defender Kevin Muscat and midfielder Carl Robinson are expected to leave Molineux in the near future as their current Wolves' contracts have now expired.
Muscat has been linked with a move north to Rangers and has said for a long time he will not be staying in the West Midlands. Robinson refused to sign a new deal, and may leave on a free transfer but it isn't thought he has had any offers yet.
Some other first-team squad members are expected to be shown the Molineux exit door as Boss Dave Jones tries to slash the wage bill. Out of favour strikers Cedric Roussel and Michael Branch, midfielder Darren Bazeley are thought to be the first to go.
But Dave Jones might have to make his own money in the transfer market in order to buy any players this summer. Sir Jack ploughed £14million into a summer transfer kitty for the Wolves boss last summer and after the disappointment of missing out on promotion it's thought Sir Jack won't be getting his cheque book out.

Jez Moxey released the following statement on WOW: "Chairman Sir Jack Hayward, the board, the manager and all the players are bitterly disappointed not to have made it to the Millennium Stadium for the play-off final, thus ending our chances of gaining promotion this season."
"We would like to thank the fans for their marvellous support of the team throughout the season. We share the frustration and despair felt by them all today."
"The Club’s usual May board meeting will be taking place tomorrow (Friday 3^rd May) and at that meeting the board and manager will begin the process of analysing all aspects of the past season. We have made huge progress from finishing 12^th in 2001 but we must learn from the experience of this season in order to be stronger for next season."
"Over the Bank Holiday weekend the manager will be considering the player retained list and planning the pre-season programme."
"Many questions need to be asked and answered but the Club needs some time to reflect on what has happened. We will host a media conference at Molineux on Tuesday 7^th May at 10:30am."

Congratulations to Gary Lowe from Cheshire who has one last months programme in Spot The Ball, the competition will now run all summer and the prize is a signed pennant, click here for more details.

Wolves striker Nathan Blake has been included in Mark Hughes's Wales squad to play Germany on May 14th, It will be his 22nd international cap.
Joleon Lescott has been called-up to the England's under 20 squad for the International Under-21 Festival of Toulon. The first match is against China on Monday 6th May, with games against Poland, Portugal and Brazil over the following week. The final takes place on Friday 17th May.

Wolves boss Dave Jones said after Wolves season finished last night even though they beat Norwich 1-0: "We gave ourselves a mountain to climb by going two goals down in the first leg."
"This defeat has really hurt but the players gave their all and never slackened off."
"It was a superb goal by Cooper but we just couldn't get the second one that we needed."
"But I still feel that we've made a lot of progress and had a fantastic season."

10mins: Yellow card, Blake.
45mins: Yellow card, Lescott.
45mins: Yellow card, Sturridge.
45mins: Yellow card, Butler.
Half-Time: Wolves (1) 0-0 (3) Norwich.
46mins: Wolves substitution, Kennedy on for Newton.
46mins: Norwich substitution, Roberts on for Nielson.
70mins: Norwich substitution, Sutch on for Rivers.
74mins: Wolves substitution, Miller on for Halle.
77mins: GOAL, Cooper gives Wolves the lead and some hope.
90mins: Norwich substitution, Notman on for McVeigh.
5 minutes added.
Full-Time: Wolves (2) 1-0 (3) Norwich. Norwich go through 3-2 on aggregate.

Dean Sturridge has been voted 'The Wolves' Site Player of the Season, Alex Rae came second and Mark Kennedy third. Thanks to everyone who voted.

Wolves: (2) 1

Oakes, Lescott, Butler, Cooper, Newton, Cameron, Rae, Camara, Blake, Sturridge, Halle.

Subs: Naylor, Kennedy (46), Pollet, Miller (74), Murray.

Cards: Yellow: Blake, Lescott, Sturridge, Butler. Red: None.

Norwich: (3) 0

Green, Drury, Mackay, Fleming, Nielsen, Mulryne, Holt, Kenton, McVeigh, Easton, Rivers.

Subs: Crichton, Roberts (46), Notman (90), Sutch (70), Libbra.

Cards: Yellow: None. Red: None.

Cherry Red Records have released the ultimate collection of songs relating to Wolverhampton Wanderers. All the clubs anthems are gathered to celebrate the team and it’s players, past and present. The CD is official Wolves merchandise and a must for all Wolves fans Songs on the album are: We’re Back - Wolves Squad 1988 / Wonderful Wolves - Wolves Squad 1980 / The Liquidator - Harry J. All Stars / Welcome To The Crowd - Movement / Sing-song Just For Kicks - Billy Wright / Woolly Bully - The South Bank / Hi Ho Silver Lining - The Right Side / Fanfare Of A Common Man - Massed Bands Of The Royal Airforce / Wolves – Kinky / Go Wolves - The Wanderers / Raging Bull - No-One Is Two / We Are Wolves - Steve Brown / The Greatest Team The World Has Ever Seen - George Berry’s Afro / Everywhere We Go - The South Bankers / We’re Wolves - Joe Glagcton / A Potted History Of Wolves (spoken word).
Price is: UK 9.95, Europe 10.45, Rest of the World 10.95.
Thanks to Tim from Cherry Red Records who sent me a copy.

ITV Digital last night stopped broadcasting there subscription-based service, but the good news for football fans is the ITV Sport channel has been made a free view channel. So if you where planning on watching the second leg tonight you can still see it.