League starts in 25 days but transfer momentum has wanedpublished at 14:46 BST 20 July
Mike Taylor
BBC Radio WM reporter
Image source, Getty Images"We want to have a team well prepared to go to our pre-season so we have enough time for the players to train with each other, because there is definitely going to be a lot of new faces this year."
The problem with saying things in public is that people remember that you said them.
The above are words from Nathan Shi, in his first summer as Wolves executive chairman, spoken during the fans forum at Molineux on 12 May.
Everyone present could agree that he had diagnosed a regular problem – Wolves always trying to do deals at the last minute – and sensibly identified that it would be much better if they didn't do that any more.
Sure enough, Kieran Trippier and Raul Jimenez arrived in quick time.
But in the month since Wolves made the apparently sudden decision to let Rob Edwards go and replace him with Cesar Peixoto, that momentum has waned.
Rafiki Said finally appeared last week, and now Joao Gomes has gone, nobody having credibly expected him to stay anyway.
It may not be fair to link the change of head coach to the slowing of the revamp. No doubt Peixoto arrived with ideas. It's also important to say that very few other clubs have their squads largely in place yet either.
But whether you thought the decision to fire Edwards was right or wrong, to replace the man the recruitment team had been working with for months was never going to make the squad overhaul go more smoothly. And particularly not to let three weeks of a short summer pass first.
Shi's ambition of readying the squad for pre-season was well-intentioned. Of course, it would be a good thing. But it would surely also be an expensive thing.
Anyone who has bought a house or car knows haggling takes time. Speeding up the process often means giving way on price, which in this case may be the premium to pay if you want your squad ready earlier.
Some Wolves fans think Gomes was worth more than Villa have been asked for. But players are ultimately worth only what another club will pay for them at the moment the deal is done.
However important Gomes has been to Wolves – and he has remained deservedly popular – there has evidently not been a stampede for his services.
Could Wolves have received more if they had played hardball until the deadline? Perhaps.
"Of course, there's going to be changes before the end of the transfer window, absolutely," says Wolves technical director Matt Jackson today, "but we really like the shape that we're in at the moment."
Good. But the first league game is now only 25 days away...
