Wolves striker Kevin Doyle dumped by boss Kenny Jackett
Wolves striker Kevin Doyle was today exiled from the club's first-team squad along with £2m midfielder Tongo Doumbia and misfit defender Georg Margreitter.
The trio have been told to train with fellow outcasts Roger Johnson, Jamie O'Hara and Stephen Ward – away from boss Kenny Jackett's new-look main squad.
The move is the latest sign of Jackett's determination for a clean break from the side that suffered successive relegations from the Premier League to League One.
Johnson, O'Hara and Ward – along with the now-departed Karl Henry, who joined QPR for £1m – have been training away from the first team since Jackett's arrival in the summer.
But £6.5m Doyle, a transfer target for Celtic; Doumbia, who cost £2m when he signed from Rennes and Margreitter, who has made just one substitute appearance in the league since signing from Austria Vienna for £500,000 last summer, have now been told to join the group.
They have been instructed to report for training in the afternoon – after the remainder of Jackett's senior players and the Under-21s have left Compton Park.
It means the six will have no contact with the rest of the players at the training ground, and is the latest pointer signalling that their futures lie away from Molineux.
Celtic reportedly upped their offer for Doyle to £750,000 today, but Wolves are believed to be holding out for £2m. Sheffield Wednesday enquired about Johnson and QPR are interested in O'Hara, but there have been no offers for either player.
Johnson's £20,000-a-week plus wages were always going to be a sticking point.
And today the Owls snapped up free agent and former Hull stopper Kamil Zayatte, 28, on a two-year deal after he left Istanbul.
Wednesday's former Wolves boss Dave Jones signed Johnson at Cardiff.
Jackett admitted he wasn't surprised at the lack of bids for the exiled players.
"They are high earners," he said. "It hasn't surprised me because as you go up, the choices become more expensive."
Johnson and O'Hara, who have two and three years respectively on their deals, took salary cuts as part of relegation clauses in their contracts after the club dropped out of the Premier League, but still earn more than £20,000-a-week.
Doumbia played all but eight minutes of the friendlies against Chesterfield and Barnsley. But Jackett hasn't been convinced by him and the Mali international is another higher earner.
Meanwhile, former Wolves loan defender Jack Robinson today joined Paul Ince's Blackpool on a season-long loan from Liverpool.
It is understood the Tangerines were keen on Ward but his £13,000-a-week wages were too much and Wolves were unwilling to supplement them.