Jez Moxey: We were correct to sell Richard Stearman
Richard Stearman was sold to Fulham as he was about to be overtaken by the squad's younger defenders, chief executive Jez Moxey has stated.
Stearman's surprising £2million sale on transfer deadline day prompted an angry reaction from supporters.
The club's player of the year for 2014/15 has played every league game in 2015 and was the current team captain.
With no replacement forthcoming, Wolves have elected to place their faith in youngsters such as Ethan Ebanks-Landell, Kortney Hause and Dominic Iorfa.
And Moxey vehemently defended the sale. He said: "Given the position that we've got with the current players in the team, Richard Stearman is a player at the time of his career where he needs to be playing regularly.
"They notoriously start low. They're not a concern at the moment, no.
"We haven't had a particularly good start, have we.?
"People aren't coming as much as they did last time. They will come back.
"I don't think it's purely down to results. There are lots of reasons why some people don't show up, why they come back in greater numbers.
"The stadium redevelopment project is all to do to getting back to the Premier League and having the money to spend another £20million on the stand.
"If I had a message to the fans it would be sit tight, enjoy the ride, get behind the team.
"We've got a 46-game campaign, let's see what happens.
"Ultimately this boils down to, as always, how the team performs on the field of play and results. That's where we're going to be judged.
"What we're not going to do is divulge publicly what we're prepared to do and what we're not prepared to do (on spending big money on players).
"I'm interested in making sure we follow the process we've started to hopefully get to the Premier League and stay there, that's the plan.
"We've got a very clear plan about the way we're trying to do things."[/breakout]
"There was a genuine concern that he would very quickly be overtaken by the players that are currently in the team.
"The decision was taken to sell him because we didn't want Richard Stearman sitting on the bench if the young players that have been overtaking other players over the last year or two overtake him and he's sitting on the bench as a senior player, not playing.
"Given there was a lot of interest in him, from the club he went to, the decision was taken it was the right thing to do.
"The brightest, the most successful coaches and managers in history have been the ones that have sold the players just at the right time and replaced them with people that are better.
"That's the coach's view on it and it's a view we support."
In an Express & Star poll 82 per cent felt it was the wrong decision to sell Stearman. And with Wolves yet to keep a clean sheet this season, that decision will continue to come under fierce scrutiny.
Does Moxey agree it's a risk to place faith in younger players?
"I don't necessarily agree with that per se," he said. "With Danny Batth just about to come back from injury, who knows what the team would have been if Danny had been in the squad.
"You can dissect the decision but Kenny's been clear about why the decision was made and people just think that it's something else.
"But there it is, we were concerned Richard Stearman would have been sitting on the bench in the not too distant future."
Wolves spent around £3.5m in the summer, signing seven players, with three on those on loan. With Derby County, Burnley and Middlesbrough spending around £15m each, supporters have questioned whether Wolves have brought in enough quality to mount a sustained promotion challenge.
But Moxey was unequivocal in his assertion that Wolves are going about things in the right way, both in the short and long term.
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"We all know what the project is," he said. "That hasn't changed. We're six games into a season. The objective, as always, has been this football club in our opinion ought to be able to get into the top six and give ourselves a chance of getting promotion.
"The idea is to get promotion and stay in the Premier League if we can."
Wolves are the only club in the Championship not to have a player aged 30 or over in their squad.
Is buying young, potential-laden players a risk?
"It's a risky strategy when you buy any player," Moxey said. "What's risky is taking a
flamboyant financial approach where it doesn't work and it backfires on you, and you can never get out of it.
"If you want to look back, there's been a legacy that we've had to deal with because things didn't work out the way we all wanted it to."
