Matt Maher: Rival bosses with crucial window of opportunity
The region’s two newest football bosses have entered the most important few days of their reigns to date.
For Wolves head coach Bruno Lage and his Albion counterpart Valerien Ismael, what happens between now and Tuesday night’s transfer deadline may go a long way to shaping their fortunes over the first half of the season.
Both are in need of reinforcements if the promise of the campaign’s early weeks is to be fulfilled.
No-one was expecting the Baggies to be splashing the cash this summer, particularly with Sam Johnstone, a player whose sale would have generated a bulk of the transfer kitty, now set to stay put.
But it was still a surprise to hear Ismael, in the aftermath of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup defeat to Arsenal, concede he is now counting on players to move out before being able to bring anyone else in.
The more we see of Albion this season, the more the Frenchman appears a canny appointment. He wasted little time in delivering the shot in the arm required after the depressing grind to relegation last season.
An Albion team which won only five league matches all last term in the top flight has already won three this time around and we are not yet out of August. Their football has often been exhilarating. Just a handful of games in, there is a sense Ismael’s first-choice XI is going to be too hot for many opponents to handle.
Yet expecting that first XI to remain fit and firing through the gruelling 46-match Championship marathon is fanciful. Already the Baggies will be missing centre-back Matt Clarke for several weeks due to a hamstring injury and that is at least in an area where they have cover. The loss of right-sided wing-back Darnell Furlong for any extended period of time would cause Ismael a far more significant headache, while the strength of the Baggies midfield beneath the first-choice pairing of Alex Mowatt and Jake Livermore is questionable.
Robert Snodgrass, when back up to full speed, appears a serious back-up option in that position and is a talented enough player to make it work. But while early glimpses of Quevin Castro suggest he has the ability to thrill on occasion, the 19-year-old may still lack the consistency required to feature regularly for a promotion-chasing team.
That, clearly, is what Albion are, with almost every observer putting them among the favourites. While the squad remains thin in key positions, however, there remains an element of jeopardy.
Up the A41 at Molineux, meanwhile, Lage is also in need of further, quality additions.
The opening matches of his reign have been encouraging, even if the results in the two Premier League fixtures so far have not gone Wolves’ way. Watching Lage’s team is not likely to be dull.
For his rebuild to be given the impetus it deserves, however, Wolves are in need of quality signings in defence, midfield and probably attack too. Lage has made no secret of this.
In that respect, the next few days feel big for Fosun too. For all the talk of 20-year plans and building the brand off the pitch, the difference between success and failure in football is almost always down to recruitment.
In the summers of 2017 and 2018, Wolves were brilliant at that. The arrivals in those windows formed the backbone of the team which delivered promotion and all that followed in the Premier League and Europe under Nuno Espirito Santo.
Since then their transfer dealings have been far less effective. Of the players signed since September, 2018, perhaps only Pedro Neto could be described an unqualified success. Wolves have not made a serious investment in central defence, meanwhile, since signing Willy Boly more than four years ago.
In an age where some splash oil money with apparent abandon, there is rightly a reluctance to be too critical of an ownership who increasingly preach the importance of sustainability and are prepared to take the long-term view.
On the other hand, there is the cold sporting reality to consider. Momentum is so important and between 2017 and 2019, Wolves made up a colossal amount of ground. Without further investment in quality performers, they risk ceding a fair chunk of that with those other pretenders to the Premier League elite – West Ham, Leeds and Villa – marching into the distance.
After four largely successful years of Nuno, Fosun decided the time was right to freshen things up. Lage may well be the ideal man for the job but without appropriate backing, his task will be that much harder.
