Filed under: Wolverhampton, Premier League, Football
Suggestions Mick McCarthy is ready to offer James McFadden £60,000-a-week to join Wolves should be taken with a pinch of salt.In fact, perhaps there was a zero too many on the end of stories which have appeared in national newspapers, but even £6,000-a-week might be pushing it.
That kind of five-figure sum would certainly blow any interest Celtic and Rangers have in offering the Scotland international a route back north of the border.
That kind of cash would also be madness for a midfielder who has not kicked a ball for a year and when he was fit and firing hardly lit up the Premier League during his time at Everton and Birmingham City.
Granted, McFadden, on his day, has all the mercurial talent which can turn any game on its head. The problem is, he has his day once a season, rather than once a week.
Which is why he was earning nowhere near that kind of money at Goodison Park and the same can be said of his time at St Andrew's.
Alex McLeish was supposed to be his mentor from their days together with the Scotland national team and even the Birmingham manager of the time was left scratching his head in frustration over McFadden's inconsistent nature.
McFadden is a man on trial more than ever before in his career in the Premier League.
So what on earth would McCarthy want to be throwing around those sums on a player who is still taking the first tentative steps back to action after a cruciate ligament injury?
The bottom line is that such a gamble is not the kind of one McCarthy is likely to take in the first place. The Wolves boss much prefers to take a punt on a player from lower leagues and see if he can work his magic.
Rehabilitating stars who have failed to shine is hardly his style.
More importantly dragging in a player of McFadden's poor track record at the highest level and offering to pay him what will be more than any other player is earning at Molineux is a recipe for disaster.
McCarthy has gradually built a dressing room at Wolves which is united and does not appear to have a solitary player pulling in the opposite direction.
Harmony has been a big part of them taking impressive steps in the last couple of seasons towards establishing themselves as regular members of the Premier League elite.
He has managed to achieve this while adding expesnsive signings in the last couple of seasons, such as Kevin Doyle and Jamie O'Hara.
To maintain that delicate balance, McCarthy will have been at pains to ensure that no one individual is elevated to the kind of salary which will put the entire operation out of kilter.
So McFadden should not be banking on a massive pay-day at Molineux any time soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment