19 Sep 2017 11:31:45
I have a translation of a Rumanian sports paper article which tells of what happened to Wolves' 2 attempts to sign a striker:

Wolverhampton Wanderers agents went to Romania and to the Netherlands to negotiate the transfer terms of FCSB’s Romanian striker Denis Alibec (26) and Dutchman Jurgen Locadia (23) from PSV Eindhoven.

Due to the extremely short time of the transfer period, Wolves management set out to acquire the two players to prevent a double failure and Wolverhampton prepared emergency options for Alibec or Locadia to carry out the medical before midnight.

The agent who arrived in Bucharest immediately entered into talks with Valeriu Argaseala, the offer being 10 million euros, of which 10 percent was to be returned to the agent. If FCSB agreed to the sum, Wolverhampton had prepared a written offer.

Alibec agreed personal terms (a weekly salary of nearly 25,000 euros) that would have earned him a five times higher income than in Romania!
The talks lasted until around 7pm, but they came to a standstill due to George Becali's request. The financier raised the price to 15 million euros, 50 percent more than Wolves offered. €25 million is Denis Alibec's buyout clause set out in his FCSB contract.

Knowing about the block in the negotiations in Romania, the heads of Wolverhampton urged the transfer of Jurgen Locadia and flew him in at 7pm local time by private plane to the Wolverhampton. Locadia was undergoing a full medical visit when his transfer collapsed!

PSV coach Phillip Cocu decided to keep Locadia due to the failure of the negotiations with an attacker chosen to replace Locadia, so the English club missed out, but managed to loan in the defensive midfielder Alfred N'Diaye from Villarreal.
Alibec stayed at FCSB after a Summer of talks with English clubs, Stoke City, Hull City and Wolverhampton.


1.) 19 Sep 2017
19 Sep 2017 15:24:05
We left it late but we had a bloody good try.


2.) 19 Sep 2017
19 Sep 2017 18:25:15
Yes we did . Onwards and upwards COYW.


3.) 19 Sep 2017
19 Sep 2017 20:24:23
Who's this buur guy who's starting today.


4.) 20 Sep 2017
20 Sep 2017 11:27:18
Interesting, especially as the club have come out and said signing a striker wasn't a priority. Private planes on deadline day shows it being a clear priority.


5.) 20 Sep 2017
20 Sep 2017 14:26:34
Irrespective of the priorities, which change dependant upon many external factors, Wolves have shown new values which are constant and consistant.
The fact that we have the calibre to have tried to do business in this way and not be blackmailed into paying over the odds is world class business practice, rather than getting into the reactive cattle market of football that many clubs fall into.
We are in safe hands. I suspect that the two strikers we were chasing may already be on our radar for January.