Where is Stephen Ward????

tatter306 said:

Hi Albion fans Wolves fan in peace!

Where is Ward? Rotting in our “Group3” while he should be playing football.

For those of you who don’t know Jackett dumped several players in with the U21s at the start of last season (in fact on the day they returned for pre-season) stating they were not “part of his plans”.
Ward was one of those along with Kevin Doyle (briefly before he became part of Kenny’s plans and then got loaned out in January), Jamie O’Hara (until he was briefly part of Kenny’s plans and then wasn’t again), Karl Henry and Roger Johnson.

Henry went to QPR permanently last season and the others along with a number of Stale Solbakken’s signings have returned from loans and remain out of favour. Rather than dump them in the U21s this season Jackett has designated them “Group3” (alternatively known as the bomb squad) and made it clear (again) that they are not part of his plans.

All the talk is that these players were part of dressing room bust ups and cliques during the Solbakken debacle however I find that very difficult to believe when it comes to Ward.

He is not particularly popular with many Wolves fans and is usually denigrated as a poor LB who would have been better off remaining a striker but there are some such as myself who still have plenty of time for him.

That said he should be playing football and he isn’t going to play for us so the best thing all round is for him to get a move.

Wages are being quoted as the reason he hasn’t moved yet (I have no idea if this is true or not) with him allegedly on £13k a week and refusing to drop to the £10k a week he’s been offered. If this is true then he needs to pull his finger out and accept the deal; £10k a week and playing regularly MUST be better than £13k a week and not playing especially as he only has a year left and will find it more difficult to get a deal next season if he’s been idle for most of this.

If any more info becomes available at this end I’ll pop by and share it and I’ll keep and eye on this site to see what you lot are hearing.
Good luck for season.

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BensGrandad said:

Why not throw in O Hara as well horrible man but a better player than we had in midfield on Saturday only problem is the £160k estimated weekly wages for the 4 of them.

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maltaseagull said:

When is it my turn to start the daily Stephen Ward thread?

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Thunder Bolt said:

You've been allocated Friday 15th August.

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tatter306 said:

Your midfield must have been terrible for that to be true. Haven’t seen him play for nearly twelve months (and that was in Div3) but it looked like he would struggle to ever play at this level again.

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maltaseagull said:

When is it my turn to start the daily Stephen Ward thread?

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tatter306 said:

Hi Albion fans Wolves fan in peace!

Where is Ward? Rotting in our “Group3” while he should be playing football.

For those of you who don’t know Jackett dumped several players in with the U21s at the start of last season (in fact on the day they returned for pre-season) stating they were not “part of his plans”.
Ward was one of those along with Kevin Doyle (briefly before he became part of Kenny’s plans and then got loaned out in January), Jamie O’Hara (until he was briefly part of Kenny’s plans and then wasn’t again), Karl Henry and Roger Johnson.

Henry went to QPR permanently last season and the others along with a number of Stale Solbakken’s signings have returned from loans and remain out of favour. Rather than dump them in the U21s this season Jackett has designated them “Group3” (alternatively known as the bomb squad) and made it clear (again) that they are not part of his plans.

All the talk is that these players were part of dressing room bust ups and cliques during the Solbakken debacle however I find that very difficult to believe when it comes to Ward.

He is not particularly popular with many Wolves fans and is usually denigrated as a poor LB who would have been better off remaining a striker but there are some such as myself who still have plenty of time for him.

That said he should be playing football and he isn’t going to play for us so the best thing all round is for him to get a move.

Wages are being quoted as the reason he hasn’t moved yet (I have no idea if this is true or not) with him allegedly on £13k a week and refusing to drop to the £10k a week he’s been offered. If this is true then he needs to pull his finger out and accept the deal; £10k a week and playing regularly MUST be better than £13k a week and not playing especially as he only has a year left and will find it more difficult to get a deal next season if he’s been idle for most of this.

If any more info becomes available at this end I’ll pop by and share it and I’ll keep and eye on this site to see what you lot are hearing.
Good luck for season.

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symyjym said:

Thanks for the rundown, and well done for bouncing back up.

It was mentioned on here recently that the sticking point might be regarding a loyalty bonus which Wolves don’t want to pay, but want us to include in his purchase. Something like that, I’m not sure on the exact detail, so it sounds like £150k drop in wages plus maybe another £100k in a loyalty bonus.
Obviously it will be his agent advising him on his legal situation and the approach.

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tatter306 said:

You’re welcome and thank you – it was embarrassing ending up where we did but Jackett did an excellent job last season. You can only beat what’s in front of you and we did that with some style and with a gear to spare at times in the second half of the season.

The loyalty bonus has never been mentioned this end. We (the club) stated time and again that we were not subsidising any of the loans last season – clubs were paying full whack or players were taking a cut – then all of a sudden the local rag was reporting we were subsidising £3k of Wards wages.

I do not know if that is true or not.

The fee has been mentioned as a sticking point a few times but it is generally perceived that it is the £3k a week wage gap that is stopping the move.

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maltaseagull said:

When is it my turn to start the daily Stephen Ward thread?

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fleet said:

Maybe we could move to a morning thread and an afternoon thread to give more or us a chance? It seems that policy has been adopted on a few subjects already

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tatter306 said:

You’re welcome and thank you – it was embarrassing ending up where we did but Jackett did an excellent job last season. You can only beat what’s in front of you and we did that with some style and with a gear to spare at times in the second half of the season.

The loyalty bonus has never been mentioned this end. We (the club) stated time and again that we were not subsidising any of the loans last season – clubs were paying full whack or players were taking a cut – then all of a sudden the local rag was reporting we were subsidising £3k of Wards wages.

I do not know if that is true or not.


The fee has been mentioned as a sticking point a few times but it is generally perceived that it is the £3k a week wage gap that is stopping the move.

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GingerBeerMan said:

The loyalty bonus previously mentioned is the reason. Wolves believe they shouldn't have to pay it as Ward is moving, Brighton believe they shouldn't have to pay it as it isn't their duty. Ward obviously wants the money so is staying put until he gets his money. If the bonus is 100k, Wolves would be better off paying him (or paying 50/50) and getting him off their books.

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