"Mr Jackett" like all football managers has to make decisions for the good of The Club. Some come off and some don't. That's life. However whilst the smaller errors can and should be overlooked, some others have a big impact on Wolves and Wolves' finances.
Some of his signings at the moment look poor, but they may still come good. Signings such as Saville, Rowe and VLP look like mistakes at the present, but time is still on their side (assuming that the VLP transfer doesn't happen). They may yet blossom.
However imo, Kenny has made some huge blunders which deserve to be discussed further:
The signing of Leon Clarke for £750k when anyone including the stadium cat predicted it was a bad signing falls into this category. Clarke failed to fit in at Wolves, failed to score the goals that he was expected to and promptly shown the door with Wolves chewing on a big loss.
So does the signing of Martinez coupled with his immediate promotion to No.1 This has been likened to McCarthy's signing of Johnson and straight away making him captain. We now seem to have two error-ridden goalies whereas before we had reliability and stability. Martinez should have been made to "earn" the jersey.
The failure to replace Sako, when it was recognised for more than a full season that Sako would be on his way. Instead, KJ alters the whole formation, away from one that got us to the verge of a play-off place. He now seems to accept that playing with wingers is in fact a better formation than the narrow one and has signed Ojo (loan) and Byrne to play alongside Henry and probably VLP. Hope that this works while at the same time, we can see Sako "tearing up trees" in the Prem.
The final "major blunder" is to transfer our best and most experienced centre half at the worst possible time (imo) and he tries to pull the wool over the eyes of the fans by stating "it's for football reasons" and "I like to get these issues sorted early". Stearman may not be missed in the longer term as Batth is due back from injury, Hause and EEL have some promise and Jackett might-well surprise us with a signing before 6pm today, however at the moment it looks a crass decision.
It could also be argued that playing Afobe deeper or even as a lone striker and dropping Dicko has been poor management! But I would argue that these two decisions are "usual" at most clubs and can be rectified relatively easily.
Kenny's honeymoon period is now over at Wolves and the fans are restless as judged by recent polls and on-line "chatter".
Failure won't be so easily tolerated this season as it was last. Expectation is so much higher so making such "daft mistakes" will not help his or Wolves' cause.
Jackett's biggest blunders.
posted on 2/9/15
So after posting the above i figured i would look into Byrne a little more, turns out in his 5 games this season, two have been on the left wing and he also featured at left back in the 2013-14 season a number of times.
Can't imagine thats the plan here surely, but who knows at this point.
posted on 2/9/15
Jackett has stated that Byrne can play right or left side or behind the striker in the 10 role.
posted on 2/9/15
My understanding is that Byrne commenced his pro career as a right back but has been converted to an attack minded right winger, and it's in a attacking role Wolves envisage using him.
We do have a few options now in wide positions with him, Henry, VLP, Ojo, Wallace and Graham. In fact we have a surplus of midfield players generally. Given how poor Afobe looked as a lone striker recently I guess unless we bring someone in on loan he will play off Le Fondre which I think will work fine. But that means only 4 in midfield and it will be interesting to see who Jackett selects for those positions and whether we revert to a standard 442 with genuine wide players, or stick with the narrow midfield we have used so far this season.
posted on 2/9/15
Perhaps we'll see the re-emergence of Siggy as number 3 striker. Or has he gone? Is he still alive?
posted on 2/9/15
Siggy remains our 6th choice striker, and we only have 3
posted on 2/9/15
I think there's a lot of confidence that Enobakhare can step up to the plate
posted on 2/9/15
Least we don't still have Leon Clarke
posted on 2/9/15
Give Reid a chance.
posted on 2/9/15
Think he's injured RJ.
posted on 2/9/15
Reid is done for the season isn't he?