Back in November during the World Cup, Wolves sat bottom of the Premier League, so down to work all departments went, watching targets, speaking with players, negotiating with other clubs, and the result, in the initial stages at least, seems a huge success, with the club’s current form under Lopetegui the polar opposite to before his arrival.
Matheus Cunha and Pablo Sarabia strengthened the attacking areas, Mario Lemina and Craig Dawson brought Premier League know-how and steel to the opposite end, while Joao Gomes hit the ground running on debut at Southampton and Dan Bentley’s influence off the pitch was noticeable from day one at Compton Park, bringing the best out of Jose Sa in the process.
Hobbs himself took over as sporting director as Lopetegui joined the club in November, having previously served as chief scout and head of player recruitment, and has given the transfer window his undivided attention since and the reward is a more balanced squad, with greater strength in depth, which he believes will set the foundations for an exciting future at Molineux.
On his first window reflections
“We’ve had a period where we’ve had a new manager come in, the World Cup break, a mini pre-season while we waited for our players to come back from the World Cup, so I think it’s been a really testing time, but maybe a really advantageous time as well, because we’ve had that time for the manager to work with the players and understand what we needed. Leading into the transfer window we had plenty of time to meet, especially when we were in Marbella.
“I feel I’ve been lucky to come in at that time and start my role with a new manager, because we’ve had time to really evaluate who we are as a football club, what we want our team to look like and what we think our fans want our team to look like. We’ve been able to take our time with that before heading into the new window.”
January 2023 ✨
— Wolves (@Wolves) February 3, 2023
Six new players became part of the pack 🐺 pic.twitter.com/CH9XUToXVq
On getting six targets in
“It’s hard work by a lot of people, over a long period of time. There are players we’ve been scouting for 18 months, two years, there are players we looked at in the summer and tried to sign and some we didn’t try to sign under the last manager. For us, it’s testament to the hard work done by a number of people, the scouting and recruiting team which I was part of before, but also with the new manager and his staff coming in, most of the players they knew, but a few they knew with a limited amount of information, so wanted to go away and do their work.
“They are all over the detail with every player, so even the players they knew, they wanted to go away and do work on and what’s great is the players we put forward, they go away and do work that’s needed from their perspective to be comfortable, then they come back and it marries up with us. Then it comes over to me to try and get the deals done. It’s not always simple, as we saw with Joao [Gomes], we can’t control everything, but the club have been great, backing us and the manager, wanting to try and give him the players he was after.”
On Lopetegui speaking to potential signings
“I think they were really important for us because we were very sure on the type of individuals that we wanted to bring in, the right personalities. Julen wouldn’t sign a player he’s not spoken to, he talks a lot about the feel for a player, and if I’m the player, it’s really important also because they want to feel they’re coming to a club, especially from halfway around the world, that they believe the manager really wants them there.
“I think it’s for both sides, for us to get a feel for the player and for the player to feel like the club really want them, it works well for both. So far, the players have come in and settled, felt important and part of it, and that’s enabled them to develop and find their role quickly within the squad.”
On the quick impact of the signings
“It’s always nice when a new signing comes in and gets off to a great start. It helps them settle, helps them feel part of it, but also as a club it shows the work we’ve done has been the right work. With different players there’ll be ups and downs and we appreciate that, it takes different lengths of time for people to settle, but the six signings have all come in and had an impact, whether that’s what you see on the pitch or like Dan [Bentley] has had behind the scenes, providing competition to Jose [Sa]. All six have had an impact and we’re really happy about that.”
On looking beyond just this season with signings
“My job is to work two or three windows ahead. We focus a lot on the balance of our squad. That’s positionally, that’s attributes within certain units of the pitch. If you look at our midfield now, we look really well-balanced with different types of players, which gives the manager more options when it comes to who we’re playing.
“We have to look at age profile, contract profile and we also understand that if players come and develop quickly like Diogo [Jota] did, then big clubs come will in. We also know that under this manager, the way the players are playing and with our age profile, there will be times when big clubs want to come in and take your players and we have to be able to react to that. Sometimes they stay longer than we anticipate, which is great, like Ruben [Neves], while sometimes we have to accept it’s the right time, but we have to be set up and have done enough work, so if somebody comes in we’re ready to go.”
Our January six. 😍
— Wolves (@Wolves) February 1, 2023
🗓☑️ pic.twitter.com/BIfCuRHjEP
On learning for future windows
“I think it’s reaffirmed a lot of the processes we had in place which maybe weren’t utilised before, for one reason or another. I think it’s given us a more balanced approach to the work we do – I’m glad it looked calm, because it didn’t feel that way. It’s never going to be straightforward, if you’re trying to take players from other teams and it’s their best player, you’re going to expect other clubs to get involved.
“Just because it starts off well like, you have to be able to react. Joao [Gomes] forced it through and without his stance, maybe it wouldn’t have been possible. It goes back to the work you do on the individual, the way you sell the club to them, which is really important. It shows our processes work and if we use them in the right way, and the manager enables us to use them in the right way and endorses them, which he has, we’re capable of doing good work, especially within a window.”
On working with Lopetegui and coaching staff
“They love the area and we spend a huge amount of time here [at Compton Park]. We’re here at seven o’clock in the morning and we don’t leave until eight, nine o’clock at night, so you grow a real fondness for people. They are good people, good men, that make people want to work hard for them because of the type of people they are. It’s not coming in through fear or anything like that, but you see their work ethic and you want to match that.
“The way they’ve been so collaborative, across all the departments, whether it’s the analysis, the recruitment, the medical, the academy – they care. They really care and they’ve really cared quickly, and that makes everyone buy into what they want, and you go that extra yard for them because of the people they are.”
