CM Story - The Story of Josh McEwen

Wolves are delighted to announce the double signings of Wouter Goes and Romain Esse from AZ Alkmaar and Crystal Palace. Wouter has signed for a fee in the region of £24,000,000 on a five year deal with Romain Esse signing for £5,000,000 also on a five year deal. Both players gave their thoughts on the move 

Wouter Goes “I am delighted to finally be able to challenge myself in the best league in the world. I feel like I am ready for this challenge now and can’t wait to get started and help Wolves start climbing the table and trying to stay in the Premier League. I’ve watched a lot of Premier League this season and you can see in the last couple of months that Wolves have changed their style of play and I think the new style of play will really suit me and the way I like to play I can’t wait to get started.” 

Romain Esse: “I’m really excited to be here and grateful for the opportunity Wolves have given me. It’s been a challenging period at Palace because I didn’t get as many minutes as I would have liked, but I’ve stayed focused and kept working hard. Now I’m looking forward to showing what I can do, helping the team, and making an impact in the Premier League. I can’t wait to get started and contribute to helping Wolves stay in the Premier League this season.” 

The manager added this on the signings “We are really pleased to be able to welcome both Wouter and Romain to the talented team we have here already. I think the investment from the board not only backs myself but also shows the belief they have that we can stay in the Premier League. To be able to go out and sign Wouter is a statement signing he is a fantastic young defender who we hope can develop in to a world class defender here. Romain I think has shown glimpses of what he is capable of and our job now is to unlock that on a consistent basis so he can show just how good he really is.” 

In more news a number of players have left with Toti joining AZ Alkmaar for £6,000,000 whilst Daniel Bentley has joined Southampton for £820,000. 

Wolves (4-3-3 Defend): Johnstone, Hoever, Goes, Krejci, Wolfe, Gomes, Andre, Jashari, Arias, Arokodare, George 

Subs: Sa, Agbadou, Tchatchoua, Bueno, Doherty, Munetsi, Esse, Hwang Hee Chan, Larsen 

Newcastle United (4-3-3): Pope, Trippier, Schar, Botman, Hall, Tonali, Guimaraes, Joelinton, Murphy (Off 61), Wissa, Gordon 

Subs: Ramsdale, Burn, Elanga (On 61), Osula, Thiaw, Barnes, Woltemade, Ramsey, Krafth 

Q: Josh a fantastic late goal and a first for the club for Jhon Arias. How does it feel to get back to winning ways after the last couple of results? 

Josh McEwen: “Obviously it feels great getting back to winning ways after the cup loss and the loss to Everton it was important we focused on today's game and just put them results out of our mind and we did that. I thought we started fast got the early goal and were in control the obviously Sam (Johnstone) Has dropped a howler with an awful kick and it has given them their equaliser but other than that I thought we defended well Sam made saves when he had to but I thought against a team in the top four we showed how good we are when we’re at our best.” 

Q: Eddie disappointing to lose the game so late what did you make of the match today? 

Eddie Howe: “Yeah, I thought we started the game a little bit slow, it took us a little to long to really start playing our football and start imposing ourselves on the game. I made a comment to the lads of the importance of starting brightly it’s one of them games where if you start on top the fans would instantly have gotten nervous and it would have hopefully fed through to their players but that didn’t happen fairplay Wolves started well and got the goal they deserved. I think a draw would have been a fair result in the end because after we scored I thought we controlled alot of the game their keepers made a couple of worldies from Wissa to keep them in it and then they’ve gone and scored a great goal to win it.” 

Wolves have continued their busy winter transfer window as 2 new players have signed with four players leaving as Jean-Ricner Bellegarde has signed for Fulham for £6,800,000, Marshall Munetsi has joined Brentford for £9,000,000, Twanda Chirewa has joined Konyaspor for £1,300,000 and right back Ki-Jana Hoever has joined Vfb Stuttgart for £9,200,000. 

In more positive news for Wolves fans they have completed the signings of right back Joaquin Garcia from Velez Sarsfield whilst young midfielder Alex Toth has signed for £4,000,000 from Hungarian side Ferencvarosi on five year deals. It means Wolves have signed six players this window in what has been a busy window although manager Josh McEwen has said it could have been a different window had they signed some of their top targets. We sat down with the new players and the gaffer on the latest signings 

Joaquin Garcia “I am pleased to be here in the Premier league one of the best leagues in the world. I am very happy to sign for a team like Wolves who showed strong interest in me obviously it is a World cup year so if everything goes to plan maybe I can force my way into the Argentina set up for the World cup this summer but my main focus is on breaking into the team and showing the fans what I can do. I think since Josh (McEwen) has joined Wolves you can see an improvement in the results and performances but there is still a lot of work to do and I hope I can help contribute in a positive way in keeping Wolves in the Premier League.” 

Alex Toth “I am excited to test myself in the Premier league, when the offer came in from Wolves I spoke to my old manager Robbie Keane who obviously played for Wolves to better understand the club and he told me nothing but good things about the club, obviously he wanted me to stay but I want to test myself in the top leagues to really reach my potential and after speaking with Josh (McEwen) it was a no brainer to join the club. I am excited to get started and hope I can help the team fight to move up the table.” 

Josh McEwen “Obviously it has been a busy window for us both in terms of outgoings and incomings probably busier then we had anticipated but we’re happy with the business we’ve done. Signing Alex (Toth) and Joaquin (Garcia) really adds quality to the team and we’re confident now that we have a squad that can push us higher up the table whilst playing some good football. We missed out on quite a few targets as well to be honest, we made an approach for Mathieu Epolo who ended up going to Atalanta, we went for Craig Rigg who rejected us to sign for Bayern Munchen, we also tried to sign Jack Clarke (Ipswich) and Zakaria El Ouahdi (Genk) but both players weren’t sure on the move so we moved on from them. The outgoings obviously we wanted to keep Ki-Jana but he had an approach from a team fighting for Champions league football in Germany so he asked to leave and we received an acceptable offer so decided to let him go.” 

Manchester City (4-3-3): Donnarumma, Nune, Dias, Ake, Gvardiol, Kimmich, Reijnders, Silva (Off 62), Foden, Haaland, Doku (Off 72) 

Subs: Ortega, Khusanov, Kovacic, Marmoush (On 72), Lewis, Savinho, Dickson, Rodri (On 62), Ait-Nouri 

Wolves (4-3-3 Defend): Johnstone, Tchatchoua, Goes, Krejci, Wolfe, Gomes, Andre, Jashari, Arias (Off 72), Arokodare, George (Off 72) 

Subs: Sa, Agbadou, Toth, Bueno, Doherty, Mane, Esse (On 72), Hwang Hee Chan (On 72), Larsen 

Q: Pep a much tough game than many expected for your side. How happy are you with this win? 

Pep Guardiola: “A very tough match against a team that kept fighting, kept working hard and err they tried to win the game themselves. I thought my team fought really hard we created some chances maybe not as many as I would like in terms of the final third not finding Erling (Haaland) enough, but Wolves played a fantastic game. We kept fighting as we have all season and we must fight to win the Premier League which is our aim. Every team raises their level when they come to the Etihad you saw it with Wolves today they have a young hungry manager who came to the Etihad to win not many managers do that so I think he has a good future.” 

Q: Josh not the result you wanted, what are your thoughts on the game as a whole? 

Josh Nelson: “It was a bitter pill to swallow conceding so late but I honestly thought the lads gave it their all and you could see how much the fans appreciated it and how much we appreciate them at the end there when we have gone to thank them for their fantastic support. We had chances we took a lead but then they had a lucky bounce the ball fell to Haaland and he's equalised, they then got a penalty that was never a penalty but obviously Sam (Johnstone) has done brilliant to save it and then at the end they’ve gone and scored a great goal to win it. I’ve just had a little chat with Pep and he’s said he admired the way my lads went about it today which is nice to hear but words won’t keep us in the Premier League.” 

Wolves (4-3-3 Defend): Johnstone, Tchatchoua, Goes, Agbadou, Bueno, Gomes, Andre (Off 72), Jashari, Arias (Off 72), Arokodare, George (Off 72) 

Subs: Sa, Krejci, Toth (On 72), Wolfe, Doherty, Garcia, Esse (On 72), Hwang Hee Chan, Larsen (On 72) 

Bournemouth (4-2-3-1): Petrovic, Araujo, Diakite, Senesi, Truffert, Cook, Adams, Brooks (Off 83), Semenyo, Scott (Off 52), Unal (Off 68) 

Subs: Dennis, Bueno, Gannon-Doak (On 83), Kroupi, Hill, Kluivert (On 52), Evanilson (On 68), Christie, Soler 

Q: Josh back to winning ways with another home win. Do you think your home form could be enough to keep you in the Premier League that’s sixleague wins in a row at home? 

Josh McEwen: “I know I may sound a bit like a broken record but look at who we’ve faced away Man United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton and Man City I think our away form has been unfairly scrutinised without really mentioning who we have played, I’m not saying we are going to win every away game now because every game in the Premier league is hard but it is as hard a run as you can have. We have made Molineux a fortress other than that cup loss we are unbeaten here and look we know we need some away points to ease the pressure of winning every home game but we are confident that we will pick up some points away from home.” 

Q: Andoni a disappointing loss which sees you lose ground on the European places. Are these the types of games you think you should be winning? 

Andoni Iraola: “We want to try and win every game. Wolves start fast we have seen that lately and I thought we did well overcoming their early barrage we grew into the game dominated the ball but in the first half we didn’t create enough chances and then we concede a goal right at the end of the half when we were having our best spell. Second half I thought we created a lot more chances their keeper made some good saves but I can’t argue with the result because Wolves were dangerous the whole game. They are in great form at home and you can see why today with how intense they play the game.”