Deadline Day is off with a bang, with two Irish internationals in the headlines, for very different reasons.
We are still almost 16 hours from Jim White telling us the window has SLAMMED shut and already we have a couple of big stories involving Irish players.
The big news this morning is around Kevin Doyle. The Wexford striker is finally leaving Wolves in League 1, but his destination is somewhat of a surprise. Linked with QPR and Ipswich in recent days, it is another Championship club, Middlesbrough, who have nabbed him on loan for the remainder of the season according to reports.
Now managed by former Real Madrid assistant Aitor Karanka, Boro sit seven points outside the play-off spots this morning and they will be hoping Doyle can fire them up the table and hopefully back to the Premier League. Their last Irish loanee, Shay Given, has been in great form since he arrived from Aston Villa, so they will be hoping to repeat the trick with Doyle.
The other big story surrounds ‘wantaway’ Wes Hoolahan. Since the opening of the window it has been clear that he wants to leave Norwich, with a hook up with former boss Paul Lambert at Aston Villa his preferred option. Villa made a bid, or two, and a transfer request was even submitted by the Dubliner but that, and the bids, were rejected, as Chris Hughton was unwilling to let the creative midfielder leave.
But the story took another twist last night when a TV reporter jokingly asked Hoolahan if he was clearing out his stuff at the training ground. Hoolahan’s response?
“I hope so. This is a f***ing s***house club.”
Those comments will hardly endear Wes to the Carrow Road faithful and Hughton has said the matter will be investigated. So, with a lot of time still to go, we wouldn’t be surprised if Hoolahan was playing for somebody else this time tomorrow.
UPDATE: Now QPR are favourites to snatch Doyle from under the noses of Middlesbrough. One of the transfer sagas of the day we suspect.
We’ll be back with our usual Transfer Talk wrap up later this morning and we will have a live blog on all the day’s transfer activity kicking off later today too so keep it with JOE for what promises to be a long, but very interesting day.
