Jelle Van Damme needs to man up.
We signed him to plug the troublesome left-back slot and it has been a bit of a mystery to us fans as to why his appearances so far have all been on the wing.
We found out against Chelsea – he was torn apart repeatedly by Bosingwa. Thank goodness Stephen Ward was up to the task.
I keep hearing how he’s homesick, how he misses his previous club and how his wife is heavily pregnant back in Belgium.
He wants out and I would be happy to hold the door open for him, but only if the deal was good for Wolves.
It’s not going to be though. A loan back to Anderlecht would be useless to us.
They get a player and we get his transfer value depreciated by his age and another season in the footballing wilderness.
Will they give us the £2.5 million back that we paid for him? No chance because they know he wants out – it would just be bad business.
Will another Belgian club gamble that money so that he can get back to his native land and be with his family? No way.
If it was up to me, I’d be telling him that his bed is made and he needs to start sleeping in it.
What was he thinking moving to a different country when his wife was pregnant if they had no intention of moving her here?
If he was brave enough to be without her when there was a big pile of cash on the table, he should be brave enough to live with the consequences.
Either move her here Jelle, or man up and do your job without moaning because it’s not going to endear you to the manager, your team mates or us fans.
It’s counter productive to the positive attitude Mick has always tried to instill in his squad.
At Stamford Bridge there was a certain amount of inevitability to the 2-0 defeat. After all, the champions rarely concede goals let along drop points at home.
Nobody wins there and even the very best teams in the world struggle to draw.
So we need not read too much in to another defeat.
Instead, we can take some positives.
Firstly, it was probably our best performance of the season. We looked comfortable on the ball, made fewer mistakes and carved out genuine openings against a mean defence.
Secondly, Milijas and Stearman came in to the side and looked up-to-speed straight away. It shows that we do have some depth to the squad these days.
And finally, and crucially, Hunt made his debut and looked like everything we need on that left side.
He was full of energy, hastled defenders in to making mistakes, got in to scoring positions and helped out the left-back on numerous occasions.
The prospect of him flying down one side and Jarvis the other is salivating.
It’s another reason that Van Damme needs to take a look at himself.
If he’s not up to the task of defending and Hunt prizes him out of the wing position, which he looks certain to do, then life is going to get a lot harder.

Comments
Posted by Terry F on 10/29/2010
Jelle is gone in January, back to Belgium and Wolves are out the transfer fee paid for him.
However, I wouldn't complain about his play at left back cmpared to Ward. Ward's been ripped up by teams far worse than Chelsea. I prefer to see Elokobi at left back.
Our biggest problem now is our lack of ability in midfiled. We have no central player with pace that can control the ball and every attack we have, that has any teeth, seems to have to come from the wings, in particular, Jarvis, who had a simply marvelous game against United. Jones seems very much out of sort. Henry and Mancienne are holding midfielders, providing no help offensively.
I marvel that Mick won't give Milijas a couple of games run.
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