WITH A cup game against Championship opposition to come this weekend and Premier League six pointers against Hull City and West Ham pencilled in over the course of the following weeks, Kevin Doyle expressed the hope yesterday that Mick McCarthy will move to strengthen his Wolves squad and help pave the way for the team tom push on to safety over the second half of the season.
In Dublin yesterday to help publicise the decision by Chorus NTL to include ESPN as one of the standard channels in its digital “Max Pack” deals, the Wexfordman insisted he had nothing to fear from additional competition for places around Molineux and again singled out his close friend Stephen Hunt as someone he would like to see arrive in the current transfer window. “I think that we’re going to sign two or three players,” he said, “I hope we do because everyone else will. I want to stay in the league, the team wants to stay in the league, but thankfully there’s usually two strikers in a team and really, whoever we get in, I’m confident that I’ll be playing.
“I’ve enjoyed playing so far this season and I’ve done well, I know that personally and I’m sure that whoever we bring in, they would only add to things. And these are a massive few weeks, we have a good chance to go through to the next round of the cup by beating Crystal Palace at the weekend and then those league games are big for us, the sort where if you win you really see the benefit of it.
“I mean, beating Spurs was massive for us at the time, games like that are great but we’d preferred really to have beaten Wigan at home last Saturday than Spurs away.
“As for Hunty, I know there’s been interest but it all depends on Hull and their situation. Not only would it be a good signing for us but taking a player from one of our rivals would be a bonus as well.
“But he has enjoyed it at Hull, he’s played good football there and they’ve taken him back to the Premier Division so there’s a certain amount of loyalty to them.”
On the international front, Doyle is likely to be back in action for Ireland against Brazil at the Emirates on Tuesday, March 2nd, but the striker will be keenly waiting in the meantime to discover which big names will have to be overcome if Giovanni Trapattoni’s side is to make it to the Euro 2012 finals.
The draw takes place in Warsaw on February 7th and amongst the top seeds, one name stands out for the Wexfordman. “England! Just because I haven’t played against them and they’re always massive games. They’re all good teams, football-wise I wouldn’t see there being much between any of them. There’s not going to be a big difference between France, Italy, Spain, whatever, they’re all going to be class teams.
“England are right up there too at the moment, definitely World Cup contenders, they’ve got the manager for it and the team for it but I’d like to play them because they’d be big games in new stadiums. Players you know and a lot of attention on the games.”
