Wolves fan Tom Johnston says a mixture of injuries, poor transfer activity and the chairman looking for an exit has stalled two years of progress under Kenny Jackett.

Assess Wolves' season for us so far…

TJ: Disappointing. After an impressive end to the campaign last season - finishing seventh and missing out on the play-offs on goal difference (despite accumulating 78 points), the club, players and fans expected, with a couple of pre-season signings, to be at least among the play-off places this season.

Unfortunately, due to injury, the club owner Steve Morgan losing faith, player departures and a shoddy recruitment drive, it's looking extremely unlikely that we will finish anywhere else but mid table. As a result, although we managed to halt a drastic slide in autumn, with four wins in a row over Christmas, we now find ourselves nestled in tenth.

After a couple of years of forward momentum, things seemed to have stalled this season. Why has that happened?

TJ: A nasty combination of minimal investment, poor recruitment and injuries. With the departure of Bakary Sako in the summer on a free transfer, we had some work to do to in finding a replacement for his enormous goals and assists provision, but, although his departure had been imminent for months, we totally failed to adequately replace him.

Instead, we signed Sheyi Ojo on loan from Liverpool for a season (a flop - recently been sent back), Nathan Byrne (a young full back turned winger from Swindon for £1m who has hardly featured) and Jed Wallace from League 2 Portsmouth on a free (no league starts). In addition, we brought in a central midfielder for £2m in Conor Coady (who we didn't really need), Adam Le Fondre, Grant Holt (yes really) and Arsenal's Emi Martinez, as a substitute keeper.

If this recruitment wasn't bad enough, the club compounded our misery by selling our best defender (Richard Stearman) to Fulham in September and recently Benik Afobe to Bournemouth. Oh and of course the two other bright sparks in our team - Nouha Dicko and the emerging Jordan Graham - have both been struck by long-term cruciate knee ligament damage.

Good deal on Afobe?

TJ: Considering we bought him for £2m and sold him for £10m 12 months later - yes. He hadn't been as effective this season, probably because his head had been turned by the offers from Norwich in the summer. Also, there was a clause in his contract meaning that had we failed to achieve promotion this season, he would have been available for significantly less than the £10m that Bournemouth paid for him.

However, as evidenced by our recent shoddy recruitment, many Wolves fans are pessimistic of being able to adequately spend the money and are also rather cynical in believing that the owner Steve Morgan, who is rather keen on selling up, will pocket the majority of it.

How's Kenny Jackett doing? Still in credit for the promotion or people getting twitchy?

TJ: His first two seasons were fantastic: League 1 champions, developing young players, making shrewd signings (like Kevin McDonald, Nouha Dicko and James Henry) and halting the slide from successive relegations. Second season - finished seventh in the Championship. No complaints.

This season, his tactics and team selections have come under scrutiny. He changed a successful 4-2-3-1 formation and dabbled with a 4-4-2 diamond at the start of the season to try and cope with the lack of wingers at the club (in Sako's absence) which the players were never really comfortable with.

Jackett must also take some responsibility for our recruitment policy. Selling Richard Stearman left us increasingly vulnerable in defence, losing Sako made us bereft of creativity and the loss of Nouha Dicko early in the season to a long term knee injury also left us short up front. Had we managed to sign like-for-like replacements then we should have found ourselves in and around the top six.

A section of the fan base would probably be quite happy to see him go and would trot out the argument that "he's taken us as far as he can", but with the owner keen to sell and little money available for transfers, it's hard to think of a compelling alternative to him, or indeed to think of someone held in high enough regard who would want to become manager of a club with little ambition and such uncertainty.

Any sign of a buyer for the club, given the chairman has made no secret that he wants to sell it?

TJ: Financially, Wolves are an attractive proposition. We have no debts and generally run on a profit. We also have solid infrastructure in the shape of a new stand, training ground and academy. According to the CEO Jez Moxey, there have been a "handful" of serious propositions who have been in dialogue, exchanging information and signing non disclosure agreements. Rumours of Chinese billionaire Ding Lei (the tenth richest man in China) provided some excitement in December but there appears to have been little or no progress made. Indeed, Steve Morgan turned up to his first Wolves game on Saturday since announcing that he wanted to sell the club and commented that he was still "supporting" the club. A U-turn is not to be ruled out.

Strongest players and weakest links in he current side?

TJ: Its fair to say that our five strongest players from the last 12 months have either been sold or injured. Sako sold to Crystal Palace, Stearman to Fulham and Afobe to Bournemouth. Long term knee injury has put paid to Nouha Dicko (our top scorer from last season) and the same to Jordan Graham, who has made a great breakthrough (with eight assists in 12 games) this season. I'm now scrambling around to identify our strongest players...perhaps central midfielder Kevin McDonald (who I recall scored a screamer vs QPR earlier in the season) would be our next best player. On his day, McDonald can control the midfield and has the potential to deliver key through balls to forward players (whoever's left).

Any indications that signings will be made this month? Any names linked?

TJ: Plenty linked but nothing doing. In the words of Kenny Jackett, "We just can't find the right player for the right price."

Wolves have a record over the last few years of not paying over the odds for players but there comes a time when this frugal approach can drift into a lack of ambition. Your new man Conor Washington was on the short-list, but Wolves weren't willing to pay the money. Other names linked include: Nakhi Wells (Huddersfield), Zach Clough (Bolton), Jason Cummings (Hibs), John Akinde (Barnet) and Tom Bradshaw (Walsall). Wolves fans aren't optimistic of a significant outlay on players and I don't think the club are keen on it either.

Short, medium and long term aims for the club?

TJ: It's unlikely that we will either get relegated or promoted this season so the short term priority must be to resolve the ownership issue. This will provide certainty to the fans and players and it will hopefully mean that we have a new owner in place who is willing to invest significantly in the playing squad. With parachute payments from our relegation all but gone, we can no longer compete with the transfer fees and wages with the clubs at the top (eg. Derby, Boro, Hull) or with whoever gets relegated to the Championship this season, so we need an ambitious owner willing to inject cash. If we were to acquire a new owner, then with a reasonable amount of investment, we could aim for promotion in the next two seasons.

Long term, I think the best we can hope for is Premier League stability. Do you know of any Chinese Billionaires? I know a great little club in Wolverhampton....

Pictures — Action Images

Photo: Action Images

TacticalR added 16:39 - Jan 22 Thanks to Tom. It sounds as though the club is in a holding pattern. The churn of players, while seemingly good business, also sounds a bit risky if too many quality players are sold off. The 'he's taken us as far as he can' feeling among the fan base is also interesting given the pro-Kenny Jackett contingent at QPR.
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