Home
Peter Odemwingie has made a few ill-advised moves in his impressive football career but Wanderers won’t want to be added to the list.
Despite being a club who has saved its fair share of lost souls down the years, it is hard to see the Nigerian international as anything other than a gamble.
Phil Parkinson is not a man prone to rash thinking. And if he is seriously considering giving the deal his approval he will have considered it from every conceivable angle.
But having just regained complete control of the ship unsteadied by five transfer deadline day arrivals, adding another unpredictable quantity at this stage of the game is a big call indeed.
I share the opinion of many Wanderers fans who believe Parkinson’s squad lacks a true 20-goal-a-season man. Zach Clough still has something to prove and though Gary Madine has hit that target before at this level, his role in this team is quite different than it was back at Sheffield Wednesday.
Odemwingie has never quite hit the ‘magic number’ but has played so much of his career at the very top level. If he gets anything close to the player he was at West Brom, for example, he should be successful. But at his age, in a diviison he has never played in, that remains a big ‘if’.
People who worked closely with the 35-year-old at Stoke and West Brom tell me he is a charming bloke who has been harshly treated for some of the silly decisions made as a Premier League player.
Indeed, the image of him being interviewed through his car window at QPR’s Loftus Road as his move from West Brom hung in the balance is the stuff of transfer deadline day legend.
Looking back, the striker’s main crime was not to drive to the nearest motorway service station and sip on a coffee until the move was done. It collapsed because Junior Hoilett did not want to move in exchange – but the egg left on Odemwingie’s face after he had sworn allegiance to Harry Redknapp was hard to shift.
There have been some daft 21st century cyber tantrums on Twitter – but, then again, you’ll never convince me that social media is a good thing for any active sportsman or woman.
And even his words last weekend in an interview with The Sun left room for interpretation if you are a follower of Wanderers’ fortunes.
“I’m prepared to drop down in the short-term until the end of the season,” he said, hardly screaming commitment. By then I will, hopefully, have attracted some interest from the Premier League or one of the European leagues. I will play my way, starting from scratch, to get back to whatever level I can make it to. I need a window to show what I can still do. I’m not afraid to be on League One money, I’m just a big kid who misses football.”
A man with a point to prove could be handy. Only last season he handed David Wheater and Rob Holding their most difficult afternoon of the season, scoring twice for Bristol City in the massacre at Ashton Gate.
It is only eight months since he was turning out for Stoke City in the Premier League at home to Everton – a reminder that despite his advancing years this is no journeyman we are potentially picking up.
The question is, however, can Odemwingie come into a delicate ecosystem like the one at Wanderers, where confidences are still healing, and contribute right away?
The Whites have been extremely thorough this week, bringing him in for medical tests on Thursday and insisting on a couple of thorough training sessions before any promises are made.
Talk is of a deal until January, after which there is an option in the club’s favour to extend the contract for longer.
In that respect Odemwingie has put his own reputation on the line. He said only last weekend that an offer was also on the table from the Bundesliga – so to stay on in England and tour the likes of Fleetwood, Port Vale, Gillingham and Scunthorpe is just as much of a gamble.
If it happens to pay off, maybe the football phrase “doing an Odemwingie” will mean something more positive?
Source
Despite being a club who has saved its fair share of lost souls down the years, it is hard to see the Nigerian international as anything other than a gamble.
Phil Parkinson is not a man prone to rash thinking. And if he is seriously considering giving the deal his approval he will have considered it from every conceivable angle.
But having just regained complete control of the ship unsteadied by five transfer deadline day arrivals, adding another unpredictable quantity at this stage of the game is a big call indeed.
I share the opinion of many Wanderers fans who believe Parkinson’s squad lacks a true 20-goal-a-season man. Zach Clough still has something to prove and though Gary Madine has hit that target before at this level, his role in this team is quite different than it was back at Sheffield Wednesday.
Odemwingie has never quite hit the ‘magic number’ but has played so much of his career at the very top level. If he gets anything close to the player he was at West Brom, for example, he should be successful. But at his age, in a diviison he has never played in, that remains a big ‘if’.
People who worked closely with the 35-year-old at Stoke and West Brom tell me he is a charming bloke who has been harshly treated for some of the silly decisions made as a Premier League player.
Indeed, the image of him being interviewed through his car window at QPR’s Loftus Road as his move from West Brom hung in the balance is the stuff of transfer deadline day legend.
Looking back, the striker’s main crime was not to drive to the nearest motorway service station and sip on a coffee until the move was done. It collapsed because Junior Hoilett did not want to move in exchange – but the egg left on Odemwingie’s face after he had sworn allegiance to Harry Redknapp was hard to shift.
There have been some daft 21st century cyber tantrums on Twitter – but, then again, you’ll never convince me that social media is a good thing for any active sportsman or woman.
And even his words last weekend in an interview with The Sun left room for interpretation if you are a follower of Wanderers’ fortunes.
“I’m prepared to drop down in the short-term until the end of the season,” he said, hardly screaming commitment. By then I will, hopefully, have attracted some interest from the Premier League or one of the European leagues. I will play my way, starting from scratch, to get back to whatever level I can make it to. I need a window to show what I can still do. I’m not afraid to be on League One money, I’m just a big kid who misses football.”
A man with a point to prove could be handy. Only last season he handed David Wheater and Rob Holding their most difficult afternoon of the season, scoring twice for Bristol City in the massacre at Ashton Gate.
It is only eight months since he was turning out for Stoke City in the Premier League at home to Everton – a reminder that despite his advancing years this is no journeyman we are potentially picking up.
The question is, however, can Odemwingie come into a delicate ecosystem like the one at Wanderers, where confidences are still healing, and contribute right away?
The Whites have been extremely thorough this week, bringing him in for medical tests on Thursday and insisting on a couple of thorough training sessions before any promises are made.
Talk is of a deal until January, after which there is an option in the club’s favour to extend the contract for longer.
In that respect Odemwingie has put his own reputation on the line. He said only last weekend that an offer was also on the table from the Bundesliga – so to stay on in England and tour the likes of Fleetwood, Port Vale, Gillingham and Scunthorpe is just as much of a gamble.
If it happens to pay off, maybe the football phrase “doing an Odemwingie” will mean something more positive?
Source