Wolves eye Emmanuel Frimpong again

Wolves boss Stale Solbakken today admitted transfer plans in January will be shaped by whether Tongo Doumbia goes to the Africa Cup of Nations – as Emmanuel Frimpong is being monitored again.

The club still don’t know if the £2.5m midfielder will be called up by Mali for the tournament in South Africa, which starts a month today.


Should the 23-year-old midfielder be selected, he could miss six Championship games.


Mali have Group B matches against Nigeria, Ghana and DR Congo on January 20, 24 and 28, while the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final are on February 2, 6 and 10 respectively.


A call-up would more than likely take Doumbia away after the FA Cup tie at Luton on January 5.


The Wolves boss doesn’t want to lose the powerful midfielder, who has recently returned from a special training regime in France after missing two games through fatigue.

Arsenal midfielder Frimpong, who is on loan at Charlton until next month, is again on the radar, while the availability of Jamie O’Hara and Slawomir Peszko is also a factor.


Solbakken said: “It’s still up in the air. There are many things involved and it’s a big decision for everyone.


“We don’t really want him to go but if he wants to go and he’s picked, we must be without him, there are international rules for this.


“I can influence it a bit but I’m not going to twist his arm and it’s his country. If he does go it depends on what we can do otherwise. Frimpong is one of the players we can keep an eye on.


“It also depends on the injury situation, and if Jamie can recover, if Dave Davis can continue his progress, and Tongo can come back depending what happens with Mali.”

Solbakken, however, insisted the club was right not to take Frimpong in the last loan window. The 20-year-old has completed 90 minutes just once in four games.


The Wolves boss said: “We’ve been right so far on that one. We have monitored his situation with Charlton and seen the games.


“He’s better now than when he first went there, when he struggled a bit.”