Dragons ace in Wolves link
25 Sep 2006 - 14:51:01
Wrexham's highly-rated midfielder Mark Jones is being heavily linked with a move to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The 23-year-old, who has worked his way through the ranks at the Racecourse, was watched by Wolves scouts in the Red Dragons' Carling Cup defeat at Birmingham last week, amid claims boss Mick McCarthy could step up his efforts to sign the player in January.
Meanwhile, veteran defender Gary Breen claims McCarthy is already working his magic at Molineux since taking over in the summer.
The Republic of Ireland stopper worked with McCarthy at international level and at Sunderland, where he rebuilt the squad at the Stadium of Light and guided them to promotion to the Premiership at the second attempt.
And, following Saturday's 2-0 win against Stoke, Breen is already seeing similarities.
He told the Birmingham Mail: "I think one of Mick's best attributes is bedding in a new team and giving young players a chance.
"He had to rebuild with Ireland when he took over from Jack Charlton when I was one of many young players he had to go out and look at.
"With Ireland, there's no conveyor belt of players as with a stronger country like Italy or Spain - Mick had to start from the beginning and build a squad and he did that very successfully.
"He then had to do a similar thing at Sunderland where a lot of big-name players had left and younger players had to be developed.
"They did brilliantly in this league before going up to the Premiership probably proved a step too far.
"But Mick has got a record of doing what he's doing at the moment and I think Wolves are lucky to have him.
"No-one does it better, he's very good at it, but whether we can do what we did at Sunderland, only time will tell."