Wolves’ manager Gary O’Neill could very well have been speaking for Rangers boss Philippe Clement last night after the Molineux boss bemoaned his striking situation, while even taking a little dig at Rangers’ on-loan hitman Fabio Silva.

Speaking after the Wanderers failed to add a striker during January, O’Neill decried the situation:

“We didn’t manage to get a nine done. There were a few that I really liked and we couldn’t afford any. We could afford some, but not ones that I thought would help us. The group is the group and we get to work on trying to maximise it. I don’t want to go through what ifs. It’s important Sasa plays (Kalajdžić, on loan at Eintracht) and I don’t think he’d have played much for us.”

But then he chipped in over Silva:

“It’s important that Fabio plays and he wouldn’t have played much for us.”

So not ‘think’, but absolute.

He went on:

“Are we short of a number 9? Yeah. But I felt we were short of a number nine when those two were still here, so we’re still short. That’s where we are. I was really keen not to panic and just sign anyone. The financial stuff was an issue for us. We were speaking to Chelsea about Broja for a lot of the day. We just couldn’t afford to do it financially with where it ended up. That’s where we are as a football club, but we haven’t been deducted 10 points, we’re still together and putting in performances. We’ll try keep moving it that way until the end of the season.”

So very much echoes with Rangers here, where Rangers are short of a 9 despite Silva and Dessers, but it’s the dig at Silva which stands out.

O’Neill states factually that Silva isn’t good enough for Wolves, simple as. And he wasn’t interested in selecting the lad at all.

In simple terms, Wolves have no strikers and yet still happily let Silva go to Rangers, which does show the low stock he has. Now, Wolves are actually in a decent place, they’re midtable under O’Neill, so it’s hard to knock the guy’s methods and choices.

It’s also, for now, hard to fathom why Rangers took Silva on, given O’Neill would not have selected him even if he had no one else to choose.

But hopefully the Portuguese will get a new lease of life at Ibrox.