Town Closing In On Ebanks-Blake Deal
Wednesday, 18th Dec 2013 13:38

TWTD understands that Town are closing in on the signing of former Wolves striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. The 27-year-old free agent has been at the club for the last two days and is understood to be undergoing a medical this afternoon.

The Cambridge-born former England U21 international has been sidelined since April with a broken leg and ankle ligament damage and has been back with Wolves during the opening months of the season working on his fitness, despite being released at the end of 2012/13.

If the deal is completed as expected, Ebanks-Blake will be signing for Mick McCarthy for the second time, the Blues boss having taken him to Wolves from Plymouth for £1.5 million in January 2008.

The former Manchester United trainee is understood to have held talks with Burnley and Leicester in recent weeks, while Leeds have also been linked.

Speaking last week, McCarthy confirmed that he would be interested in adding the frontman to his squad once he was fit, but expected strong competition from elsewhere.

“I think he’s progressing OK and is probably getting to the stage where he’s looking for a club,” he said.

“I spoke to him when I was up at Jody Craddock’s testimonial dinner at Molineux about four weeks ago and I think in January he’ll certainly be looking for a club, and there’ll be clubs looking for him, and we’ll be one of them.”

Having played youth football with hometown club Cambridge United, Ebanks-Blake joined Manchester United’s academy at 15.

He made two senior appearances for the Red Devils, one start and one game from the bench, both in the League Cup, and spent time on loan in Belgium with Royal Antwerp while at Old Trafford.

In the summer of 2006 Plymouth paid an initial £200,000 for his services with the deal included clauses which totalled a further £100,000.

After scoring 23 goals in 56 starts and 18 sub appearances in 18 months with the Pilgrims, McCarthy took him to Wolves in January 2008.

In five years at Molineux the 5ft 8in tall striker netted 64 goals in 133 starts and 60 sub appearances, carrying off the Championship’s Golden Boot award in 2007/08 — 23 league goals - and 2008/09 when his 25 league goals helped Wolves win the title and promotion into the Premier League.

Last season, his 15 goals couldn't prevent his side dropping into League One with his injuries ending his season prior to the crucial last month of the campaign.

Photo: Action Images

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brendenward35 added 13:05 - Dec 19 looks like this guy is a right pain in the backside for defenders to mark hopefully get this sorted and the guy in for the rest of the season
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HALLSJ added 13:10 - Dec 19 Would be delighted, power, pace, and can score will soon get his fitness back
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tractordamage added 15:05 - Dec 19

Blueboy1981: ""truth certainly gets the minus button clickers on the ball."

...And so does stupidity, pointless negativity and juvenile defensive ripostes.
Your first post was fine, what happened? Did your anti-depressants wear off?

@Robbie 12345.
Wolves have to get him fit before letting him go?! What?
He's been out-of-contract for months, as every article about him has stated. Even THIS article states his 'Free Agent' status in the second sentence. He can go when he wants.

This will be a great signing. And we'll have a quality Championship-level squad.
We will have many players with a decent monetary value. And most of our players seemed to have been brought in for free. So even from a financial point of view, we're essentially increasing our 'stock' value.
Any loss from selling players from the previous era (ie selling Taylor at cut-price) will be made up by MM's impressive low-cost signings. McCarthy is doing a lot more than just signing good players, he is increasing our financial value as a club.

JewellintheTown added 15:06 - Dec 19 @Cooper4England - SEB's Twitter account hasn't been tweated from since 28th May this year. You're on the wrong account mate. Don't expect much news from that source, and his facebook page is hopeless. I guess at least he wont be tweeting and bantering with the fans about pictures of shed loads of cash then.
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