Wolves have signed defender, Craig Dawson from West Ham for £3.3million.
Dawson was initially set to leave West Ham to join Wolves in the summer but the move ultimately failed to materialise, due to the Hammers missing out on several replacement targets in the transfer window.
West Ham though has now sanctioned this move after bringing in Luizao earlier this month due to Dawson’s wish to leave “for personal reasons,” despite being “reluctant” to lose the experienced defender who joined in October 2020 on initial loan from Watford.
The club also iterated that Dawson has left with their ‘thanks and appreciation,” and wish him well for the future after he made 87 appearances for the Hammers.
Wolves’ Sporting Director, Matt Hobbs added that both clubs had kept the deal “warm” amidst further discussions after the deal unfortunately fell apart towards end of the summer transfer window.
Hobbs added that Wolves have “lost a few leaders” in John Ruddy, Conor Coady and Romain Saiss this summer, so believes that Dawson’s arrival will be “a positive,” to add experience and leadership to a “relatively young,” defence who are fairly inexperienced at this level.
On how Dawson will help the defence in Wolves’ relegation fight, Hobbs commented: “The amount of games Craig has played, he can be a foil for those guys on and off the pitch.
“He’s going to be a very good player for our squad and will be someone our young centre halves will learn a lot from and will help develop those players.”
Hobbs also stated that Dawson’s arrival also means that Yerson Mosquera will head out on loan to get game time, having endured a difficult season with two hamstring injuries which prevented him from getting game time in the first-team.
The 32 year-old defender has also played for Rochdale and West Brom during his career, plus had loan spells at Radcliffe FC and Bolton Wanderers.
Dawson won’t be eligible to make his debut for Wolves away at Manchester City today (22 January), but will be available for their home match against Liverpool on Saturday 4 February at 3pm GMT.