BBC Sport contributor Dave Azzopardi has said that rumoured Wolves transfer target Thomas Henry would offer the club ‘something very different’ upfront.
The Venezia striker has been linked with a move to the Premier League of late, with things heating up. Indeed, Corriere del Veneto claim (via Sport Witness) that Bruno Lage’s team have ‘scheduled an appointment’ in the next few days to ‘define the transfer’.
With that in mind, it sounds as though this deal could end up being finalised sooner rather than later. While speaking about the player on the Talking Wolves podcast, Azzopardi said Henry performed well this season and could be an interesting addition to the team due to his physical attributes.
He explained: “We spoke about him a little bit before, he’s a very well built, very tall forward, would offer something very different to Wolves, something different that they’ve not had before.
“Scored an okay amount of goals. I think he got about nine league goals this season for a team that finished bottom of the league in Italy, which isn’t a bad return at all. But it will be interesting to see what the Italian club value him at.”
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TIF thoughts on Thomas Henry and Wolves…
According to that Italian press report via Sport Witness, Venezia are asking for €15m (£12.9m) to make the deal happen, while the ‘counter-proposal’ from Wolves is for €10m (£8.6m).
Henry did indeed score nine Serie A goals last term, while he also scored three league goals in four games at the start of the campaign before leaving Belgium for Italy (via Transfermarkt).
Standing at 1.91 meters tall, it’s easy to see why Azzopardi is keen to point at the physicality the 27-year-old could bring to England. In the past, when he was linked with a move to Celtic, the Daily Record said he was great in the air, while also very sharp with his movement.
They wrote: “What kind of player is he? Headers, headers, headers – plus a whole lot more.
“For such a tall and strong striker, Henry has excellent movement. He’s great in the air but so many of his goals are free headers as his movement is too much for opposing defenders to deal with.
“He likes to peel away at the back post and battle with a full-back who can’t deal with his physicality and displays a lovely touch to boot.”
Taking all that into account, if this transfer happens, Wolves could have an exciting player on their hands.