Mario Lemina U-turn and Wolves team news vs Chelsea
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00:00Hello I'm Nathan Judah, I'm here with Wolves reporter Mr. Liam Keane. We've just been to
00:13the Press Conference, Mr. Vito Pereira talking ahead of the big game against Chelsea on Monday
00:18Night Football. More travelling, Bristol City, Newcastle, now Chelsea. Hopefully they can
00:24get a win because we don't want another 3-0 hammering do we? 2 on the bounce, let's not
00:29make it 3. Big news coming out of it of course, Mario Lamina is the big topic of conversation,
00:33we spoke about it yesterday, articles obviously after the Newcastle game as well. There has
00:38been a development, Mario Lamina is now I guess making himself available for selection
00:43on Monday Night, which is a big turnaround. Yeah, it's a U-turn isn't it from where we
00:48were only a few days ago. So just to recap, for I suppose the timeline purposes more than
00:54anything, Tuesday afternoon we had a press conference here with Vito Pereira, similar
01:01time as today and he said that Mario is available, he was ill for the Bristol City game, was
01:07he available, ready to play, no problem. Obviously how much he would have played we don't know,
01:12we were expecting him to be on the bench from what we were told. At least on the bus. Yeah,
01:15at least on the bus certainly. Within minutes of that press conference ending Vito Pereira
01:20has gone back upstairs, back to his office, Mario Lamina has come in and said I'm not
01:24available, I'm not mentally prepared to play this game, I'm not going basically, to put
01:29it mildly. And then of course Pereira has come out after the game at Newcastle, said
01:33everything publicly that he's not available, he's made himself unavailable. And we've come
01:39today and of course it's going to be one of the big talking points, two days later after
01:42the game we want to know what's happening with Mario, we know that Al Shabaab are in,
01:47they want him on a free, Wolves won £5m, he wants to leave. Now the situation hasn't
01:52changed massively off the pitch in the sense that Al Shabaab are still interested in him,
01:57he still wants to leave, Wolves are still working on a deal to move him out and bring
01:59a midfielder in, that's all still happening. But Mario Lamina this morning, of course they
02:05trained today as well, for the first time since the Newcastle game, he's come in to
02:11Pereira before training and apologised, apologised to his teammates, has said he'll do everything
02:17he can to help the team for however long he is here for. We still expect that to only
02:21be a few weeks but of course strange things have happened and he's now made himself available
02:26again. Pereira was very strong on saying we all made mistakes, he essentially accepted
02:31the apology but also fired a bit of a warning by saying he now has to show me with actions
02:35and not words that he's sorry and that he's ready to commit himself. And he did say whether
02:39that's until the end of the season or the end of the month, I need him ready and available
02:43because he has quality, which he's absolutely spot on by the way, Mario Lamina's a very
02:46good footballer but you don't need those kind of issues in the squad I'm afraid.
02:53Wolves will train this weekend ahead of the game because it's on Monday night and he will
02:58see through his own eyes, Vito Pereira, whether Mario Lamina is fully in this group and he
03:03wants to be reintegrated to a sitting centre, it's only been 48 hours but a lot of damage
03:08can be done and I guess a lot of damage has been done by his actions. I don't think he's
03:14going to be starting the game on Monday night, absolutely not, but he could be on the bench
03:18and look Mario Lamina's still a very good player and still be used I think to the best
03:22of his abilities, he could be defending a lead, Mario Lamina's probably one of the players
03:25you want to come on. Do you expect him, if he shows the due diligence in training over
03:31the weekend that he will be on the bench on Monday night or do you feel like he might
03:36get dinged a little bit and say okay well I'm not going to use you today because I've
03:39got Tommy Dorrell, I've got Luke Cunliffe, I've got these guys who travelled on Wednesday
03:44and we'll wait and see what happens for the game against Arsenal a week later.
03:49Considering it's so raw and fresh at the moment and considering the amount of players they
03:54do have available because they have got very little injury issues at the moment, unless
03:57anything God forbid happens over the weekend, I suspect he won't be in the squad if I'm
04:02to hedge my bets and if he is he'll be certainly on the bench, I don't think, yeah you're absolutely
04:07spot on, if he starts the game I'll be very very surprised, but look we've criticised
04:11him rightly so I think for how he's acted and how he's behaved, but he's a fantastic
04:17footballer, he's had a bad season but he's a very very good player, even if it's for
04:20a few weeks you can get a little bit out of him, it's not necessarily a bad thing. What
04:25he did I think was unacceptable, at the same time I welcome an apology and an acceptance
04:31that it was wrong, rather than the opposite which is totally ignoring it, digging the
04:37heels in and saying I want to leave, I'm not interested, he still wants to leave, but if
04:41he's going to try and at least bring some energy and atmosphere to this dressing room
04:46and this training ground then that can only be a good thing.
04:48He said his head's back in the game, I guess he wasn't mentally ready to play on Wednesday
04:52night, is that a frustrating thing for you to see, to support Alim as well, you've got
04:58your club captain there, massive game against Newcastle, battling against relegation, that
05:02he does do that and then 48 hours, do you feel like he's had time to think about it,
05:07maybe he's seen the reaction on social media amongst the fanbase and that's what's driven
05:11it, or do you feel like Mario's probably just put his big boy pants on and walked in there
05:15this morning and said look I want to be part of the squad?
05:18Former club captain, make that clear. I think he'll definitely be aware of the reaction,
05:24I think I'd be very surprised if he's totally unaware of it, the extent of what's been said
05:29I don't know, but I think he'll be aware that fans are very very unhappy with him and the
05:32reaction that a lot of media, including us, have given towards that situation, a lot of
05:36it I think is very warranted. I think he'll, it's not only that, I think he'll also know,
05:42he's not stupid Mario, I think he'll also know that he's made a mistake and as I say
05:46I welcome the fact that he's gone in to apologise and I welcome the fact that he's realised
05:50that. Now conduct yourself in the right way, whether you're here for the next two years
05:54or the next two weeks, however long it is, conduct yourself in the right way, represent
05:59this club in the right way and hopefully end it on not as sour note as we thought it might
06:03be only on Wednesday night.
06:05The cynic might say that Wolves and Al-Shabaab are so far apart and that's the only team
06:09that are interested in him at this moment in time, that he's looking at not only being
06:12here till the end of the transfer window but probably being here till the end of the season
06:15so he better go and book his ideas up and apologise.
06:20That would be the cynic at you, but yeah I know where you're coming from. Look, it doesn't
06:24change the fact that he still wants to leave, it doesn't change the fact that Wolves are
06:26still trying to make that move, trying to facilitate that move.
06:28Do you think we expect him to leave? Because I mean Pereira did say, he said whether that's
06:33till the end of this month or the end of the season.
06:34Exactly yeah, I do expect him to leave but I don't think it's cut and dry and this comes
06:40down to really the business model that a team like Al-Shabaab have, which if I could
06:45put it very briefly, people see that they're a Saudi team and think right, the riches.
06:51They're not, they will offer big wages don't get me wrong, but they're not a state funded
06:56side and they have a specific sort of transfer policy of offering really low wages, really
07:04low transfer fees sorry, really low transfer fees to almost unsettling players at times
07:09at different clubs and offering huge wages and managing to force players out of clubs
07:13and bring them over. Now I'm not suggesting that they've unsettled Mario, he's got his
07:19own reasons I'm sure for wanting to leave but it's a really difficult one to find a
07:24common ground and solution to because Wolves want £5 million for them so there may have
07:28to be a compromise somewhere and I think enough water's under the bridge now that Wolves have
07:33got to try and make swimming happen, they've got to try and find a solution.
07:36Okay moving on, Matias Cugnioni, fit enough to be on the bench against Newcastle, came
07:39on second half, made a difference, should have scored, didn't happen, look defeat. Didn't
07:44train today either, different reason. Slightly concerned, yeah got the flu, he's ill according
07:50to Vito Pereira. I think I'm going to get the flu if I'm out here any longer, crikey
07:53it's cold I thought. Not wearing any t-shirt either, you wearing anything underneath? I've
07:57got a t-shirt underneath yeah, a pair of chest, lovely. Lower? Oh god please don't. Nip slip?
08:02You do well mate, you do great numbers on the old YouTube. Can you subscribe too? Yeah
08:10obviously concerning but he did say that he hopes, didn't go as far as he expects but
08:15that's the sort of vibe I got from Vito Pereira that he will be training tomorrow, of course
08:19he'll be training but it'll be in a Monday game and that he expects and hopes that he'll
08:22be available for Monday. We both think he'll be available for Monday. I think so yeah.
08:26Unless it's something really bad and he's really under the weather I think he'll be
08:29available to play, I think he'll be desperate to play as well, he'll want to play from the
08:32start. He scored a hat-trick at Chelsea last season, I really enjoyed that game. Honestly,
08:35that was the best game I've seen, just to be covering Wolves. I was buzzing watching
08:40that, I was in France skiing, I was with a Chelsea fan, a friend of mine and I was gigging
08:47in the bar with him, it was great. We do expect him to play don't we? We expect him to be
08:54available and he'll be a big booster to be there and then on the other injuries of the
08:57players, Totti Gomez, he said on Wednesday, he said the same again today, that maybe one
09:02week. He's been a little bit vague with injuries and he explained why and I understand it,
09:06is that he doesn't want to give a really definitive timeline and then be wrong or something changes
09:12and then everyone blames him. So I get where he's coming from. There's also mind games
09:15with other managers involved as well. So Totti Gomez, if we're going to go off what he said,
09:20hopefully he'll be available for Arsenal. And Boubacar Troy is back in training, doing
09:23little bits here and there, I don't think he'll be in the squad. Sascha Klajic is with
09:28the medical department still, I know he's been doing some stuff on the grass so he'll
09:31be getting there slowly. I did ask him in the embargoed section about Sascha Klajic,
09:36I can break the embargo happily because he said nothing. He just said, I've really got
09:40no idea. I asked him whether he was going to play this season or be in the Premier League
09:44squad and obviously they've got a very tight squad, they might need to take players out,
09:47he said, I've got no idea. So that'll be another one to look forward to. It'll be a great story,
09:52that'll be one to revisit.
09:53Yeah, interesting. Obviously Cunha is a big story, I meant Mario Lamino, but in terms
09:57of team news. Cole Palmer is exactly the same, he was ill and hasn't trained and we expect
10:01him to train over the weekend. I expect both Palmer and Cunha, the best two players on
10:04the pitch, will be available and we'll see them starting on Monday night. In terms of
10:07team, what changes do you think we'll see? I'll hazard a guess and you can correct me
10:15if I'm wrong. I'm going to say Rodrigo Gomez comes out of the side, Nelson Samedo comes
10:20into the side, up right, huing back. I think the central defence, even though we discussed
10:25on the podcast the prospect of potentially bringing Craig Dawson back in for Santibueno,
10:30I feel like it will be the same back line apart from that. You're saying midfield two
10:35in André and João Gomes and one change, not maybe two, but I'm going to say one change
10:41up front. I don't think they'll bring a third midfielder in, that's the only other option
10:45they could go and I think that Mateus Cunha will replace Juanqui Chan.
10:50The exact two changes that I predicted as well, so if Lamina all of a sudden is going
10:55to play and be available, three midfielders, I'm not saying you're necessarily thrown from
10:59the start, but have Doyle in, him on the bench or whatever you might do, there's an option
11:03there for that certainly, but I do think it's unlikely. So I've gone for the same, Samedo
11:06in, Cunha in, Rodrigo going to hang on the bench.
11:09Scoreline? We've both gone really positive. We've gone very positive. I think it's going
11:14to be 2-1. To Chelsea. I've gone 3-1 Chelsea. Oh wow. This is what we said after the podcast
11:25bearing in mind. We've got a podcast by the way this week, listen to it. Wednesday night
11:29after the game. After you had a few beers. I wish, try a Jan. I'm going to stick with
11:35what I said, even though it was in a podcast that was after a loss and we were feeling
11:39a bit down, but I'm going to stick with it I'm afraid.
11:43Myself and Cunha will be standing for a bridge on Monday for all the build-up on this draw
11:45and make sure you log on to expressandstarhud.com