Joe Hodge move to Derry on loan confirmed.
At his age I see this as a massively positive move. Citys U23 squad is extremely competitive to get into, especially for an 18 year old, and he's out grown their underage teams.
To get mens football at this stage of his development will hopefully help him physically too.
Kenny has talked in the past of fast tracking him so I wouldn't be at all surprised if he got a call up to the senior team if he does well at Derry.
Hodge out for a month with a back injury picked up in training.
Hodge has moved to Wolves: https://www.wolves.co.uk/news/under-...ves-under-23s/
Involved for wolves 23s on bench tonight. He hasn't played in over a year .
Wolves are streaming the game on their website: https://academy.wolves.co.uk/live/
Lee Harkin is starting for wolves, Conor Carty on the bench with Hodge, and Kian Leavy is starting for Reading
Came on 82nd minute
Watched the premier league under 23 final tonight against West brom. Hodge played all the game and extra time. He really is a fabulous prospect as a defensive midfielder. So composed ,, tidy on the ball , looks to pass forward and really keen to run with the ball into attacking areas. Scored his pen. Harkin scored for wolves in normal time
Harkin makes Hodge look like a giant. He has a really good scoring record this season for Wolves Under 23, but you'd wonder if he's going to be good enough to compensate for his height to the extent that he can make it at a decent pro level. Hodge obviously not the tallest either, Wolves seem to have signed our small lads for some reason.
Let’s see how Hodge gets on if he gets a chance a senior football at a reasonable level. I’ve always been concerned with his size, even before his unfortunate injury. It will be interesting to see where he is at the start of next season when he turns 20
https://twitter.com/WolvesAcademy/st...V_oQhh0Sw&s=19
https://twitter.com/WolvesAcademy/st...j25bbzdew&s=19
https://twitter.com/WolvesAcademy/st...C0Zy85brw&s=19
Some nice involvement for hodge in these clips tonight
The full game is on YouTube
On at HT for Wolves away to Chelsea today. Cap. Him. Now.
Certainly has all the tools. His upper body strength has really developed obviously he remains tiny.
Hopefully stays around first team until Jan and gets a loan then for some experience. He has lost 2 years of football between 16 and 20 with those injuries. On the other hand the injuries were fractures not muscular or ligament so reoccurrence less of a concern,
Interesting that he'd come on ahead of Conor Ronan who seems to be the forgotten man in there.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Ronan will turn 25 before the season is over and is 4 and a half years older than Hodge. He'll never make it at Wolves and needs to move on.
U21s manager probably said **** it 45mins for Hodge is more beneficial for us long term than Ronan getting it. Ronan could do with getting out the phone book and finding himself a new club. He's 25 this season and if Wolves got relegated he'd probably still wouldn't get a game for them.
Talking Point number 9 in the Guardian's weekend re-cap of notable things.
9) Hodge impresses on Wolves debut
Another game, another defeat for Wolves and, all in all, it was a miserable afternoon for the visitors given how comprehensively they were beaten by Chelsea. If there was one positive for them it was the performance of Joe Hodge on what was the 20-year-old?s senior debut for the club. Hodge, who has been capped at under-21 level for the Republic of Ireland, was an industrious and combative presence in midfield having replaced Gon?alo Guedes at half-time, a block on 60 minutes that prevented Conor Gallagher having a relatively clear shot on goal from the edge of the area especially eye-catching. Hodge?s use of the ball was also neat and he looks like a player to whom Wolves?s next manager ? expected by most to be Julen Lopetegui ? should give more minutes in the coming weeks and months. Sachin Nakrani
https://www.theguardian.com/football...eekends-action
Given the paucity of options available, we need to be willing to promote genuine talent as soon as possible. It's an area where our options are mediocre at best. It's early to say but Hodge's career trajectory already looks like it might be more promising than Coventry or perhaps even Smallbone. The obvious way to find out whether he's up to international football would be to give him game time in the November friendlies. If we don't upgrade our midfield before the Euro Qualifiers I think we know what the outcome is likely to be.
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