Wolves confirm signing of young midfielder Hodge

Wolves have confirmed the signing of midfielder Joe Hodge from Manchester City.

Hodge has signed a three-year contract at Molineux having left City, where he’s been since the age of nine.

He will link up with James’ Collins Under 23 squad for the time being, but he won’t be in action right away.

Hodge has an injury, which cut short his loan spell at Derry City earlier in 2021.

Wolves technical director Scott Sellars told the club website: “I’ve known Joe a long time, he has a good pedigree and had a good education at City and at international level.

“We think we can continue his development at Wolves. He’s coming in with an injury so won’t be fit straight away – we knew that.

“But he’s got a lot of quality, a great personality, he’s an intelligent footballer, a good passer of the ball and breaks things up – he’s somebody with a lot of potential.

“A lot of our under-18s are going out on loan, so the position Joe plays, we had an opportunity to bring someone in and there is a clear pathway in that position.”

How good is Hodge?

The tweets above offer a small, anecdotal idea. More revealing is an interview with Derry boss Ruaidhri Higgins from May.

He told the Derry Journal that Hodge is ‘a very, very, talented young player and I hope he has a great future in the game’.

It looks a smart coup, like the one to bring Louie Moulden in from City earlier this summer.

The next step for Hodge is to get fit and then he can look at playing matches for the U23s after taking a big step in his career.

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