“People didn’t understand” – Player explains why he simply couldn’t reject transfer to Wolves.
Former Wolverhampton Wanderers winger Bakary Sako has admitted people didn’t understand his move to the club in 2012, but it’s not one he regrets.
The winger has been speaking to Peuple Vert about his career to date, which has seen him play all over Europe.
He started with LB Châteauroux before joining Saint-Étienne in 2009 in a €3m deal. He spent three years there before moving to Wolves in August 2012 in a €3.8m deal.
At that point they were in the Championship after finishing bottom of the Premier League the year before and another miserable season followed.
It was a good year for Sako, though, who finished the campaign as Wolves top goalscorer, on 13, alongside Leigh Griffiths.
He went on to make 124 appearances for the club in total over a three-year period, managing 38 goals and 36 assists before leaving on a free transfer in 2015, with Wolves back in the Championship.
Ultimately the move was a successful one for him, but he admits many ended up questioning it, particularly when Wolves ended up in the third tier of English football.
“It’s true that from the outside, you say to yourself but in fact, leaving Ligue 1, not being in a team which is relegated to Ligue 1, leaving Saint-Etienne where you are a starter, going to the second division English, it’s not done,” he said.
“You don’t have the right to do that. Yes, of course, that’s what people didn’t understand. I said to myself, Wolverhampton, super big English club, this is the year they came down from the Premier League.
