Jones releases six from Wolves

Wolves manager Dave Jones has wielded the axe at Molineux and announced the release of six players following relegation from the Premiership.

The retirement of veteran right-back Denis Irwin and Alex Rae’s decision to join Rangers on a two-year contract had already been announced.

But now Jones has also cut loose strikers Nathan Blake and Steffen Iversen as well as defenders Oleg Luzhny and Isaac Okoronkwo.

Meanwhile, Jones confirmed plans to offer new contracts to Paul Butler, George Ndah, Vio Ganea and captain Paul Ince.

Midfielder Joey Gudjonsson, who spent the season on loan from Real Betis, could also be offered a permanent deal should the Spaniards prove amenable.

And Jones, still smarting from relegation to Division One, said: “If the players we want to re-sign agree, then I’ll probably have to look at bringing in only three or four new faces over the summer.

“If they don’t, I’ll just add new targets to my list.

“The players are going away now but I hope to hear their decisions pretty soon and I’d certainly like to have everybody’s situation finalised by the time we return on July 5.

“Promotion back to the Premiership will be one of our main requirements next season and the other is that the club continues to grow.

“I’ve never been relegated before and it was a strange feeling to be doing a lap of honour around the pitch on the last day of the season knowing we had been relegated.

“I’m trusting that hurt the players as much as it hurt me.

“Getting into the Premiership in the first place was a tall order and now there’s that pressure to get us straight back up again, but I’ve dealt with pressure ever since I first walked through the doors at this club.

“But I feel we have unfinished business with the Premiership.”

Integral to Jones’ plans are the retention of Ince and Butler.

But the former has yet to decide whether his 36-year-old legs are up to the intensity of another 46-game Division One campaign while the latter has been publicly critical of the club’s unwillingness to start contract discussions earlier and is demanding at least a two-year deal.

“I’d like a 10-year contract,” said Jones. “But it’s all about what the board thinks is right.

“People might have said this and they might have said the other but at the moment we’re talking to agents and representatives because the players are away.

“The best way to sort these things out is to sit down with the people concerned and talk about it face to face.

“Then we can all get on with what we’re supposed to be here for and that’s playing football.

“As for Incey, it depends on whether he thinks he’s up to playing three games a week in a Division One season.

“We can tell him he is but in the end, it’s whether he believes he can.”