LISA SMITH

Mick McCarthy has challenged his high-flying youngsters to shun any big money offers from Premier League sides and instead see out their mission to get Wolverhampton Wanderers promoted, insisting that will bring its own rewards in time.

The Wolves boss is aware top flight vultures are circling his talented array of young stars looking for players to bolster their ranks.

But he is confident, such is the spirit at Molineux, that his players will want to stay put and try to achieve success with Wolves – just as he did when he shunned the chance to take up a lucrative coaching job in South Korea to see out the task in hand.

McCarthy said: “I have no worries about someone coming in and asking me about a player because if anyone comes in I will tell them to do one.

“I think Jez Moxey (Wolves’ chief executive) would say the same and Steve Morgan (chairman.)

“We are trying to get promoted and selling our best players is not going to help that. I don’t think we are in a position where we desperately need to sell a player to bring another in – in fact I know we are not.

“I have said publicly before that there is nothing to stop anybody saying they want one of our players but as far as I am concerned there is no chance of them going.”

He explained: “I know it is very difficult if someone comes in and offers ridiculous wages compared to what a player is on here but “Sorry lads! It is not happening!

“I think the players are ambitious to do well here. Nobody here wants to go. They want to be successful footballers and that really should come here.

“The financial side of football comes if you are successful. You can have a half-decent season and suddenly someone starts showing interest in you and you up sticks and leave but I think, if players do go now, it should be on their “CV” that they left without getting Wolves promoted.

“The players here want to win something. There are a lot of players driving around in the best of cars, living in the best of houses who haven’t won anything yet and still have to achieve something.

“I had the opportunity to leave last year and go to South Korea but I wanted to stay and get Wolves promoted. I wanted that on my CV.

“Don’t anybody come to me and say they could get more money elsewhere – I could but it isn’t about that. It is about being a success here.”

n?Portsmouth midfielder Papa Bouba Diop has been ruled out for three months with a knee injury. The Senegalese strained ligaments in his knee in Pompey’s Barclays Premier League defeat at Arsenal on December 28.