All Eyes On The Final 11

How far away are we now from learning the identity of the 1,000th man to play League football for Wolverhampton Wanderers?

The landmark day or night is still sure to be at least a few months off but has come a lot closer with the flurry of debuts the club have handed out during the early weeks of this season.

Six players have so far made a Championship bow for Wolves in 2015-16 – Conor Coady, Sheyi Ojo, Adam Le Fondre, Emiliano Martinez, Jed Wallace and, as a second-half substitute in Saturday’s home draw against leaders Brighton, winger Nathan Byrne.

A seventh, young forward Bright Enobakhare, remains close to being blooded as well, having already appeared in the Capital One Cup and been unused on the bench in other matches.

That means 989 different men have played in League games for the club and leaves us more convinced than ever that the big milestone will probably be brought up in the early weeks of next season.

After all, 11 players, starting with Yannick Sagbo at the start of last October, have made debuts in the last 12 months and, with Kenny Jackett and his backroom and board seeking a consistent winning team, it is not difficult to visual the brisk turnover continuing.

Please visit our Ainscow to Zubar section for the what we believe is the most concise and comprehensive list of all the men who have played in the League for the club – one that shows Joe Bonson to have been the 500th man used by Wolves in the bread-and-butter competition.

The one-time schoolboy sprint champion from Yorkshire, also a Wath Wanderer, went on to play 12 times for Wolves in the 1950s and score five goals, two of them in an FA Cup victory at home to Swansea and the other three in successive League games in the February and March of that same 1956-57 campaign.

Our Legends section is also undergoing constant change, with David Edwards inching his way up the list and now in sight of catching Richard Stearman, a man who was a team-mate of his until recently.

The defender signed off his Molineux career with 235 appearances for the club – the same number as Neil Emblen and Joleon Lescott, with the trio standing in joint 52nd place.

But Edwards is only three outings behind them going into tomorrow’s Capital One Cup tie at Middlesbrough and is making good progress towards forcing his way into Wolves’ all-time top 50 appearance makers.