Wolverhampton Wanderers transfer news from Birmingham Live as the club prepares for the 2023/24 Premier League season
Wolves have certainly had an interesting transfer window so far…albeit the business has mainly gone in one direction.
Sporting director Matt Hobbs warned at the start of June that the club would have to sell to buy. It turns out he wasn’t kidding as there have been a raft of departures and, as things stand, only two arrivals, both on free transfers.
So, what’s the latest state of play? We look at the players who could still come through the door as well as the players who have gone and those that could still go.
Who has gone? The club eased their wage bill at the end of the season when Diego Costa and Joao Moutinho were released on free transfers. Wolves would like to keep Adama Traore, who is also out of contract, but his future remains uncertain. Ruben Neves departed early in the window for £47million to Al-Hilal, an excellent piece of business for Wolves considering the captain was always likely to move on and may have commanded a lower fee had he gone to Barcelona or stayed in the Premier League.
Conor Coady’s move to Leicester City, for £7.5m, plus an extra £1m if the Foxes are promoted, also looks like a decent fee. So does the £23m Wolves brought in for Nathan Collins when he was sold to Brentford 12 months after signing from Burnley for £20.5m. Dion Sanderson’s move to Birmingham is thought to be worth around £2m, midfielder Hayao Kawabe went to Standard Liege for £1.3m and Ryan Giles’ sale to Luton Town was for a reported £5m.
Wolves then raised a further £5.5m last week when Raul Jimenez was sold to Fulham. There has also been a move this week as keeper Matija Sarkic has gone to Millwall for around £1.2m after his proposed move to Stoke City fell through.
Who else could go? Daniel Podence is also expected to leave having not gone with the squad to their Portuguese training camp. The 27 year old, who has been linked with Real Betis, is entering the final year of his contract at Molineux.
Meanwhile, the future of Rayan Ait-Nouri is also the subject of debate as Nice are being linked with the 22-year old left back or left winger. However, Max Kilman looks like staying after Wolves turned down £30m from Serie A champions Napoli.
Fabio Silva has been linked with a move away for the last few months, having spent last season on loan at Anderlecht and PSV Eindhoven but he did well off the bench in Saturday’s friendly against Celtic and from the start in Wednesday’s game at home to Luton Town. If he went, Julen Lopetegui would be seriously short of options up front.
Who has signed? So far, just Tom King and Matt Doherty, both on free transfers. Back up keeper King has signed at the end of his Northampton contract as back up to Jose Sa and Dan Bentley, a move that allows Sarkic to move on.
Meanwhile, Doherty has returned to Molineux at the end of his half-season deal at Atletico Madrid and three years after leaving for Tottenham in a £15m deal. The 31-year-old Republic of Ireland international offers experienced competition for Nelson Semedo and made his mark on Saturday by coming off the bench to win a penalty in the 1-1 draw against Celtic in Dublin. He followed that up with a solid performance from the start against Luton.
Who could sign? We know Wolves would like to sign Alex Scott from Bristol City and are also interested in Aaron Cresswell from West Ham and Nico Elvedi from Borussia Monchengladbach.
The big question is how many of these deals they can afford amid suggestions they still need to sell. Bristol City want £25m for midfielder Scott, left back Cresswell is valued at £5m by West Ham and centre back Elvedi is reportedly available for around £8m.
Central defence has to be a priority as Wolves need someone to compete with Craig Dawson, Max Kilman and Toti. They have also been linked with Spurs defender Davidson Sanchez and Konstantinos Movrapanos of Stuttgart.
It’s not actually the players who have moved on that are causing concern. After all, of the players sold, only Neves was a regular and he was always expected to go. The squad needed pruning anyway but lack of reinforcements is understandably a concern with the start to the season just a fortnight away, at Manchester United on August 14.
It’s not just supporters who have reservations. Lopetegui wasn’t exactly reassuring in his interview with Guillem Balague last week when he suggested that, even after the club lowered their transfer expectations, those ‘Plan B’ targets are currently out of reach.
He said: “We had Plan A but we had to adapt to the ‘B Plan’ and try to think about signing cost effective players in this situation. But it’s true that, at the moment, we can’t develop this B Plan.
“We have lost a lot of players and it is true that we think, or the club wants to, sell more players. So, we need players to balance the team and the squad and to be competitive in the Premier League.”
Chairman Jeff Shi this week addressed concerns in an open letter to supporters in which he spoke about the Financial Fair Play restraints as well as the fact the club spent more than usual in January, effectively using a chunk of this summer’s budget. He also said a prudent summer this time can free the club to spend more in future windows.
