Wolverhampton Wanderers look set to spend well over £100m during the summer transfer window.
Following the arrivals of Nathan Collins (£20.5m) and Goncalo Guedes (£27.5m), Bruno Lage’s side have agreed a club-record £42.2m deal to sign Sporting Lisbon midfielder Matheus Nunes.
The Black Country outfit have one point from their opening two games of the new Premier League season.
After taking the lead at Elland Road against Leeds United on the opening day of the season, Lage’s men lost to The Whites 2-1.
Against newly-promoted Fulham at Molineux on Saturday, Wolves only registered one shot on target and had Jose Sa to thank after the stopper saved Aleksandar Mitrovic’s late penalty, and the game ended 0-0.
Wolves travel to Tottenham on Saturday and Lage will be hoping to have at least one more star signing wrapped up before the trip to north London.
With the black and gold side closing in on their third summer signing, we take a look at a Wolverhampton Wanderers XI with Matheus Nunes.
Wolverhampton Wanderers XI with Matheus Nunes
Having registered 11 clean sheets in his first season in England, Sa, who will have aspirations of securing a place in Portugal’s World Cup squad, will be hoping to improve on the number of shootouts he gets this season.
Following the arrival of Collins, former Benfica boss Lage has switched to deploying two centre-backs and Wolves stalwart Conor Coady joined Everton on a season-long loan to secure first-team football, and ensure he can pursue his own World Cup dream.
With Collins and Max Kilman aiming to establish themselves as a dominant centre-halve pairing in the Premier League for many years to come, the pair will want familiarity either side of them.
Former Barcelona right-back Nelson Semedo returned from a hamstring injury in the stalemate against Fulham.
Having returned to action, the 28-year-old will be hoping to oust Spain international Jonny and re-establish himself as Lage’s first-choice right-back.
Rayan Ait-Nouri is Lage’s first-choice left-back and despite Manchester City keeping an eye on the former France Under-21 international, Wolves will do all they can to retain the man they signed from Angers last summer.
Nunes’ arrival could see the Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves stranglehold on Wolves’ midfield come to an end.
Moutinho turns 36 next month and while Lage may find a way to play all three of his Portuguese midfield maestros, the former Monaco man may not feature as much this season.
Guedes, who worked with Lage at Benfica, will be hoping to light up the Premier League following his arrival from La Liga.
Morgan Gibbs-White, who has been the subject of several bids from Nottingham Forest this summer, will be hoping that the arrival of Nunes doesn’t prove an obstacle to him being a regular after thriving with Sheffield United in the Championship last season.
According to 90min, Manchester United have been offered Wolves attacker Pedro Neto – who is a client of Cristiano Ronaldo’s agent Jorge Mendes.
If Wolves do have to sell a big-money asset this summer to offset the summer spending spree then the three-time Portugal international could be a player that Wolves listen to bids for.
With Raul Jimenez on the sidelines, Portuguese football journalist Pedro Sepulveda told Sky Sports News that Wolves are interested in Benfica striker Goncalo Ramos.
Sepulveda said: “Wolves want the player and they made an offer to Benfica and that offer was a loan, worth €5m euros with an obligation to buy around €30m (£25.2m).
“I can also reveal that Wolves boss Bruno Lage has already made the call to Ramos to know if he wants to join Wolves because they’ve already worked together and Lage has told Ramos he wants him at Wolves.”
While Wolves don’t possess the biggest of Premier League squad, their eleven could compete with any side and could challenge for the European spots once again.
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