Wolverhampton Wanderers reportedly agreed a £16 million fee for Manchester City starlet Oleksandr Zinchenko in the summer.
It is not entirely clear why Zinchenko decided to reject the chance to head to Molineux. But perhaps the Ukrainian would be forgiven for having some regrets over turning down Wolves given how the opening weeks of the campaign have played out.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s men have made an excellent start to life in the top flight. Wolves have not lost in the league since the second weekend of the season, and have since registered draws against both City and Manchester United.
It is an incredibly encouraging run of form, and it would be very difficult to find many people who will now be tipping Wolves’ stay in the Premier League to last just one season. In fact, it now appears to be significantly easier to find people tipping Wolves to upset the apple cart and perhaps push the top seven.
Meanwhile, Zinchenko only made his first appearance of the season in City’s Carabao Cup tie with Oxford United on Tuesday night. The 3-0 win over Fulham has been the only other time this term that he has found himself in Pep Guardiola’s squad.
Of course, any player predominantly driven by winning trophies would choose to stay at City rather than head to Wolves given what they have achieved. Wolves are clearly heading in the right direction, but they have some way to go before they are worrying the title contenders in the Premier League. And there is little reason to believe that Zinchenko cannot still become a major success at the Etihad.
Nevertheless, when he considers how well Wolves are doing and how little time he has spent out on the pitch this season, perhaps it would be inevitable that he would have his doubts about whether he made the right decision in the summer.
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