Wolverhampton Wanderers let Nathaniel Mendez-Laing leave for just £100,000 – but he’s currently keeping them off the top with Cardiff City.
Wolves fans were rightfully a little wary when Chinese consortium Fosun International bought the club last summer and immediately made ‘promotion’ their one and only aim. After all, plenty of Championship clubs have learned the hard way that all isn’t always as it seems when rich foreign owners arrive with dreams of grandeur.
Yet, with a little help from super agent Jorge Mendes, Wolves have managed to put together arguably the most exciting team in the second tier. As it stands, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side are a point behind Cardiff City at the top of the table while only Bristol City and Ipswich Town can better their goal tally of 20.
And, in Diogo Jota, Ivan Cavaleiro and the returning Helder Costa, Wolves have three of the most thrilling attacking players outside of the Premier League. The only problem is that arguably the Championship’s player of the season so far is running out for league leaders Cardiff.
It doesn’t help, meanwhile, that Nathaniel Mendez-Laing was let go by Wolves for just £100,000, joining Peterborough United in the summer of 2012, as reported by the Express and Star.
It’s fair to say the Birmingham-born wideman has bounced back to the big time in style. Joining Cardiff this summer after impressing at Rochdale, Mendez-Laing has proved beyond all doubt that he belongs at the very top of the Championship after scoring four goals in his first 11 games of the season.
A creative and direct attacker with an eye for the spectacular, he provides that maverick spark to perfectly complement Cardiff’s workmanlike gameplan. And the fact that Neil Warnock’s high-flying underdogs are currently top of the second tier owes much to one of the summer’s most astute transfer deals.
Whether Mendez-Laing would get in Wolves’ team ahead of Jota, Cavaleiro and Costa is up for debate. Yet, despite the undoubted strength of their own squad, there remains a niggling regret over letting the homegrown prospect go for pocket change.
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