A move by Renato Sanches to Wolves looks set to collapse because the Premier League outfit is reluctant to green-light a £25 million purchase clause, as reported by Mais Futebol.
Bruno Lage certainly isn’t short of distributors, the sort of ball-playing, deep-lying midfielders who can locate a needle in a haystack from 60 yards.
What Wolverhampton Wanderers lack, however, is someone capable of turning defence into attack with an explosion of energy and acceleration. Someone like Renato Sanches.
The Portugal international was the driving force behind Lille’s stunning Ligue 1 title triumph in 2020/21. His ability to go from nought to 60 in the blink of an eye proved invaluable to a side that carried such a threat on the counter attack.
Why won’t Wolves sign Renato Sanches?
The prospect of Sanches flying forward with Adama Traore on one side and Francisco Trincao on the other would have had Wolves supporters drooling.
Unfortunately, a deal that looked to be progressing nicely on Monday night appears to have run into problems less than 12 hours later.
According to Mais Futebol, Lille were happy to let Sanches leave on loan.
But Les Dogues wanted Wolves to shake hands on a £25 million purchase clause. For whatever reason, the Black Country giants were unwilling to play ball, meaning Sanches looks set to stay at a club already seven points adrift of Paris Saint-Germain in the Ligue 1 title race, their crown slipping rapidly.
Perhaps Wolves had concerns over Sanches’ previous spell in the Premier League.
That ill-fated loan spell at Swansea City went down in history for all the wrong reasons and Bruno Lage, who was working in South Wales as an assistant to Carlos Carvalhal at the time, perhaps feared history would repeat itself at Molineux.
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