Wolves could be offered the chance to bring Mauro Icardi to the Premier League with Paris Saint-Germain asking Jorge Mendes to help them offload the Argentina international, according to Corriere dello Sport.
Only three teams in England’s top flight scored fewer goals than Bruno Lage’s Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2021/22. All three of them ended the season in the relegation zone.
A post-injury Raul Jimenez does not appear to be the same irrepressible force of old, while Fabio Silva, Wolves’ £35 million teenager, failed to find the net in 22 Premier League appearances. It goes without saying, then, that one of the finest finishers in world football would go a long way to solving Lage’s goalscoring issues.
Icardi scored a staggering 91 times in 133 Serie A starts for Inter Milan between 2014 and 2018, after all, before departing in acrimonious circumstances. He won the Italian Golden Boot twice, and was named Serie A’s Player of the Season four years ago.
“Among the great attackers I have faced, I highly value Icardi, who inside the area is almost impossible to mark,” says the legendary Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini.
“Mauro against Juve often scored, (and) it hurt me. He’s a world-class centre-forward.”
Will Wolves really sign PSG’s Mauro Icardi?
That’s the good. Now, onto the bad.
As Chiellini himself points out, when it comes to linking the play and contributing outside the penalty box, Icardi ‘lacks something’. There’s a reason why PSG are struggling to find clubs willing to take the 29-year-old off their books, with most head coaches demanding more from their frontmen than simply putting the ball into the back of the net.
Lage is no different. Raul Jimenez, after all, is a number nine and a number ten rolled into one. A taker and a creator of chances.
The days of the goal-poacher – the Icardis, the Mario Gomezs and the Pippo Inzaghis – appear to be over. For the time being anyway. And that’s without mentioning his £165,000-a-week wages. Icardi also has two years left on his contract, meaning PSG will be hoping to recoup a sizeable portion of their £45 million investment.
So, with Wolves embarking upon an era of self-sustainability – marquee signings have taken a backseat role in recent windows – the prospect of Icardi banging in the goals in Old Gold feels unlikely to become anything more than a distant daydream.
Jorge Mendes key
That is despite suggestions that Paris Saint-Germain have enlisted the help of Jorge Mendes to get Icardi off the books, offering their high-earning benchwarmer to a club who have a famously close relationship with one of football’s most influential ‘super-agents’.
Wolves, under their Fosun ownership, tend to prioritise young, up-and-coming, affordable players. Icardi is certainly not that.
The former Inter skipper started just 10 Ligue 1 games last season. He will be pushed even further down the pecking order if PSG succeed in signing Sassuolo targetman Gianluca Scamacca.
Per FootMercato, a £30 million bid has been submitted already.
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