Molineux was a very different place seven years ago.
In summer 2014, Wolverhampton Wanderers were scouring the market for players capable of shining in the Championship after Kenny Jackett’s side stormed to the League One title the season before.
Tommy Rowe, Rajiv Van La Parra and then-Arsenal youngster Benik Afobe would arrive and Wolves, inspired by the prolific Nouha Dicko and the explosive Bakary Sako, flirted with successive promotions before settling for an impressive seventh-place finish.
And, at the time, an aborted attempt to bring 22-year-old Andy Delort to Molineux was viewed less as ‘one that got away’ and more of a bullet dodged.
“We put a bid in for Andy Delort but we haven’t been able to close that deal,” then-Wolves manager Kenny Jackett told the Birmingham Mail before the Tours striker joined Championship rivals Wigan Athletic for £3 million.
Jackett would later claim Delort’s wages were too high for a club that had only recently escaped the third tier (Shropshire Live).
After 12 months, 11 games and no goals, Delort’s miserable spell at Wigan came to a premature end.
But, given the Algeria international is now one of the most feared and respected strikers in French football, his ill-fated season in Lancashire has been consigned to the annals of history.
The same cannot be said, however, of Wolves’ interest.
This week Le Buteur reported the Black Country giants, who have come a long way since beating Leyton Orient to the League One title all those years ago, have made a bid for the now-Montpellier talisman Delort – seven years after he slipped through their fingers.
The 29-year-old has produced six assists and eight often spectacular goals this season. And, given his formidable aerial presence, lethal finishing skills and crafty link play, he looks the ideal solution to a Raul Jimenez-shaped problem.
But with Delort using Twitter to commit his future to Montpellier, making it clear a January departure is off the cards, Nuno is unlikely to succeed where Jackett failed.
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