Ruben Semedo is expected to join Wolves on loan with an option to buy as the Olympiacos defender edges ever closer to a Premier League switch, as reported by The Sun (18 August, page 64).
What do Wolverhampton Wanderers need with just two weeks remaining in the transfer window?
Ask any Molineux match-goer and you’ll receive the same answer – a ball-winning defensive midfielder and a speedy centre-back capable of thriving in Bruno Lage’s high-pressing style.
Throughout pre-season and during Saturday’s opening-day defeat to Leicester City, the Lage blueprint was clear to see.
Wolves, under Nuno Espirito Santo, favoured a low-block, low-press approach, defending the edge of their penalty area before flooding forwards on the counter.
Lage may be another Portuguese tactician with Jorge Mendes on speed dial but that’s where the similarities between he and Nuno end.
The former Benfica boss wants Wolves to play higher up the pitch, hassling and harrying opponents into submission while using a tactic the club hasn’t used since the pre-Nuno days – an offside trap.
And that’s precisely why 27-year-old Portugal international Semedo has emerged as one of Wolves’ top targets as the window enters its final strait.
Ruben Semedo could be the most important signing of the summer for Wolves
On Sunday night it was reported Semedo had asked to leave Greek outfit Olympiacos and was in advanced talks over a potential £9 million move to Molineux.
The Sun, however, believes the former Sporting Lisbon and Villarreal man will arrive on an initial loan deal with an option-to-buy clause included in his contract.
It’s the same approach Wolves took with Rayan Ait-Nouri, Leander Dendoncker, Jonny Otto, Willy Boly and Diogo Jota.
An aggressive, forward-thinking, physical centre-half who loves to carry the ball out from the back, Semedo looks better suited to Lage’s system than the underrated Romain Saiss and the reactive Boly.
His arrival would also allow Wolves to shift from the tried-and-tested three-man back line in favour of a more attacking 4-2-3-1 formation.
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