Wolves blog: Nuno's men are now on the footballing map
It was hard to concentrate on the England v Tunisia match last Monday after news broke of Rui Patricio’s signing writes Wolves blogger Tom Tracey.
For Wolves to sign the Portuguese number one goalkeeper – who was ranked 12th in the Ballon D’Or 2016 – was phenomenal.
This is an award given to the best player in the world – and Wolves now have a player who ranked 12th.
Wolves’ first signings this transfer window are Diogo Jota, Willy Boly, Raul Jimenez and now Rui.
By contrast, they were Nenad Milijas, Marcus Hahnemann and Kevin Doyle last time Wolves were promoted to the top flight.
Wolves followed these up with squad signings Andrew Surman, Greg Halford and Ronald Zubar – it’s safe to say the players we sign this summer will be a vast improvement on what we already have.
The signing of Rui Patricio is a different kettle of fish to those Fosun have completed in their tenure so far.
Even the likes of Ruben Neves, despite having an extremely promising career at Porto thus far, were not established stars, not players in the prime of their career.
A 30-year-old Rui Patricio is a player in his prime - almost any team in the world would want in their ranks. Even Barcelona were rumoured to be interested in his signature, although he would have likely played a deputised role.
Surely a signing of this calibre will open the door to other such signings – and will alert other established players to what is happening at Wolves.
Hopefully Rui put in a good word to Cristiano Ronaldo about what a great project Wolves is!
It seems Wolves are approaching this transfer window with swagger and little fear – twice now Fosun’s Wolves have ripped up the transfer rulebook.
Firstly they bizarrely ‘sub-loaned’ Joao Teixeira and Ola John to other clubs – after the pair had agreed season-long loan deals but fallen out of favour.
This summer, they purchased Benik Afobe from Bournemouth before immediately selling him to Stoke for a profit – via a six-month loan – before he even returned from his end-of-season holidays.
Wolves are showing they have complete confidence in their knowledge of the rules and any loopholes they can exploit in their transfer dealings, their involvement with Jorge Mendes, and their confidence in signing Rui Patricio on a free transfer after he terminated his own Sporting Lisbon contract.
Despite gaining some detractors from the likes of Aston Villa and Leeds, it appears they also have their admirers – Nottingham Forest have shown signs of emulating the ‘Wolves model’ in signing Joao Carvalho and Diogo Goncalves from Benfica, with Gil Bastiao Dias set to join on a season-long loan from Monaco.
This is the most exciting transfer window for Wolves in living memory. Fosun are showing more than ever that they are willing to put their money where their mouth is.
