Connor Coady has paid Wolves teammate Ruben Neves the extraordinary compliment in the Independent of hailing him as “the best player I’ve ever played with”.
Molineux skipper Coady, 25, trained with Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard at former club Liverpool and made his debut for the club as a replacement for Philippe Coutinho.
But the Liverpool academy product placed Neves above even that remarkable trio as he explained what makes the Portugal international so special.
“He’s absolutely magnificent, the best player I’ve ever played with,” Coady told the Independent. “He’s a spectacular player, he really is. To come from another country at such a young age and have the impact he’s had, he’s a role model for young players to follow.
“I’d heard a lot about him before he came to us because there were stories in the papers about Liverpool being interested in him and obviously I still watch what happens at Liverpool. It’s a privilege to have him in our team.”
OPINION
Following his brilliant Premier League debut last weekend, Neves has been the subject of high praise from fans and pundits alike, especially those who are not regular observers of the Championship. But the view of Coady is as meaningful as any of those, and perhaps more so, than those who watch from the stands or the TV studio. The centre-back is the captain of Wolves, a key member of a team going places and a product of Liverpool, where he spent nine years before moving down south to the Midlands in 2015. To hold Neves in such high regard is striking, and further illustrates how well Wolves did to bring him to the club last summer and then hold on to him in this one. Neves was linked with a move to Liverpool earlier in the window after his sensational debut campaign in which he was narrowly shaded to the Championship player of the year gong by Ryan Sessegnon. Expect that interest to intensify from members of the Premier League elite in the coming months.