OPINION
Wolves have reportedly stolen a march in the pursuit of Porto striker Moussa Marega, and that could be a masterstroke of a transfer by manager Nuno Espirito Santo.
According to the Mirror, Wolves are in pole position to sign Marega, 28, in the summer transfer window after Nuno made the Mali international a priority signing.
It is understood that Porto boss Sergio Conceicao is set to overhaul his squad before the start of next season after missing out on the Liga NOS title and Wolves, Leicester and West Ham are all eyeing up Marega.
The former Maritimo striker has been on fire at Estadio do Dragao this season, scoring 21 goals and supplying 11 assists in 46 appearances across all competitions for Porto.
Six of those goals came in the Champions League as Marega put the likes of Galatasaray, Schalke and Roma to the sword.
It does seem as though Marega would be able to make the step up from the Portuguese top-flight to the Premier League judging by his record against Europe’s better sides in the Champions League and Wolves have had great luck with their imports from Iberia in the last couple of years.
Nuno needs to beef up his strike force in the summer and Marega could be the perfect man to provide competition to Raul Jimenez, who ended this season as Wolves’ top scorer with 17 total goals.
After Jimenez, Diogo Jota was Wanderers’ next top scorer with 10, then Matt Doherty on eight and then a few players on five or below.
It just shows that Wolves do not have the strength in depth in their striker options, especially as they have a Europa League campaign to contend with next season.
Marega is a proven goalscorer in European football and Jimenez is a proven goalscorer in the Premier League.
It would make sense for Nuno to have both of these options available to him in 2019/20 so that he can rotate them, keep them both fresh and ready to play and avoid the usual Europa League burnout that hurts teams outside the Premier League’s big-six.