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Wolves: Club make enquiry about Barcelona’s Rafinha

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Wolverhampton Wanderers have supposedly enquired about the availability of Barcelona’s Brazilian midfielder Rafinha.

According to Sport, as cited by Sport Witness, the Old Gold have ‘asked about’ the 27-year-old central midfielder.

However, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side are not alone in their supposed interest in signing Rafinha, as another Premier League club are reportedly eyeing him.

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To kick-off this quiz on Nuno Espirito Santo on the hard side, which club was his first game on the touchline at Molineux against?

As stated in the report, Carlo Ancelotti’s Everton have also enquired about the availability of the Brazilian, but it is not clear if either club will make an official move for the 27-year-old.

Supposedly, the player himself ‘prioritises his departure’ to the Premier League and a separate report by Mundo Deportivo has stated that Rafinha has a €16m (£14.4m) release clause in his contract.

Rafinha currently has one year left on his contract at Camp Nou and has a market value of £8.55m, according to Transfermarkt.

TIF Thoughts…

During the 2019/20 season, the midfielder had been on loan with Celta Vigo and shown an impressive level of ability.

For his loan club in La Liga, the Brazilian delivered an impressive 7.13/10 average rating over 29 appearances (per WhoScored).

Had Rafinha earned the same average rating for Wolves in the Premier League this season, he would have been their fourth-best performer (per WhoScored).

Would you be happy if Wolves sign Rafinha from Barcelona?

No, he's not good enough

No, he's not good enough

Yes, he's a good player

Yes, he's a good player

However, in comparison to Joao Moutinho, Rafinha looks less impressive as he scored weaker in key passing statistics.

In the Premier League, Moutinho made 2.0 key passes, 48.4 total passes and 1.8 crosses per game, whereas the Brazilian made just 0.8 key passes, 44.1 total passes and 0.1 crosses per league match for Celta Vigo.

So, while it would seem that the 27-year-old midfielder is a consistent performer, he does not have the passing range of a player that Wolves already have.

Rafinha’s strong average rating during the 2019/20 season would still suggest that he would be a positive addition to Wolves’ squad, though.

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