The Athletic’s Tim Spiers has been discussing a quote from Nuno Espirito Santo in which he discussed Wolverhampton Wanderers’ squad.
Over the 2019/20 season, the Old Gold played 59 games in all competitions with their first coming in late July last year (per Transfermarkt).
In those matches, only 21 players in Wolves’ squad made over five appearances and 11 players made over 45 appearances (per Transfermarkt).
So, following Wolves’ 1-0 defeat against Sevilla in the Europa League, Spiers discussed a Nuno Santo quote in the latest episode of The Athletic’s The Molineux View podcast.
He said: “[Nuno said] an interesting quote, he said, ‘There’s a lot of players that have been here since the start.’
“Now, normally when he talks about that, it’s in glowing terms. As in, ‘These guys have been here since day one. This is the journey. This is the evolution. This is the growth.’
“But the way he said it last night, I think he was kind of saying, ‘Look, we’ve got the same players as year one, here. It’s time to regenerate a little bit.’
“That’s how I read that, that’s how a few of my journalist colleagues read that as well, which was very notable. So, it was a message to Jeff Shi, it was a message to Jorge Mendes, his mate. It was a message to the recruitment team, it was a message to Fosun – they need to spend.
“I think he’s probably looking at the fact that he’s had to flog Raul Jimenez for 59 games this season.
“He’s had to flog Joao Moutinho, who, very noticeably, was [the] first person off [against Sevilla]; this maestro midfielder who creates more chances than anyone in this team, they had to take him off.”
TIF Thoughts…
As can be seen in what Spiers had to say, he clearly believes that what Nuno Santo said was a “message” calling for some action in the transfer window.
Do Wolves need to spend big on reinforcements this summer?
No, we don't need many
Yes, it needs to happen
In fairness to Fosun and the recruitment team at Wolves, the Old Gold did spend a hefty £109.62m on transfers during the 2019/20 season (per Transfermarkt).
So, it is not as though the Molineux club has not spent large sums in the transfer market previously.