The Athletic reporter Tim Spiers has stated that Wolverhampton Wanderers’ signing of Marcal may mean that Ruben Vinagre leaves the club.
Over the weekend, it was revealed that the Old Gold have secured the services of Brazilian defender Marcal from Lyon (per BBC).
The deal for the 31-year-old left-sided player set Wolves back just €2m (£1.78m) and he signed a two-year deal with the Molineux outfit.
During the 2019/20 campaign for Lyon, the defender played as both a left-back and a central defender for the French club (per Transfermarkt).
However, during the latest episode of The Athletic’s The Molineux View podcast, Spiers aired his belief that Marcal’s arrival may spell the end of Vinagre’s time with the Old Gold.
He said: “I don’t think [Marcal is] necessarily going to set the world alight, but he comes in primarily because of Jonny’s injury. He’s versatile in that he can play left centre-half and left wing-back.
“I think he’s probably going to be a left wing-back to start the season.
“I mentioned Vinagre at the top of the show, he may be allowed to leave, seeing as they’ve got Marcal and Jonny as two left wing-backs, then suddenly, Vinagre’s third choice.
“I think it depends if the deal is right and the money comes in that they want, then they’ll sell him now in the knowledge that Vinagre probably wouldn’t be playing a huge amount of football this side of Christmas.”
TIF Thoughts…
As can be seen in what the reporter had to say, he clearly believes that Vinagre, who is valued at £8.1 million (as per Transfermarkt), may end up leaving the club following Marcal’s arrival at Molineux.
Of the two defenders, which would you rather left Wolves if one had to?
Jonny
Vinagre
Certainly, between Jonny and Vinagre during the most recent season, the Portuguese defender did prove to be the weaker performer with a 6.58/10 average rating in the Premier League (per WhoScored).
Jonny was far more impressive as he managed to earn a respectable 6.81/10 average rating and Marcal earned a 7.02/10 average rating over 11 appearances in Ligue 1 for Lyon.
So, if one of the players were to be the third-choice option, then it would certainly make sense if that was Vinagre.