The Athletic’s Tim Spiers has recently shed some light on why Ruben Vinagre was allowed to depart Wolverhampton Wanderers for Olympiacos.
On Monday, it was announced by the Old Gold that the Portuguese full-back had left the club on a season-long loan move to the Greek side (per Wolves).
It was also stated in their announcement that Olympiacos had the option to make the move a permanent transfer.
The day before Vinagre’s departure, it was revealed by the club that left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri had joined the club on loan from Angers SCO with an option to make the move permanent.
In the latest episode of The Athletic’s The Molineux View podcast, Spiers discussed Vinagre’s departure and explained why he was allowed to leave Molineux.
He said: “I’d first heard six weeks ago, maybe not that long, that Vinagre was sort of on the ‘endangered species’ list and then I think Marcal’s injury put that on the back-burner.
“If he was going to be out for a few weeks, that might have changed things, but Vinagre came in and was uninspiring and West Ham was probably the final straw, really.
“I don’t envisage in a million years that Olympiacos are going to pay £22.5m to buy Ruben Vinagre in a year’s time seeing as their record transfer’s about £10m less than that.
“Vinagre – as good as he can be – I’m not sure he’s necessarily worth £22.5m at this point. So, we’ll see, but do you know what, it’s a good move for him.”
TIF Thoughts…
As can be seen in what the journalist had to say, he believes that the player’s future at Wolves had been up in the air for a number of weeks and the 4-0 defeat to the Hammers was the “final straw”.
Would you mind if Ruben Vinagre moved to Olympiacos permanently?
No, he's not good enough
Yes, he's a good player
That perhaps comes as no surprise as the left-sided defender picked up a weak 6.37/10 performance rating in the clash with David Moyes’ side (per WhoScored).
However, that rating made the Portuguese defender the fourth-best performer on the night for Wolves, although that likely says more about the team’s performance than it does about Vinagre.