News

Wolves: Tim Spiers sheds light on Romain Saiss and Rayan Ait-Nouri friendship

|
Image for Wolves: Tim Spiers sheds light on Romain Saiss and Rayan Ait-Nouri friendship

The Athletic’s Wolverhampton Wanderers correspondent Tim Spiers has recently shed light on the off-the-field friendship between Romain Saiss and Rayan Ait-Nouri.

In early October, the Old Gold signed Ait-Nouri on a season-long loan deal from Ligue 1 club Angers SCO (per Wolves).

As part of the loan deal which saw the France under-21 international move to Molineux, an option to make the switch a permanent one was included.

Since his arrival in England, the French defender has made just one appearance for Wolves and that was in the recent 2-0 victory against Crystal Palace (per Transfermarkt).

During the latest episode of The Athletic’s The Molineux View podcast, Spiers discussed Ait-Nouri and shed light on how Saiss has been helping the French-speaking left-back settle in.

1 of 10

To kick off this quiz on Conor Coady, what shirt number does the Englishman currently wear for the Old Gold?

He said: “Well, they will have looked at [Ait-Nouri’s level of English], they’ll know how much English he did or didn’t speak when they signed him.

“They’ve thought, ‘how is this guy going to communicate with the rest of the squad?’ They’ll be very mindful of the fact that Patrick Cutrone had problems because he could only speak to two people inside the club; one of whom was the cleaner. No one else spoke Italian at Compton.

“So, they’ll have looked at that and Romain Saiss is the man who’s been a big helping hand – Nuno [Espirito Santo] was keen to point out afterwards – in passing instructions on to Ait-Nouri and communicating with him and I presume he’s kind of taken him under his wing, which is nice.”

TIF Thoughts on what Tim Spiers said about Romain Saiss and Rayan Ait-Nouri…

As can be seen in what the journalist had to say, it seems that Saiss has taken Ait-Nouri “under his wing” which will, hopefully, help him settle in at Molineux.

Are you pleased to hear that Romain Saiss is helping Rayan Ait-Nouri settle in?

Yes, it's great to hear

Yes, it's great to hear

No, I'm not bothered

No, I'm not bothered

The discussion came after Nuno Santo said in his post-match press conference at the weekend that the young full-back “must improve his English to be able to communicate better” (per Birmingham Mail).

That was said to be an issue during Cutrone’s time at the club as the Italian striker knew little English and only fitness coach Antonio Dias and a cleaner were fluent in Italian (per The Athletic).

So, hopefully, with Saiss on hand to help Ait-Nouri with translations into French, the 19-year-old defender will become settled with the Old Gold.

Share this article