The Athletic’s Tim Spiers has been speaking on the latest episode of The Molineux View podcast to discuss all things Wolves-related following their draw with West Brom.
One topic of discussion on the latest edition of the podcast was the upcoming transfer window and Wolves’ approach to their summer spending.
According to Spiers, two players which Wolves will be targeting this summer are the on loan Vitinha and Rayan Ait-Nouri as they look to secure their services on permanent deals.
Vitinha joined Wolves last summer on a season-long loan deal from the Portuguese side Porto and has racked up 16 appearances for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side in the Premier League to date (via Transfermarkt).
As for Ait-Nouri, the full-back is set to return from his season-long loan with the Wanderers to Ligue 1 side Angers SCO at the end of June (via Transfermarkt).
However, Spiers stated the club will look to sign both on permanent deals this summer but will have to negotiate given the financial issues across world football currently.
He said: “We know net spend isn’t going to be huge this summer. And if you’re already looking at spending roughly £40m on Ait-Nouri and Vitinha, two players, one of them who’s been on the fringes all season long, and the other one’s probably only playing because of injuries. (14:18)
“That’s a massive part of your summer spending. So I think they’ll try and negotiate those down. It’s such a massive summer ahead in terms of resetting the button, and refreshing a lot of these players, but also the ones that they need to bring in and they’re just going to have to be really cute in the transfer market and use the loan market wisely.”
TIF Thoughts on Spiers’ comments…
As is expected to be the case with a lot of clubs this summer, according to Spiers, Wolves will have to sell players in order to buy as he insists the club’s net spend will not be significant this summer.
One name which has been mentioned as a potential departure is that of Adama Traore with Wolves reportedly putting a £30m price tag on the Spaniard.
In relation to Spiers’ comments, selling the Spaniard would certainly free up capital to put towards the permanent signings of Ait-Nouri and Vitinha, and if they were to negotiate well then possibly even provide enough to seal both players.
In other news: ‘Nuno was talking about’ – Tim Spiers sheds light on ‘really interesting issue’ at Wolves