Journalist Duncan Castles has recently talked about a potential complication in Wolves’ deal to sell Rui Patricio.
It has been reported that Roma are closing in on a deal for Wolves goalkeeper Rui Patricio and they’re said to be closing in on an agreement of £13 million for the Portuguese goalkeeper.
However, Castles appeared on the latest episode of The Transfer Window podcast and talked about how complications are developing in this transfer as Roma aren’t close to reaching Wolves’ asking price for Patricio.
Should Wolves reduce their asking price for Patricio?
Yes
No
Castles stated that Roma boss Jose Mourinho has been putting pressure on the club to make the deal happen, but there is now a chance that it may fall through.
He claimed: “My guidance is that the sports director at Roma, who is also relatively newly appointed and was pivotal in Mourinho going to Roma – he proposed the deal almost as a joke to Mourinho’s representatives and was surprised and happy when Mourinho came back and said ‘yes, I’m interested in talking’, but my understanding is that he is also struggling in this market and feels that he is working with difficult conditions.
“An example of this is the deal for Rui Patricio to move from Wolverhampton Wanderers and become the new goalkeeper at Roma. Wolves are happy to do that, they have prepared a replacement, who will be Jose Sa from Olympiacos – another Portugal national team goalkeeper.
“But they have been working on negotiations on the transfer fee for several weeks now. This has been in play for a while now. Roma have offered €10 million for Rui Patricio and Wolves’ position is that that’s not enough money.
“They expect Roma to have to increase the offer to get fair value for Rui Patricio. My guidance is Mourinho has been putting pressure on Roma to complete [it] but they can’t get that deal over the line and there are some people now concerned that it might not happen at all.”
TIF Thoughts on Patricio’s future…
Patricio is now 33 and he isn’t getting any younger. The Post-shot Expected Goals metric determines the shot-stopping ability of goalkeepers and according to FBRef, Patricio has underperformed in that department twice over the last three seasons.
So it would perhaps make sense for Wolves to part ways with the Portuguese this summer and bring in a younger goalkeeper. If Roma can’t meet the asking price, Wolves should perhaps look to reduce their valuation and move the 33-year-old on in case his value depreciates further in the future.
Meanwhile, if they do indeed have a replacement goalkeeper lined up, that may suggest that Bruno Lage is not expecting to start his Wolves tenure with Patricio as part of his plans.
In other news: ’50-50 as to whether that will happen’ – Journalist drops worrying Wolves transfer claim