Wolves journalist Liam Keen has claimed that he expects the club to make a move for Sven Botman once again in the January transfer window.
The Dutch defender was someone who Wolves were showing a keen interest in during the summer transfer window, and according a report in The Athletic, Botman appeared to return the favour, noting that he had ‘all but agreed to join’.
The report also went on to state that Wolves and his current club Lille were too far apart in their valuations, noting: ‘Wolves offered £25 million… but the French club wanted around £10 million more and there was no budging on either side.’
However, speaking on the latest edition of the E&S Wolves podcast, during a segment called ‘Believe it or not’ – in which he would have to agree or disagree on a question posed by host Nathan Judah – Keen claimed that he felt that Wolves would try to make the deal happen again in January, saying that the interest from both sides offered up the possibility of a deal being resurrected.
He said: “I’m going to go ‘believe it’, because they’ve obviously got interest in him, they tried to sign him. He fits the model of a player that Fosun like to sign, I think he’s 21, is he, off the top of my head?
“He wanted the move. I’m going to go with that, I think it’s a player I can see them revisiting because obviously he wanted it and it just fits the model of a Fosun signing.”
TIF Thoughts on Liam Keen’s comments about Sven Botman and Wolves…
Will Wolves sign Botman in Janaury?
Yes
No
Botman is someone who is highly rated as an up-and-coming defender in the game, so it’s easy to see why Wolves would want to make a move for him, and even though they do have a good defensive record so far this season, only conceding eight goals, it doesn’t hurt to try and make things better. And at the age of 21, he is someone that could be around for a number of years to come.
However, seeing as the issue the first time around was the money and how far apart the two sides were in terms of their valuations, it will be interesting to see just how desperate Wolves are in trying to make the deal happen.
Because a fee like the one mentioned makes it feel like he could be the main man for them to target, but it could potentially take money away from other areas of the squad, so it’s not impossible to think that this might be the only player they are able to negotiate for come January.
In other news: ‘Talking to people from the US’ – Finance expert drops interesting Fosun claim at Wolves