Wolves are yet again linked with a young, talented Portuguese player – this time being 26-year-old Sporting midfielder Joao Palhinha. These latest links come as the futures of current midfield duo Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves are in doubt.
The Midlands club are performing exceptionally well under Bruno Lage as they sit 8th in the table on 49 points. Regardless of whether they achieve European football next season, Lage will want to continue to build and shape the team in his vision and push the team even further next year.
In order to do this, the club will need to make signings in the summer transfer window and also get rid of some of the older fodder in the squad. The latest on links to Palhinha comes from Dean Jones, who told GiveMeSport: “Wolves are definitely in the hunt for people like that, and I think Tottenham were interested in Palhinha. But I would imagine that Wolves would probably have the jump on them for a player like that, to be honest.”
TIF explores why they should sign the 26-year-old when the window opens…
Heir to Ruben Neves
Midfield star Neves has recently been linked with a move away from Wolves to Arsenal in the summer window for a reported £50-60m, despite boss Lage claiming the player is closer to the £100m mark.
With the likelihood of a move away for Neves increasing as the seasons go on, it would only be sensible for Wolves to look to replace the Portuguese international sooner rather than later while they can demand such a fee for him.
While Neves is so important to the team, bringing in a player like Palhinha is the best thing to do as he will still have plenty of years to develop and do great things with the club.
The 26-year-old has played well for Sporting this season, racking up 3.1 tackles, 0.9 interceptions, 0.9 clearances and 0.9 dribbles per game while also boasting an 86.7% pass accuracy, as well as 2.3 long balls (as per WhoScored). While right now he may not hold the same weight as Neves, there is no reason he could not do a great job in the middle of the park for them for years to come based on his stats.
Cheap option
Palhinha is currently valued at £23.4m (as per Transfermarkt) and is contracted through until 2026, so while they may have to pay a little over the odds for the Sporting man, he could still be snapped up for a good price considering the talent he possesses.
With the money they could potentially receive from selling Neves to Arsenal or another club, they may well have the funds required to buy Palhinha and address other areas of need around the squad. They have recently been linked with Allan Saint-Maximin as an Adama Traore replacement as well as Cameron Carter-Vickers in order to add more youth to their backline.
They could easily purchase two or even all three of those players with the money from Neves, so looking at Palhinha isn’t only beneficial to their midfield, but to the rest of the squad as well.