BBC Sport contributor Dave Azzopardi has expressed his concern that Wolves could become a ‘laughing stock’ if they were to sign Christian Benteke.
According to a report in The Sun, Bruno Lage’s men see the striker as a target this summer as the club are in the market for a new striker and the Belgian has just one year left on his contract.
With Molineux forward Fabio Silva joining Anderlecht on loan recently, it would make sense for Wolves to seek a new option up top and so this Crystal Palace man could be subject of some real interest soon.
However, according to Azzopardi this deal might not go down too well. Indeed, while speaking on the Talking Wolves podcast, he said (10:44): “Christian Benteke from Palace, he’s turned into being a little bit of a meme, let’s say.
“I mean he’s not hit the ground running since he’s moved to Palace. He did really well at Villa all those years ago. [At] Liverpool, was never really given a huge opportunity – although he scored a couple of great goals at Liverpool.
“I think he’d be someone that would come in and be happy to be a backup. But I think more times we’ll probably want a bit more, someone that is going to challenge Raul [Jimenez] a little bit more.”
He then concluded (11:36): “You’d have to wait until you know he plays his first game for Wolves, but I think we’d be a little bit of a laughing stock if this one went through.”
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TIF thoughts on Christian Benteke and Wolves…
Considering he scored just four goals in the Premier League for Palace last season, it’s easy to see why Azzopardi has his doubts about Benteke – though he did score ten in the campaign prior.
However, in the three seasons before that double-figure haul, he had a total of just six league strikes combined for the Eagles – which is perhaps why he has been dubbed as having ‘meme’ status.
With his inconsistent goalscoring past, Wolves would certainly be taking a bit of a gamble if they were to splash the cash on the 31-year-old this summer.
And if he didn’t hit the ground running, the transfer business would certainly be questioned, perhaps causing the Molineux outfit to become a ‘laughing stock’.