Spanish football expert Guillem Balague has said that Wolves managerial target Julen Lopetegui will come to the Premier League ‘very soon’.
The club parted company with Bruno Lage at the beginning of October and had been on the hunt for a permanent successor, but have so far come up short in their efforts.
Lopetegui looked to be the man to take the hotseat before having to turn down the offer due to his father’s illness.
And following Michael Beale’s decision to reject the chance of moving to Molineux from QPR, the Old Gold announced that Steve Davis would remain in caretaker charge until 2023.
However, Balague has now dropped a hugely encouraging claim with regard to the club’s managerial search.
Speaking on the Claret and Blue podcast, Balague detailed what Unai Emery will look to do at Aston Villa and believes that other Spanish managers will follow him to the Premier League.
He said: “The first stop is to actually become competitive in every game and hopefully already making an impact in the league, and yes, absolutely the plan is not to stay there, but to push for the next thing.
“I’m convinced there are other managers coming in. Lopetegui will be in the Premier League very soon, and will make things even harder but they all come with the same idea.
“They don’t come to, ‘ah, right, I made it in the Premier League’, it’s ‘how far can we go?’.”
TIF Thoughts on Balague’s comments…
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When Lopetegui turned down an offer from Wolves after a meeting with chairman Jeff Shi, Balague told BBC Sport that the 56-year-old gave a “heartfelt no”.
The former Real Madrid boss was sacked by Sevilla just days prior to those talks after a disappointing start to the campaign both domestically and in Europe.
However, Balague did note that ‘the personal and professional timing did not coincide’, which perhaps leaves the door open to further talks in the future.
Whether that influenced the Midlanders’ decision to postpone their search for a successor to Lage until the new year remains to be seen, but given Balague’s prediction, it could well highlight Shi’s intentions to wait for when Lopetegui is ready to take the job.