As per one of the latest reports by the Birmingham Mail, Wolverhampton Wanderers have proposed to sign Benfica’s midfielder, Joao Carvalho, in the upcoming transfer window in order to enhance their chances of earning a promotion to the Premier League. The Championship outfit have been regularly linked with the Portuguese sensation and it seems that a move might be on the cards in January.
Under the tutelage of Nuno Espirito Santo, Wolves have been quite shrewd in their endeavours this season in the league and are unarguably one of the favourites to earn promotion. After 24 games, they are placed at the top of the English second division table with 55 points to their name and have a healthy cushion of 8 points over second placed side, Bristol City.
However, it seems that Espirito Santo is in no mood to be complacent and is keen to bring reinforcements to beef up the quality of his side. Wolves already have a number of Portuguese players in their books and it isn’t really surprising to see them pursuing yet another. Carvalho is a blossoming youngster with immense calibre who operates basically as an attacking or central midfielder.
The 20-year-old emerged through the youth ranks of Benfica and after proving his mettle with their B side, he has been one of the talks of the town back in Portugal. He spent the second half of last season with Vitoria Setubal and had a fairly successful loan spell with them. Earlier this month, O Jogo also linked him with a move to the Molineux for a price tag of around £13million.
Espirito Santo has the likes of Ruben Neves and Roman Saiss for his central midfield, but Carvalho could be the one to complement them in the coming times. He excels at dribbling and has raw pace in his legs that allows him to make driving runs into the box. Further, he prefers to play short passes and tries to knit the side together, although he has to improve his pass completion rate.
With the emergence of the reports linking him to Wolves, it would be intriguing to see whether he will be directly injected into the senior side of will be shipped out on loan. He is far from being a finished product and is not yet familiar with English football as well. Besides, Espirito Santo should add a striker and a winger in January and it would be interesting to see which one he prioritizes next month.
