The Portuguese influx at Wolverhampton Wanderers thanks to the club's links with Jorge Mendes looks set to continue, and take a big jump up in quality, with the signing of 20-year-old Porto midfielder Ruben Neves.
Neves was being tracked by all of Europe's biggest clubs having become the youngest player ever to captain a side in the Champions League in 2015, and was regarded as the best talent to emerge from the Porto academy in years.
But now, incredibly, Wolves are set to benefit from a disappointing year as Neves fell out with the manager at Porto which meant his gametime was dramatically reduced... The only problem for the Championship side?
The Porto manager who benched him is the current Wolves manager, Nuno Espirito Santo.
Portuguese football site O Jogo reported that a fee has been agreed, and Neves will travel to Wolverhampton on Monday or Tuesday for a medical.
Rúben Neves travels tomorrow or Tuesday to England to sign the contract with Wolverhampton. The agreement between FC Porto and the English club will be 18 million euros.
Rúben Neves can even begin immediately to train with his new teammates. The squad trained by Nuno Espírito Santo began work last Friday, with a session scheduled for Wednesday, when the Wolves fans should be able to see Rúben Neves in action.
Mental.
This is a serious coup for Wolves, as we can imagine that many clubs around Europe would have been willing to bring him in considering his unquestionable potential, and the reaction in Portugal seems to be that fans of Benfica and Sporting would have been only delighted to steal him away from their rivals.
The situation with Espirito Santo is an extremely odd one, but clearly there is no ill-feeling between the two as Neves seems content to play under him again.
Wolves fans are understandably giddy with excitement. While being welcomed under the umbrella of Mendes has seen some eyebrow-raising names come in to the club, none have been on the scale of Neves.
It will be fascinating to see how he gets on in the Championship, as he could be playing Premier League football (either at Wolves or having convinced another club to swoop) in the near future, or could fade into obscurity if things don't go to plan.
[via O Jogo]
