Wolves kicked off their pre-season preparations with a 2-1 defeat against CD Santa Clara in a behind-closed-doors friendly.
Wolves jetted off to Portugal over the weekend to kickstart their preparations ahead of the 2025/26 Premier League campaign.
Vitor Pereira included several youngsters in his squad as they flew out to the Algarve, including teenage sensation Mateus Mane, who recently signed his first professional contract.
New signing Fer Lopez was also among the players named, and the Spaniard got his first taste of action in gold, playing the second 35 minutes against Santa Clara.
Although his first outing ended in a 2-1 defeat, the match had several talking points, most notably the performance of striker Sasa Kalajdzic.
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Liam Keen’s assessment of Sasa Kalajdzic vs CD Santa Clara
Kalajdzic has been out of first-team action for over a year after suffering an ACL injury while on loan at Eintracht Frankfurt last year.
Recently, however, Kalajdzic impressed Yerson Mosquera in training, which was great to see after missing 215 competitive games during his professional career so far.
The 28-year-old even played the first 35 minutes against Santa Clara on Tuesday afternoon, starting alongside Tawanda Chirewa and Goncalo Guedes in attack.
And it was the towering Austrian who opened the scoring against the Liga Portugal side, with journalist Liam Keen assessing the positives and negatives of his performance.
“I thought he did relatively well, he tired obviously, that’s normal and natural considering he’s coming back from this injury,” Keen said via the E&S.
“A couple of things to work on the ball, small things, but I thought he put himself about well, I thought he was energetic before tiring, I thought he took his goal really well. A nice little shimmy, won the ball back, great finish. I was pleased for him, really pleased for him.”
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Keen shares verdict on Kalajdzic’s future
It’s been widely reported that Kalajdzic will head out on loan, in what could be an opportunity for the striker to play some regular football, hopefully injury-free.
But realistically, Wolves shouldn’t let any of their forward players leave until they know there’s someone ready to replace them.
In a latest update on his future, Keen expects Kalajdzic to head out on loan ahead of the 2025/26 season, but the club aren’t in a ‘massive rush’ to sanction a move.
“As I say, we expect him to probably go out on loan, it depends on how the window goes,” he said. “I don’t think there will be a massive rush on it; it depends on the incomings. But fair play to him, because it’s difficult to come back, particularly with the injury issues he’s had.”
Kalajdzic will use pre-season as an opportunity to impress Pereira, something he’s already done after finding the net in his first game back.