Bruno Lage believes Francisco Trincao has had an up-and-down season at Wolves, but insists the youngster has a big future ahead of him.
The 22-year-old has just a couple of months remaining at Molineux, before his loan officially ends.
He will then head back to Barcelona, and Wanderers will then take a decision on whether to sign him permanently or not.
There is an option to buy the player for £25 million (Sky Sports).
But Wolves need to assess if that would be the right decision to make, factoring in how the player feels about things.
It has been an interesting season for Trincao.
The star has had plenty of opportunities to shine at Molineux, making 26 appearances across all competitions so far.
There have been flashes of brilliance from the former Braga prospect, and it’s clear he has fantastic technical quality.
But his numbers in terms of goals and assists have been quite underwhelming for the chances he’s had and positions he gets in.
Speaking about Trincao earlier this week, Lage gave his opinion about how he has fared in 2021/22.
He said (Wolves official): “In the first seven or eight games up until Newcastle, he was very good and he received a call for the national team in that period But he was unlucky because he came with Covid, so the first three months he was very good and he deserved to score.
“In the middle, January, February, he was not so good. Some good, some bad performances, especially when it’s hard teams to play against when they come with more pressure and no space, and more man-to-man, and he would struggle with that. But that is part of the growing up and understanding the differences between the Portuguese league, the Spanish league and the Premier League.
“He did a good game against Man United, and when he came inside he played a good game against Leeds. But he needs to continue to work the way he’s working, improve the things he needs to improve, because he’s young and has a big future ahead of him.”
There is a definitely a player in Trincao, and Lage could eventually bring him out
Yes, his goals and assists numbers could and should be better.
But Trincao is still young, and he is still adapting to English football.
It is very clear that he has huge potential. He really does do some impressive things with the ball, and you can see there is a player in there. He also works tremendously hard.
Potentially, that player could emerge from the shadows at Molineux.
It’s just whether he can show enough now for Wolves officials to sanction a permanent move this summer.
That said, it’s not really known at this point what Trincao would like to do. Hopefully he’d like to become a permanent Wolves player though.