Gary O’Neil sprung a surprise during Saturday’s pre-season friendly match with Bristol City.
The players returned from Marbella a few days ago after a week of intense training, and one game against Italian side Como 1907.
That was a useful exercise, with O’Neil fielding two different XIs.
The players returned to Compton and on Saturday, they took on Championship side Bristol City, ahead of flying out to the US this coming week.
Fans will be pleased to hear that Wolves won the game 3-0, and intrigued to learn that there was a surprise inclusion for a rarely seen player at Molineux.
Goncalo Guedes features for Wolves for first time since January 2023
Goncalo Guedes is seen by many at this point as one of the worst transfers the club have made in recent memory.
Guedes joined the club in the summer of 2022 after months of speculation linking him with a move, and when he finally arrived there was a lot of excitement.
But Guedes did not live up to expectations, and he didn’t even come close to.
Guedes turned in a number of poor performances and fans simply could not get behind the player due to his languid style which came off as the player being disinterested.
He was loaned to Benfica in January 2023. He stayed there until January 2024, before moving to Villarreal for the second half of last season.
Earlier this week, Guedes posted a picture of himself in the gym back at Compton in full Wolves training gear.
But it still came as a surprise yesterday that O’Neil actually used Guedes against Bristol City.
According to the E&S, Guedes played 30 minutes of the first-half before being replaced by Chiquinho.
It was the first time Guedes has pulled on a Wolves shirt since January 2023, when he played in an FA Cup game against Liverpool.
A surprising development
- READ MORE: Keep, Sell, Loan – What Wolves need to do with last season’s outcasts for the 2024/25 campaign
Few would have expected Guedes to have featured for Wolves against Bristol City, especially as he was just left out of the club’s trip to Marbella.
The narrative with Guedes has long been that he doesn’t want to be at Wolves, and that the player is available for transfer.
So it is really interesting that O’Neil gave him minutes against Bristol City. Because there was no sign of Fabio Silva, a player who is in a similar boat to Guedes.
It might just be purely protocol. Guedes remains a Wolves player and has been at the training ground this week. So why wouldn’t the manager use him.
But ultimately, O’Neil needs to be looking at players he will actually use next season. Which makes the fact he gave Guedes half an hour yesterday quite intriguing.
We have already seen him talk about how he wants to keep Daniel Podence. Perhaps he does see something in Guedes, although it would be a huge surprise if he became an option again.