Wolves played a game against the Manchester City academy this morning – with Boubacar Traore featuring.
Wanderers were back in match action, after beating FC Porto 1-0 last night.
Julen Lopetegui’s side put in a good display against the Portuguese giants – the Spaniard’s former club.
Pedro Neto was on target for Wanderers, with Matheus Nunes supplying the assist.
Lopetegui was today able to get a look at some players who didn’t play last night, or played for only a brief period.
And there was a chance for Traore, for whom games of football have been hard to come by in 2023.
How Boubacar Traore got on against the Man City academy today
Wolves fans have high hopes for Traore. As do the club.
He looked really promising just before the season suspended for the World Cup at the back end of last year.
He’d just hit a great winner against Leeds United in the Carabao Cup, and seemingly he was challenging for a starting berth.
But then injury struck for the Malian dynamo.
He was on the sidelines for a few months, and underwent surgery.
It meant he was limited to just two substitute appearances in 2023.
Today, Traore – whom Wolves signed permanently for just under £10 million – featured for Wolves in the game against Man City’s youngsters.
Journalists Liam Keen and Nathan Judah were there watching the game, which was not streamed, and have dropped their verdict on him.
Keen said: “You could see he was a little bit off it at times in that first-half here today. But then when it does work and gets the ball down and he cuts inside someone, he glides with the ball. He reminds me, the way he runs with the ball, of a powerful runner, like a Yaya Toure. I’m not saying he’s Yaya Toure level, but he reminds me of the way he’s a powerful runner with the ball.”
The Toure remark is interesting. Traore certainly does carry the ball in a similar way to the Ivorian legend. He actually recently made a brilliant assist for the Mali U21s where he channelled the former City dynamo.
Traore’s time will come for Wolves
Traore has not played a great deal of football this year.
It was a real shame he picked up his injury when he did, because he had been making great progress.
Julen Lopetegui was apparently gutted about losing the 21-year-old.
He may not have wowed against the City youngsters like Sasa Kalajdzic, but there are still a few more opportunities for him before the new season starts.
At the moment, it’s only really about getting minutes into the legs and building momentum anyway.