Wolves’ recruitment last summer proved costly, and Jhon Arias’ move to Molineux was an abject failure.
Wanderers will play in the Championship in 2026/27 and the biggest reason for that is that the squad was poorly constructed last summer, with too many established players leaving and not enough proven quality arriving.
Wolves landed Arias from Fluminense, where he had stood out for several years.
The club decided to make a move, after he had then started shining in the Club World Cup.
Who do you think has been the worst signing Wolves made in the 2025 summer window? 🤔
Krejci and Moller Wolfe surely aren't in the mix…
But in the very next transfer window, Arias left Wolves to return to Brazil, signing for Palmeiras.
Ultimately, Arias just did not deliver at Wolves.
But he is clearly not a bad player, as his time at Palmerias and his two showings at the World Cup so far suggest.
Frustration for Wolves as Jhon Arias shows his quality at World Cup
Arias just didn’t do it for Wolves, lacking influence in a lot of games that the player and also being very wasteful in front of goal.
He may also have struggled with the tactics from Vitor Pereira and Rob Edwards, and the overall quality of the team just not being up to scratch.
Arias did have a few good games playing as a central midfielder. But by and large he was poor, and few were bothered when he was moved on in January.
But he is clearly not a bad player, which makes his time at Wolves both perplexing and frustrating.
For Colombia last night Arias was one of the standout players against DR Congo, with stats indicating he completed 44/47 (94%) passes (via Sofascore). During his time at Wolves, one regular criticism of Arias was that he was sloppy on the ball.
He also won the most tackles of any Colombia player (3) and won five of his seven duels, underlining his tenacity.
LA FM ranked him the third-highest Colombia player behind goalscorer Daniel Munoz and Luis Diaz, saying of him: “Participatory and dynamic on the sides. It was one of the team’s main offensive routes.”
In the previous game against Uzbekistan, Arias also played well. He was extremely tidy on the ball once more, completing 42/43 (98%) passes. One of these classified as a ‘big chance’.
These two outings come after it was reported in April that Arias had begun to emerge as a vital player for Palmeiras.
He already has six goals and two assists for his new club, which makes his time at Wolves feel all the more frustrating.
What Jhon Arias said about Wolves failure
After leaving Wolves, Arias put his failed stint down to a poor environment.
He said (via GE): “I think they are different contexts. The Premier League Wolverhampton’s top scorer metric has two goals, one.
“Unfortunately it was a bad season collectively speaking, when you have a bad season, it’s almost impossible to have a good individual performance. I have responsibility too. Unfortunately, my arrival coincided with an environment that was not ideal, it served as a learning experience.”
Perhaps Arias could have been a success at Molineux had Wolves been smarter in the market, although there is no doubt he really underwhelmed.
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