Wolves manager Julen Lopetegui believes Joe Hodge still has a part to play in the second half of the season.
Wolves made a couple of midfield additions last month.
Mario Lemina came in from Nice for around £10 million.
Then, a further £15 million was spent to sign Joao Gomes from Flamengo, after a couple of weeks of the Brazilian club trying to do business with Lyon instead.
Lemina has come in and already had a big impact.
And Gomes will be looking to get minutes under his belt once he has settled in.
Boubacar Traore should return to action at some point this month after suffering a groin injury out in Marbella.
And then there’s the Portuguese trio Ruben Neves, Matheus Nunes and Joao Moutinho.
Competition is very strong right now, and seemingly, Hodge will find minutes difficult to come by.
But Lopetegui believes the youngster can still have an impact going forward. He said of the decision to keep Hodge around (Express & Star): “He stayed here because he’s young and he’s working very well.
“I think it will be a good thing for him to have this experience with us, so why not? He will be ready to help us. You don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow, this is football. We want two players for each position.
“Why not? He has played and he can play in the future, sure.”
Julen Lopetegui clearly sees more value in Hodge staying with him at Wolves
It was briefly suggested that the club could perhaps look to loan Hodge out in January.
The arrival of Gomes after Lemina was something that might have prompted that particular decision.
But Lopetegui decided he wants to keep Hodge around. He clearly likes the youngster a lot, and feels he has more to gain by staying with him and the first-team.
It might be that he doesn’t play an awful lot over the next few months.
There was once a lot of clamour for Phil Foden to leave Manchester City on loan when he was younger. Pep Guardiola was always against that though, and kept him around the first-team.
That decision helped him to become the top-class player he is.
Perhaps Hodge – a former Manchester City youngster – can enjoy a similar rise.