Wolves have a lot of good players on their books at the moment, but there’s one man out there who is certainly a case of ‘what might have been’.
Back in the 2020/21 season, Wolves signed on loan from FC Porto.
In the end though, Vitinha did play a great deal of football at Molineux, making just 22 appearances across allcompetitions.
Nuno Espirito Santo recently admitted Joao Moutinho was a factor behind Vitinha’s lack of minutes for Wolves that season.
In the end, Wolves decided not to gamble on Vitinha, declining the opportunity to pay around £17 million to sign him permanently.
Vitinha has since gone on to flourish after leaving Wolves – and last night, he even came in for some praise from the future king of England, no less.
Prince William raves over former Wolves loanee Vitinha
Some Wolves fans may have tuned into the last night’s game between Paris Saint-Germain and Aston Villa in the Champions League.
It was the first leg of the quarter-final, with PSG running out 3-1 winners.
It was a brilliant performance from the hosts, who look a much better team than in previous season and could genuinely go on to win the while thing.
And Vitinha is now so key to what they do, and his quality is not lost on Prince William.
Prince William – an avid Villa fan – was interview by TNT Sports pundits Rio Ferdinand and Ally McCoist ahead of last night’s game.
And he actually picked out Vitinha for praise and even referenced his time at Wolves.
He said: “I think the way they play, they’re a young team and I’ve been really impressed watching how they played against Liverpool
“I think Vitinha is midfield, I’ve been really impressed by. Bearing in mind, he was at Wolves two or three years ago maybe, and he could hardly get a game. And it just shows you, both you know better than I do, a couple of years in development terms – massive.
“Given the opportunity and backed by the right manager, you go places.”
Vitinha shone for PSG against Aston Villa
So ahead of that big praise from Prince William, more eyes will have been on Vitinha – and he certainly did not disappoint against Villa.
Data indicated that Vitinha really did run the show, having had a whopping 164 touches in the game, completing 148 out of 152 passes.
Three of those passes were key, and pretty much everything went through him.
He also worked his socks off, recovering the ball nine times.
Ultimately, Vitinha is the player he is today because of Wolves’ decision not to sign him.
Realistically, as uncomfortable as his growth has been for a lot of Wolves fans to watch, it likely would not have happened in the same way had he remained at Molineux.