Mario Lemina is officially no longer a Wolves player – but an interesting claim has been made today about the midfielder before his exit.
Lemina left Wolves to join Galatasaray, in a deal that has netted Wolves around £2.5 million.
His exit had been on the cards for a while in the end.
Lemina refused to play against Newcastle United recently, which was pretty much the beginning of the end for him at Molineux.
Periera then said Lemina apologised for his actions, but there was to be no coming back from it.
Pereira said he wouldn’t be picking Lemina while the transfer window was still open, giving the club the chance to move him on.
And that’s what happened, with the player joining Galatasaray on Wednesday.
Today though, journalist Liam Keen was speaking about Lemina’s exit – and made an interesting comment.
Wolves were ready to reintegrate Lemina
Before his move to Galatasaray, Lemina was being strongly linked with Saudi club Al-Shabab.
The player wanted that move but in the end, it did not materlialise.
It’s unclear as to why that particular move didn’t happen for the player, but there was then a period of uncertainty.
Today, on the latest E&S podcast episode, Liam Keen has revealed that Wolves were actually looking to get Lemina back involved after his failed Saudi move, despite his antics.
He said: “His move to Al-Shabab didn’t come off, which he wanted to make.
“We did our video after the Danso and Cunha news after the Villa win, from Molineux.
“At that point, there were some early-stage plans for how Wolves were going to start to reintegrate Lemina back into this squad. There was a little bit of interest from Galatasaray, they offered a loan originally. But that was a non-starter for Wolves.
“They were starting to put loose plans together about how they were going to go about having him back in the squad because it looked like he was going to stick around.
“Now that very quickly development and Galatasaray came back.”
Wolves were right to allow Lemina to leave in cut-price deal
It’s interesting to hear that Wolves were actually planning to get Lemina back involved if a move wasn’t going to materialise for him.
That would not have sat well with a lot of fans, with many feeling Lemina had totally disrespected the club with his refusal to play and general antics.
But seemingly, Pereira was open to the idea of him still playing a part.
But Galatasaray have now signed Lemina and that’s a good thing, as distractions and situations are not needed at this moment in time, with the club’s Premier League status under threat.
Wolves ultimately had to accept less than their initial asking price. But it’s positive because now Wolves no longer have a player who doesn’t want to be there.