Wolves defender Toti Gomes had admitted he expected to leave Molineux again at the end of January.
The 23-year-old was recalled by the club midway through the 2021/22 season to provide cover for Romain Saiss, who had left to join up with Morocco at AFCON.
He was one of two young central defenders Wolves brought back – the other being Dion Sanderson.
Sanderson was the player many Wolves fans expected to get minutes in the absence of Saiss.
But Bruno Lage put his faith in the Portuguese youngster, and Toti impressed with the opportunities he was handed.
He would make five appearances for the club, with three of those coming shortly after his recall.
Saiss came back after a couple of weeks, and Willy Boly also then returned to fitness.
And Toti says he didn’t really expect to stick around.
He told The Athletic: “Everything has changed very fast because I wasn’t expecting to stay here in January. I was planning to go back to Switzerland for the rest of the loan but things went well and (Lage) gave me the opportunity to play.
“After my debut, the club spoke with me and that was the moment when I realised that I would stay with the team and I was really happy about that.”
Toti made two more appears for Wanderers at the end of the season.
He featured in the last two Premier League games against Norwich City and Liverpool, again deputising for Saiss who was injured.
Toti Gomes is clearly highly regarded by Lage, as star admits he thought he’d leave again in January
There were some Wolves fans who also expected Toti to go back to Switzerland in January.
But it was really good to see Lage actually keep him in his squad for the rest of the season.
He didn’t feature too much, but his first three performance were strong and he did deserve to see out the season as a Premier League player.
The manager clearly rates Toti.
It remains to be seen how much he will feature this term. The Athletic say it’s more likely that he stays than goes out on loan again. This follows an earlier claim that either he or Yerson Mosquera could head elsewhere for 2022/23.
With Wolves looking set to use just two centre-backs for the most part, he may need to be patient.