Wolves have seen their £21 million bid for Habib Diarra rejected, but the club could now focus their efforts on his Strasbourg teammate Jean-Ricner Bellegarde.
The Wolves recruitment team are currently working overtime with just a day left in the transfer widow.
It is going to be an extremely busy period, with at least three new faces expected.
Tommy Doyle is coming in from Manchester City.
And South American duo Enso Gonzalez and Santiago Bueno have both reportedly already had their medicals.
Wolves have shown interest in Strasbourg pair Diarra and Bellegarde.
And it looks as though the latter may now become Wolves’ main focus…
Wolves see Habib Diarra bid rejected
According to L’Equipe, Wolves’ bid of just over £21 million all in has been ‘politely refused’ by Strasbourg.
While Strasbourg’s stance over the player has loosened recently, they evidently still think he is worth more than that.
The journalist that wrote the article Tanzi Loic added on Twitter that Wolves can now focus their efforts on Diarra’s teammate Bellegarde.
The 25-year-old has been with the French club since 2019 and has made 138 appearances for the club.
That is an impressive return, and shows that he is consistent and durable.
Diarra blow, but Bellegarde could be a decent pick up
It is a shame Strasbourg have reportedly rejected the bid for Diarra.
Because he looks like a serious talent.
But it may not be so bad for Wolves to move for Bellegarde.
Bellegarde is a player with much more experience. At the moment, Wolves have quite a young pool of midfield options, with the exception of Mario Lemina.
Bellegarde, 25, is described by GFFN as ‘a silky dribbler’ who tends to operate as a left-sided central midfielder.
At the time the article was written in December 2022, Bellegarde had averaged 1.85 dribbles completed per 90 minutes, ranking him in the top 3% of Europe’s midfielders for that metric.