Wolves are currently in the US for the second stage of their pre-season – and one player appears to have changed his squad number.
Gary O’Neil and the players recently returned from Marbella after a solid week of training and a game against Como 1907.
Wolves will now play three games in the US, starting with West Ham United on Saturday, and a reunion with Max Kilman and Julen Lopetegui.
Then Wolves will play against Crystal Palace, before taking on RB Leipzig.
O’Neil will be taking a close look at all of his players, but especially those who have been on the fringes, or who have been out on loan.
One man who will be hoping to make a good impression is Tawanda Chirewa, who looks to have been given a lower squad number for 2024/25.
Tawanda Chirewa seemingly now wears shirt number 28 for Wolves
Young players often have really high squad numbers, with the lower squad numbers tending to go to more experienced first-team players.
Last season, Chirewa had the number 62 shirt. He took this number, after joining the club last September, after a spell with Ipswich Town.
Chirewa started off playing in the U21s, but quickly made an impression at Wolves and before too long he was already training with O’Neil’s first-team.
Then, in January, Chirewa made his first-team debut for Wolves against Brentford in the FA Cup.
He went on to make 10 first-team appearances in total and it was clear that O’Neil took a bit of a liking to the youngster. Granted, he likely wouldn’t have made as many appearances as he did had it not been for key players picking up injuries.
But Chirewa gave a good account of himself when he did play. And potentially, O’Neil may now be ready to get him involved a bit more in 2024/25.
On Wednesday, journalist Nathan Judah uploaded a picture of Chirewa being interviewed at Wolves’ training base in Miami.
He can be seen sporting a training top with the number 28 on it, rather than the number 62. In other videos and pictures that have emerged from the US, the Wolves players do seem to be wearing their actual squad numbers. Sometimes, players have been known to just don training tops with random numbers on.
But they all seem to be wearing their actual numbers, suggesting Chirewa will now be wearing number 28.
Chirewa to play more in 2024/25?
Usually, when younger players take lower squad numbers, it is indicative of the fact they have gained prominence in the first-team, and are set for greater involvement.
Seemingly, there was a desire for Chirewa to ditch his number 62 in possible acknowledgment of him no longer being a youth team player.
Hopefully, this does mean that O’Neil is ready to hand him more opportunities in 2024/25, because Chirewa does have something about him, and clearly he has progressed really well in a relatively short space of time.
But he’ll have to continue to work extremely hard, especially following the signing of Rodrigo Gomes, who will be competition for him in the wide areas.
Hopefully, if he is the new number 28 now then he will do the shirt justice. Of course, the last player to wear that shirt was the great Joao Moutinho.