Wolves are in the market for a new midfielder – and there’s one player over at Chelsea who may fit the bill.
Wolves are facing the possibility of losing Mario Lemina in the coming days, with the former captain having recently refused to play.
Lemina is a target for Torino and others, and the expectation is that he’ll depart very soon.
Vitor Pereira has spoken about bringing in another midfielder this month. And he recently detailed the kind of profile he’s after. He said (as per the E&S): “We have more midfielders, but they have the skills to play with three, but to play with two, they’re missing some skills, some physical skills.
“That’s why I said that we need to look for a midfielder physically strong and technically strong, because to play the game that I like, they have to have technical quality, but physically, they must run a lot, they must cover a lot of metres.”
Wolves therefore ought to look at Carney Chukwuemeka of Chelsea.
What Graham Potter said about Carney Chukwuemeka
So Pereira is after a physical and powerful midfield player, who also has technical ability.
Chukwuemeka falls into this category, with his former manager Graham Potter having said of him after Chelsea’s 0-0 draw with Brentford in October 2022 (via Metro): “Well, if you look at these attributes, he’s a big powerful boy that can run and run away from people, and in a game like Brentford, you’re often in duels and need physicality, and I thought he and Christian [Pulisic] did well when they came on.
“They affected the game. That was just the thinking. He’s a young player, but he’s got exciting attributes.
“We just need to help him reach his potential because his potential is exciting.”
And according to the respected Football Talent Scout, Chukwuemeka is ‘extremely difficult to knock off the ball thanks to his size, technique and good close control.
He also has ‘very good in combination play’ and has ‘great tactical and spatial awareness’.
Chukwuemeka could leave Chelsea and Wolves need to target him
It’s been reported by the Daily Mail that Chukwuemeka could be leaving Chelsea in the coming days, with a host of clubs interested in taking him on loan. Enzo Maresca has said it may be best for the player to leave to get regular minutes.
Chelsea have wanted to send their £20 million signing (BBC Sport) to their sister club Strasbourg, but Chukwuemeka is keen to test himself in a stronger league.
Chukwuemeka is on record as saying his best position is as a left eight in a midfield three, and Wolves have sometimes played with three midfielders this season.
He seems to be the right profile for Wolves given Pereira’s comments.
Wolves are said to be interested in Axel Disasi at the moment, but arguably Chukwuemeka is the player from Chelsea Pereira should really be going after. Ideally, Kevin Danso will be the centre-back Wolves sign rather than Disasi. But there’s work to do there, with Wolves having failed with two bids for Danso so far.
He is a bit more attacking than Joao Gomes, Andre and Tommy Doyle. But he can go from box to box and he just seems like an ideal player to bring in if Lemina goes, given he has both physical and technical attributes and can actually carry the ball well.