There are certainly high hopes at Wolves for Fer Lopez.
Fer Lopez arrived at Molineux as the first new face this summer, joining from Celta Vigo for a fee of around £19 million (BBC Sport).
Eyebrows were raised at that fee, given Lopez’s lack of experience in senior football. Potentially, the club have overpaid slightly.
But Wolves believe in the player and were very keen to ensure they got him, with Jorgen Strand Larsen playing a small part in helping to bring a move to fruition.
Lopez – who is currently with the Spain U21s – showed some exciting glimpses in pre-season, even though Wolves didn’t record any victories and were generally poor as a collective.
And so far, he’s been handed three appearances by Vitor Pereira in 2025/26.
And now, it feels like the Wolves manager’s next move with Lopez is obvious.
Fer Lopez deserves to make first Premier League start for Wolves against Newcastle
We’re now in the international break, so there is plenty of time for Pereira to think about things before club football resumes.
The Portuguese will already be looking at that next Premier League game with Newcastle United, and trying to work out how best to set up.
Newcastle haven’t won yet this season, but their performance against Liverpool was excellent and they were unlucky.
It’ll be a very tough game for Wolves, but it would be great to see Lopez handed his first start.
Against Everton, Lopez replaced Jhon Arias on 64 minutes – and produced a very positive cameo performance at Molineux.
The Spaniard played from the right side, but came into midfield areas in search of the ball. It was good to see him trying to be positive, and equally as good to see his teammates trusting him to give him the ball in tight areas.
Within minutes of coming on, he almost threaded a perfect through ball to Marshall Munetsi, who would have latched on to it had it not been for very alert goalkeeping by Jordan Pickford.
And overall he just looked nice and confident – his lovely turn away from Jack Grealish in the centre circle was proof of that.
He did misplace a few passes, but these were searching balls that could have produced high reward.
As per Sofascore data, Lopez had 25 touches during his 30-minute cameo. This was only three fewer than Arias, who had played for twice as long.
Whether Fer Lopez could actually start vs Newcastle
Lopez, who was asked to train with the Spain seniors earlier this week by Luis de la Fuente, is surely in contention to start against Newcastle.
Granted, St James’ Park is a tough ground to go to, especially for a young player making their first Premier League start.
It is boisterous and likely unsettling. But Lopez – who was branded ‘incredible’ by former mentor Paul Grainger when he was previously in England as a teenager – has something about him.
He’s a confident lad with personality, and he actually might be an inspired choice to play. We can already see that he does not shy away, and he could really embrace the environment.
A report from the Daily Mail earlier this week stated that Wolves have very high hopes for Lopez, and that a first Premier League start is already not far away.
The publication suggested we should not be ‘surprised’ if it came against Newcastle. Failing that, there’s a chance he could start against Leeds United the weekend after.