Pablo Sarabia has had an interesting spell at Wolves.
The Spaniard was one of six additions in the January 2023 window, as Wolves sought to navigate away from a relegation battle under Julen Lopetegui.
Sarabia joined from Paris Saint-Germain, with Wolves paying the French giants around £4.5 million.
On paper, this was a really solid signing.
But Sarabia took quite a while to get going at Molineux, and had some fans questioning him last summer.
Sarabia cited the fact he has had to adapt to English football as a potential reason for not getting up to speed as quickly as some would have liked.
In 2023/24, he was much improved. He finished the campaign with four goals and 10 assists to his name. He undoubtedly benefitted from the likes of Matheus Cunha, Hwang Hee-chan and Pedro Neto all picking up injuries.
But still to this day, there are some who aren’t fully sold on Sarabia.
But Gary O’Neil has done something that might just help him to finally set the place alight.
Rodrigo Gomes signing could help Pablo Sarabia shift centrally and shine for Wolves
Earlier this summer, Rodrigo Gomes joined Wolves for around £12.7 million after enjoying a really good season on loan at Estoril.
Rodrigo is naturally a winger, and can play on both sides of the pitch.
This could potentially mean that Sarabia could find himself occupying more central roles in the 2024/25 season – especially if Pedro Neto remains at Molineux.
Sarabia has mainly operated in the right wing for Wolves since he signed.
At times, he’s also played on the left side.
In his 49 appearances for Wanderers, Sarabia has scored five goals and made 10 assists. These numbers, for a player of his quality, are nothing to really shout home about.
And one wonders whether his numbers are lower than they should be because he operates in those wide areas.
Sarabia is an amazing technician. But he is not blessed with any kind of pace of athleticism like Hwang, Cunha or Neto.
He is never going to go surging past someone, and it might be that Sarabia playing as a number 10 suits him more. We have just seen against Bristol City in a training game where Sarabia picks the ball up in a central position and plays a lovely ball through for Hwang to finish.
Sarabia as a 10 with Lemina and Gomes behind could be a winning formula
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It is not totally out of the question that Sarabia could leave Wolves this summer. He did have some interest from Saudi Arabia recently.
But it’s been quite quiet with him of late, suggesting that he could be in line to stay. And Wolves fans would like to hope that Sarabia can finally thrive, for an extended period.
He did well in parts last season but still lacked consistency. He really fell away towards the end of the season, but that said, so did a lot of his teammates.
It would be really fascinating to see him playing as a number 10, with Mario Lemina and Joao Gomes putting out fires behind him. Potentially, that midfield would have a really nice balance to it.
Cunha was playing on the left at times towards the end of last season, so he could play there, with one of Hwang, Neto or Rodrigo playing on the right.