Goncalo Guedes has left Wolves after a three-year stint – and comments from Jeff Shi at the time of his signing have not aged well.
Goncalo Guedes played no part in Wolves’ latest pre-season friendly against Girona, as he had been given permission to finalise his transfer to Real Sociedad.
That move to Sociedad had been on the cards for a few days, despite Guedes hinting he might have stayed at Wolves.
In the end, Wolves banked just over £5 million in total with the sale of Guedes, which means the club have made a huge loss on the Portuguese forward, who arrived for £27.5 million.
For a lot of fans, he is one of the worst transfers of the Fosun era.
Many have felt that Guedes never particularly wanted to be here and certainly, Wolves really struggled to get any kind of value out of him.
He’s now gone after three years – and chairman Jeff Shi could not have been more wrong about him.
Jeff Shi thought Goncalo Guedes would adapt quickly after signing for Wolves
When Guedes signed for Wolves, there was actually a lot of hype.
He was a Portugal international, who had made big impressions with Valencia and to a lesser degree Paris Saint-Germain, and fans felt this was a special gift from Jorge Mendes.
but it quickly became apparent that Guedes was a mistake.
After just half a season at Wolves, Guedes left on loan to join Benfica, with Julen Lopetegui admitting he didn’t want to be at the club.
Although Guedes did spend the whole of 2024/25 with Wolves and make 10 goal contributions, his move to the club has been deemed a poor one.
Upon joining Sociedad, Guedes admitted that he never settled in England – and this makes what Jeff Shi said back in 2022 rather embarrassing.
He said: “We have been monitoring Goncalo for a long time and are very pleased to welcome him to Wolves. He has natural talent and has performed very well across Europe and for his country, and we think he is well suited to the Premier League.
“We are always looking to improve the squad with high quality, and have been patient to make sure we got the right player. Goncalo worked with Bruno at Benfica and played with many members of our squad previously, so we’re confident he will settle quickly into the group here.”
Evidently, that confidence was extremely misplaced.
Guedes should serve as a lesson for Wolves
Yes, Guedes made some decent contributions last season.
But he can’t go down as anything other than a transfer failure, given his initial cost, goal record and time actually spent at Molineux.
Wolves need to learn from the Guedes move.
| Goncalo Guedes for Wolves (2022-present) |
| Appearances – 51 |
| Goals – 7 |
| Assists – 6 |
Just because a player has a strong reputation doesn’t necessarily mean they will work out as a signing.
There are a lot of other factors to consider – such as how their style of play might translate to English football. Undoubtedly, Guedes really struggled from a physicality standpoint at times.
Deals such as the Guedes one are perhaps why we now see Wolves spend more modestly on players, so maybe the club are learning from the errors of their ways.