Wolves winger Goncalo Guedes is reportedly set to join Villarreal on loan for the rest of the season, having struggled for minutes at Benfica.
The 27-year-old has been with Benfica since the start of the current campaign, returning to them for a second loan spell after joining them a year ago.
Wolves had hoped that he would fare better this time, with injury ruining his spell last season.
But Guedes came into the current campaign injured after undergoing a second knee surgery. Since recovering, he has not featured much under Roger Schmidt, and now it looks as though he’ll be moving on.
Goncalo Guedes has ‘total agreement’ to join Villarreal on loan from Wolves
It was reported earlier today by Portuguese journalist Pedro Sepulveda that Guedes is now set to return to Spain, with Villarreal reaching an agreement with Wolves.
He said on X: “Total agreement. Gonçalo Guedes leaves @SLBenfica to be loaned by @Wolves to @VillarrealCF, with an option to purchase at the end of the season.
Sepulveda does not offer any information as to how much the option to buy is.
A few days ago, it was reported that Villarreal had interest in Guedes, a player who obviously knows La Liga well having played for Valencia before joining Wolves.
It is probably the country in which he’s had the most success in his career, having scored 36 goals and made 30 assists in 178 games for Valencia.
An awful signing by Wolves
The Guedes deal is starting to look like one of the worst transfer deals Wolves have done in recent years.
It’s hugely frustrating because there was so much excitement when he joined the club for £27.5 million, considering he’d been linked for quite a long time.
His performances in a Wolves shirt were very poor, and his two stints at Benfica have really not worked out.
There has been an element of bad luck involved given his knee injuries, but that doesn’t make the situation any easier to accept.
Hopefully, this option-to-buy clause is reasonable and he is able to play well enough for Villarreal to trigger it in the summer. Ultimately, Wolves can’t be having players who don’t want to be at Molineux and it sounds like that has long been the case with Guedes.