Wolves remain excited about the potential of young winger Enso Gonzalez – but could send the youngster out on loan for next season.
Wanderers brought the teenager in from Libertad last summer but so far, he has not played for the first-team.
Gonzalez was with the U21s for the first half of the season, and then just recently, he joined up with Paraguay’s U23s for their summer Olympics qualification campaign.
Gonzalez scored in the 3-3 draw with Argentina at the weekend. Despite a defeat to Chile in their final game Paraguay qualified, and the youngster will be there in Paris this summer to try and help his country win gold.
At the moment, it doesn’t look as though first-team minutes will be forthcoming for the £5 million starlet at Wolves though…
Enso Gonzalez more likely to leave Wolves on loan than stay for pre-season
The Athletic have reported about Gonzalez this morning and there is a brief claim about what could happen with him this summer.
The 19-year-old is viewed as a long-term project by Wolves, but at the moment he hasn’t progressed quickly enough to become a first-teamer.
It is stated that Gonzalez could potentially leave the club on loan ahead of next season.
All options are on the table at the moment and there is obviously a lot of the season left.
But at this stage, a loan is apparently more likely than a sale, but Gonzalez could also be assessed in pre-season for a potential place in the first-team squad.
At the moment, he does not appear to be the heir to Pedro Neto – who could well be sold this summer – as some fans had hoped he would be.
An interesting year ahead of Gonzalez
It will be intriguing to see what happens with Gonzalez this year.
When he was signed from Libertad, sporting director Matt Hobbs said: “We expect him to come in and compete, challenge and play first-team football. He’s not going out on loan, we’ve brought him in to make a difference now, so he’ll be part of the first-team group and be available to Gary when he’s ready.”
So far, it hasn’t quite happened for Gonzalez – whom Hobbs described as ‘aggressive’ – regarding a breakthrough with the first-team. He’s trained with Gary O’Neil’s squad regularly, but the manager hasn’t deemed him ready to make an impact yet.
Back in October, O’Neil admitted Gonzalez needed ‘a lot of work’, which perhaps does indicate that it could be some time before we see him turning out for Wolves’ first-team, if ever.
We will see what happens with him – hopefully, he can make an impression with the U21s when he returns to the club, and then have a good Olympics with Paraguay.