Wolves have missed out on some great players in recent years for various different reasons.
For the past few seasons in the Premier League, Wolves have struggled, and fans have largely put that down to poor recruitment.
In the first few years after gaining promotion back to the Premier League in 2018, Wolves were a solid, competitive team with ambition.
That has been over the last few years, with some feeling that Fosun have not invested as heavily or smartly as they should have.
There have certainly been missed opportunities when it has come to transfers.
Enzo Fernandez and Viktor Gyokeres were perhaps the two biggest ‘if only’ cases. Famously, Wolves didn’t sign Gyokeres due to chairman Jeff Shi being out of the country, with Sporting CP then swooping for the striker.
But one player has actually admitted he was left disappointed that he didn’t make a move to Wolves in 2023.
Nico Elvedi wanted Wolves transfer
A couple of summers ago, Wolves were linked with a move to sign Nico Elvedi from Borussia Monchengladbach.
Elvedi, who has been likened to John Stones, was of interest to Wolves.
Elvedi wanted to leave Gladbach, but Wolves were having to be mindful of PSR at the time and in the end of a move did not materialise.
Julen Lopetegui ended up walking away from Wolves just days before the new season started, with the Spaniard unhappy over player recruitment.
Now, Elvedi has actually suggested he wished he would have gotten that move.
Sport Bild asked him how hard he found the summer of 2023, after his move to Wolves did not happen despite the fact that ‘everything was already done’, to which he replied: “Maybe it had to come this way… Sure, at first I was disappointed, of course.
“But today I can say: ten years of Borussia! That’s a proud number.”
Wolves not signing Elvedi was a shame
Wolves’ 2023 summer was chaos to say the least, but not signing Elvedi was a real shame.
We now know that Elvedi really did want to make the move, but it is unclear why exactly it didn’t materialise.
It is even more peculiar because Wolves did actually end up signing Santi Bueno from Girona for £8.5 million, which was around the same asking price Gladbach had for Elvedi.
Elvedi may well have brought some much-needed experience and he was, and still is, known for being a great ball-playing defender.
With Matt Doherty not getting any younger, perhaps Elvedi, 28, is a player Wolves should still have an eye on in the near future.